How Many What?!

I gotta say, the challenge for Day 27 on the 365 Cards blog really threw me for a loop. (What the heck does that even mean anyway... the throwing, the loops...?) For this card there are supposed to be 8 elements. Each element should be overlapped with at least two other elements. I don't know why it was so hard for me to wrap my head around this one, but I finally worked it out.

Each of the flowers and the dragonfly were stamped, then fussy-cut and colored with pencils. I wasn't sure if the framed piece counted as an "element" or a background, so I used 7 flowers to be safe :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Busy, Busy, Busy

This has been such a crazy day. A loooong, crazy day. Working with kids makes you wanna pull your hair out is such a blessing and joy. :-) Thank the Lord for the weekend. I'm also SUPER excited because my brother will be flying in from San Diego tomorrow! I know we'll be busy spending time with him, but I'm hoping I can still get my challenge cards in... you know, priorities... 1) brother/family, 2) card-making, 3) eating... etc. ;-)

I've got two cards to share with you today. Numero uno is for 365 Cards' challenge for Day 25- Do It Yourself. The challenge was to create our own glittered brads or pearls. I used brads... er, brad. As in, one of them. Haha. I put a light coat of tacky glue on the brad, then rolled it in some super fine glitter. I really don't like it when you pick up a glittery item and the stuff rubs off on you, so once the glue dried, I added a coat of Diamond Glaze. This made it nice and smooth. Me likey.


I don't know if I'm totally sold on the "Mom" part. It's not tacked down very well in case I change my mind :-) And there's my shiny bling in the middle of that flower. It's made from a few pieces on the Cricut as well as a little rose-ish flower, like the ones I used on this project.

Numero dos is for Day 26-Card Recipe challenge. This one was a little harder for me. I really kept wanting to stick one more thing on there. But I refrained. So here's my (5"x5") card, with 2 squares (the patterned paper, framed with brown), 3 circles (all stacked up in the middle) and ribbon (I won't insult your intelligence by pointing out where that is).


OMG! I just realized what time it is... I have to be up early to take my sis to an audtion. Blegh. Okay, well, I'm off to bed I suppose. Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend :-)

I Never Know What to Title These Things...

Hello blogging world. It's after 2 a.m. (Just kidding Mom! I went to bed at an earlier time that is conducive to a good night's sleep :-) and I've just wrapped up a couple of projects. The first one I'm gonna show ya is for the Day 24, Terrific Ten challenge at 365 Cards. At first I thought this was only going to end in tears and gaudiness, but actually it was just fine.

Ta-da! Exactly ten.

This next card is one of the invitation/announcement I've put together for my cousin's first communion. It took me forever to decide what I wanted to do, but once I did, it was pretty simple to put together.

I created the grape and wheat image in Illustrator. The hardest part was cutting out all those cups. Sheesh.

Well, it's too late to start working on another card, but there's a DIY challenge for Day 25 at 365. We're supposed to create our own glittered brads or pearls. I figured I'd get a head start so I can work on the actually card tomorrow (err... later today, i guess). I did a few gold and a few silver since I haven't really thought about what I'm actually gonna use on my project. After I covered the brads with glitter (which makes a MESS, by the way) I also covered them with Diamond Glaze. I'm hoping that will smooth them out and keep the glitter from rubbing off later.


Thanks for stopping by! And don't forget to help yourself to my free digi stamp! The link is on the right hand side of the page.

Spring Birthday

I've been pretty good about replenishing my birthday card stash over the last week or two, and it continues today with a card for Day 23 at 365 Cards (use a stencil) and Laura's Sketch 48 at 2S4Y.


I did some sponge painting to stencil the flowers for the patterned paper.

This is gonna have to be another one of those I'm-about-to-walk-out-the-door posts, but thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Irony or Paradox?

Today's challenge for Day 22 at 365 Cards is to create a card inspired by the movie Alice in Wonderland. I was amused to find that many of you share the same sentiments toward that movie that I do. I haven't seen the new version yet (not really sure if I want to-- it looks kinda creepy) and it's been YEARS since I've seen the Disney version. I always thought it was a little weird and more than a bit confusing. But I do like some of Tim Burton's movies, so maybe I'd appreciate this new one a little more.

Anywho... I ended up using the Queen of Hearts (from the Disney movie) as the inspiration for my card. I really like the bold pattern and colors of her costume, so that's what I went for:

Now, the real challenge here ended up being the sentiment. I mean, "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!!" seemed a little inappropriate. And while I can think of a couple people I could send it to, I wouldn't. Haha. So I decided to go with "I love you" and just revel in the irony... or is it paradox? Either way, I love that it doesn't make sense... cuz neither does that movie! :-)

Yup. There Are Leg Warmers On My Card.

Hey friends! Hope you've had an excellent weekend! Mine was not too shabby. The highlight of my weekend was spending a couple of hours with my 11 yr old cousin, Grace, making egg-shaped candles in real eggshells. We had a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures though. Boo.

I have a couple of cards for ya tonight (err.... today?). The first is for the Super Sketchy Sunday challenge on the 365 Cards blog. I think it turned out pretty cute... except maybe the "Easter Blessings" part. I don't have any Easter stamps so I hand-wrote it. Eh. Probably should've printed it on the computer, but this one was kind of a think-as-you-go project :-)

My second card is for this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. I really enjoy checking out all the challenges there, but this is the first time I've been able to actually play along.

The movie for this week is 13 Going On 30. It's a really cute movie, but I haven't seen it in a long time. For my take on it, I decided to go for an 80's theme. Yup. There are leg warmers on my card. I love them. Hahaha. I most definitely don't wear them, but I think they're kinda fun... on other people... from the 80's. :-P

For the background colors, I tried to copy the colors from Jennifer Garner's dress in this scene:

Thanks for looking! And if you haven't yet, check out my 100th-post giveaway HERE.

Because You're Really Cool and Awesome and I Like You!!

I wasn't paying attention last week when I made my 100th post,

so guess what!

We're celebrating now,

on this, my 103rd post. Lol.

A few nights ago I was sort of playing around and ended up drawing a totally cute little image that I've turned into a digital stamp to share with you!

Here's what I did with it:


If you would like to have this image, just CLICK HERE. Feel free to use it on your projects. All I ask is that you let people know where you got it from and link back to my blog or even this post! You know, share the love. I'd SUPER LOVE it if you'd leave a link to your projects so I could see what you've created with it :-)

Thanks to all of you who follow my blog and those of you who leave me such sweet comments. You make me want to keep posting! Also, to those who either just occasionally stop by to peek or even the people who just accidentally click on my page-- I still just get a kick out of seeing that I have another page view. Haha.

La Di Da

I'm sitting here on the floor of my sister's bedroom while she and our younger sister try to weird me out by singing/saying random things. It's not working-- there's nothing they can do to get any weirder. They're currently in the middle of a splendid rendition of "Three Times A Lady." Lol :-)

I have two cards for y'all today. The first is a catch-up card from Thursday's "Plentiful Patterns" challenge at 365 Cards. I went paper shopping, but I didn't have time to go out to Archivers, so I had to settle for the selection at Michael's. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael's, but they don't have much in the way of patterned paper. I found the toille and houndstooth patterns, but I ended up having to make my own plaid.


My next card is for today's challenge- Day 20, Let's Make Some Noise. What do you call this anyway? A shaker card? Well, at any rate, I created the "shaker" by stacking several of the frames cut with my Cricut and a piece of acetate from some packaging. On the inside are some small punched hearts.


Thanks for looking!

The Touch, The Feeeeel of Cotton...

... The fabric of our lives!

When I saw the challenge for today at 365 Cards, I immediately started humming that song from the cotton commercials. Haha.

The challenge is "Imagine This: Cotton." Not a lot of specifics-- just think of cotton and ready, set, go! The first thing that came to mind wasn't necessarily just the white fluffy stuff (or pink and blue, wrapped around a paper cone). I wanted to go for that raw, natural look with the browns and soft whites.


BOY! I really had to fight with this picture to get the color right... it's still not quite there. I hope it's showing up on your screen like it's supposed to! I wish I could show you-- the colors are much softer looking in person! Oh well :-)

Also, I wanted to show you what I did with the stamp I won the other day from Stretch 'n Bubbles.



Okay. I'm gonna be late for work if I don't leave, so thanks for stopping by!!

Where Have All the Birthday Cards Gone?

I'm horrible about sending cards anyway, but if there's one occasion I'd like to have them handy for, it's birthdays. I guess when I sit down to make a card, I tell myself, "Oh, you don't need to make birthday cards. There're always a bazillion birthday cards laying around." But there aren't.

There are, like, 3 birthday cards in my whole stash. Tons of thank you cards (but I already said I'm terrible about sending them, so I don't know why I keep making them) and plenty of generic could-be-a-birthday cards-- but no real birthday cards. Haha.

So anyway, today's card is a birthday card. It also fits two challenges:

Day 14 "Twinchies" @ 365 Cards

decorate a 2x2 inch piece of cardstock

and OCC's Color Challenge

yellow, pink, green and brown

If I've made this style of card before, I don't remember, so this may be a first! I like how it turned out and I love the pretty spring colors.

Thanks for looking!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

Hi there! Tonight I've been working on a card for the Moxie Fab World "Tuesday Trigger" challenge. It really is all about textures and colors on this one! Here's the trigger image:


And here is my card:



I wove some kraft paper strips together to mimic the weave of the chair. It was a little time-consuming, but worth it for the effect! The other half of the card is inspired by the pillow. I used my Cricut and a few small punches to create the floral motif. I love the bright colors.

Thanks for taking a look! If you have a sec to leave a comment, I'd love to know you stopped by :-)

Whoa! Catch-up Time!

Friday night I left for a weekend retreat with the student ministry at my church. We had an awesome time and even though it was super cloudy, we never had any rain that kept us from any of our activities. One of the events of the weekend was for each group to choreograph a song for a lip-sync competition. My group of 7th grade girls did a FANTASTIC job. The video of their routine is at the end of this post--it's pretty awesome :-)

Aaaannnd because I was gone all weekend, I got behind on the 365 Cards challenges. But, I'm all caught up!! Here are all my entries for Friday through today:

Friday, Day 12 "Circle Frenzy"
Include 20 or more circles from at least two sources.
Some of the circles are from the patterned paper, some are punch and some are hand drawn.




















Saturday, Day 13 "A Whole New Dimension"
Take an image and... raise some portion of it off the page to give it dimension.
The two flowers are raised off of the image.



















Sunday, Day 14 "Super Sketchy Sunday"
Click on link to see sketch.




















Monday, Day 15 "Ad-Inspired"
Click on link to see ad.
















Tuesday, Day 16 "Opposites Attract"
Feature a pair of opposite images on your card - sun/moon, sun/rain, boy/girl, etc.



















If you made it all the way to the end of this post, bless your heart. Lol. Thanks so much for checking out my blog :-) And now, if you have yet a few more minutes to spare, check out the lip-sync my girls did this weekend... If you go to the actual YouTube page, you can see it a lot better!

Blah!

Okay friends, I am feeling UBER ick today, so forgive me for this half-hearted post! Thankfully I finished this card earlier in the afternoon, before said ickiness. Today at 365 Cards is a "Lovely Landscape" challenge to create and outdoor-themed card using patterned paper. I like how this turned out, but I think I'm wishing I had done something else with that "happy birthday" sentiment... I think it gets a little lost in the busyness of the patterned paper. Oh well. I still like it!

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment and let me know you were here :-)

Chic, Glam, Gorgeous

Greetings, fellow paper lovers! I have a second card to share with you today. Thanks to Jean at Just Scraps for inviting me to play along with her "Black, White and Red All Over" challenge. I always love this color combo... it works for just about anything-- funky, elegant, whatever. Also, I was excited to use my new "Forever Young" cartridge for my Cricut. It's pretty fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wackiness

Today is "Wacky Color Wednesday" and Day 10 at 365 Cards. The color combo is orange, purple and blue. It sounds a little crazy, but I decided to go for a sort of simple, "chunky" look and I think it turned out rather nice. I even pulled out the sewing machine again... it was a bear getting it to stitch evenly around that curve!


Well, hopefully I'll have another post up tonight... I got the new "Forever Young" Cricut cartridge (the flower on this card is from this one) and I'm itching to try it out some more! Thanks for looking :-)

What a Wonderful World

Today's challenge at 365 Cards was to create a project inspired by the song, "What a Wonderful World." I love this song! My sister and I have been humming it all day... well, actually, I've been humming, she's been belting it. Haha.

I decided to create a scene with a few ideas from the song... clouds of white, skies of blue, red "roses", and the colors of the rainbow.

Even with all those colors, it looked a little flat, so I added the black ribbon to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sometimes I Space Out

I do. When I'm concentrating on something, I tend to block out pretty much everything else-- especially my sisters. I even wrote a song about it. Lol. In fact, just moments ago, my sister was singing while I was editing photos and then asked me a question about the song. I didn't even know what she was talking about. I honestly had no recollection of anyone singing anything.

Hahahaha... anyway... okay...

Here's the card I made for the "Imagine This" challenge for Day 8 at 365 Cards. The theme was "outer space." I don't know how many of you will get the Beyonce reference, but here goes:

Wait for it...

Waaaaait for it...

LOL. I saw one of those ridiculous "fan pages" on Facebook with this joke. I thought it was pretty freakin' hilarious. I will be putting this one in the mail pronto to a friend of mine.

*Sew* A Needle Pulling Threeeaaaad...

Hey, hey! Hope this finds you all at the beginning of an excellent Monday! (Or maybe the end of one... either way, I hope it's good.)

Tonight I've been working on my card for the Sunday sketch challenge on Day 7 of 365 Cards. I'm not gonna ramble on too much about this one except to say that I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever used my sewing machine to stitch on a card. It was waaaaay fun. I should do it more often.


Okay... I gotta get some sleep now. Thanks for looking!

Money On the Ceiling

I walked down to my craft table this afternoon and happened to look up at the ceiling to see a 20-dollar bill taped up there.

That was weird.

Turns out it was from my sister, paying me back for dinner the other night. Leaving it on the table would've been too easy, I suppose. Lol.

I wish that happened everyday, though. :-)

Anywhoodles, I'm here posting my card for the Stampin' Saturday challenge, Day 6 of 365 Cards.

I used three different ColorBox brush pads to ink the flower and sentiment stamps. The ribbon and the epoxy sticker are just some things from my stash.

The colors are a little crazy on this one, but I like it okay.

Hooray For Corny N*Sync songs :-)

OOPS! If you're looking for my post for Day 6, click here! I got a little link-happy earlier :-)

I worked pretty much all day yesterday, so I never got a chance to sit down and work on a card for the "Fancy Folds" challenge at 365 Cards. But I guess that means I had all day to think about it, so when I actually sat down to put this together, the ideas flowed rather smoothly.

The petal card base is one that I've had laying around for, literally, years. I'm actually kind of surprised that it's survived some of my "I don't need that, get rid of it" days. Don't know why I've never been able to come up with something to do with it until today... I guess it just took someone saying "Hey, make a petal card!". Thanks Pam. lol.


When I was trying to decide what to put on the inside, I said to myself, "hmmm-- music. hearts. music of my heart. aha!" Remember that movie with Meryl Streep and the song with N*Sync and Gloria Estefan? Lol. Good stuff.



Now it's gonna be stuck in my head all day. Oh well... there are worse things! Haha. Hopefully I'll be back later with a card for Day 6!

2-in-1

Hey folks. How's it goin'? It feels a lot later than it really is... I was sure it was closer to 12:45, maybe even 1am. No clock in the craft area. *shrugs*

Anywho, I decided to get one more card in today. It combines two challenges that I've been contemplating over the last couple of days. The first is the Asian-themed challenge at The Corrosive Challenge blog. The second is EBTKS Challenge 10 which is to use fabric. I've had scraps of this gorgeous brocade fabric in my stash for a few years. I had started making a top with it, but something went askew and I never was able to quite figure out what I did wrong. Oh well. I probably like it on the card better than I'd like it on me. Haha. I used gold embossing powder on what I hope is the Chinese character for "love." I wouldn't know if I was wrong. lol. I'm gonna trust Google... this time. :-)

Enjoy! Thanks for looking.

Hey, Hey It's a Monkeeeeeey

It's such a bright, sunny day! I should probably get out there and enjoy a little bit of it. :-)

Two cards today! The first is for Day 4's "White Space" challenge at 365 Cards. Aaaaand, I'm taking some liberties there with the whole "white" thing, but I think that's allowed :-) I seriously love the critters on the ZooBalloo cartridge. SO much fun.

The next one is for the sketch challenge on the Mojo Monday blog. My favorite part on this one is the butterfly. I wasn't sure how my coloring was gonna turn out-- it's a combination of colored pencils and markers.

Spring! I can almost taste it... er... feel it... whatever. Hope you all have a lovely afternoon. Adios!

*Cue Trumpet Fanfare*

Dear friends, I have not one but THREE cards to show you today. Yippee! Now, granted I didn't create all of them today. That would've been impressive.

My first card is for Kazan's Sketch 47 at 2 Sketches 4 You. It's been a long time since I've played over there, but they always have great sketches!

This card was kind of a pain in the butt. I couldn't find any patterned paper in my stash that matched the blues I had picked out for the rest of the card. So, I ended up rubbing a crayon over a piece of white Bazzill swiss dots paper. (Which, actually, now that I've heard myself say it, doesn't sound like that much trouble... but it took me a long time to figure it out. Haha.) The bird is made from a paisley die cut on the "Stretch Your Imagination" Cricut cartridge.

Next up is for the Day 3 Challenge at 365 Cards. At first when I saw the challenge, I was like, "OoOooh, no." But it turns out it's not nearly as complicated as it looks. In fact, I pretty much love how it turned out.

I googled "string art" and this boat was the first thing that came up under images. The pattern is free and you can find it HERE. I didn't follow it exactly, but it helped A LOT. The string is stitched right into the paper because I didn't really have anything else to anchor it with. Even small brads would've been way too big. My mom is using this one as a sympathy card for a friend.

I have a feeling that I'm going to be over-using the kraft paper until I run out. Good thing I only bought 10 sheets of it! Lol. This last card is just for fun.

The other night my mom said, "Here, I saved this for you" and handed me the chopped-off end of a bunch of celery. The initial "HUH?" reaction was quickly replaced by "Oh, cool!" when she pointed out that the chopped end looked like a rose! I used acrylic paint to "stamp" the rose, then hand-painted the leaves. Pretty neat, huh?

As always, thanks for looking!

Circle, Silver and Pearl

Today's challenge at 365 Cards is a Tuesday Trio- Circle, silver and pearl. The card must include at least one of each.

I've got two circles, three pearls, and plenty of silver embossing powder :-) I wish the picture was better... it looks much sparklier in person.

Well... I'm off to do some cleaning before I go to work. Yuck. Enjoy your day!

Puppy Dog

Hello friends! Once again I'm gonna be rushing this post just a bit... But then, maybe that's just less of my rambling for you to read through! Haha.

Today is Day 1 of the new year of challenges at 365 Cards and it's a color challenge. I decided to keep it simple and I love how it turned out. This could work well for a little boy birthday card, but I kind of liked it without any sentiment. The puppy is from the ZooBalloo Cricut cartridge.

Gotta go! Thanks for looking :-)

If Only I Could Think of Clever Post Titles...

This card is for the Day 365 challenge at 365 Cards! I'm looking forward to seeing what new things are in store for the next 365 days! It would be awesome if I was able to keep up this time around!

It's really late and I need to go to bed, so this is gonna have to be a short post. Goodnight everyone-- thanks for looking :-)