In the Home Stretch

I can't believe we're already down to the last two days of the school year! It's been an interesting nine months, that's for sure. Haha. My little kiddles are moving on up to kindergarten next year, so I'll definitely miss them... I think. Juuuust kidding ;-)  But seriously...

With summer in sight, I'm looking forward to lots of fun stuff (y'know, like blogging regularly again). Some traveling, girls nights by the pool, that kind of thing.  Which brings me to the card that I want to show you today.  This is for today's challenge at 365 Cards, Day 87.  The "prompt word" for today is COOL. And what better way to stay cool than in a pool??

I had a lot of fun coloring this image. I enjoy using watercolors because you don't really have to be quite as "perfect" with it. This might be one of my favorite cards that I've made in a while.  I absolutely love this image from Sparkle Creations.  If you'd like to play along, make sure you link up your cards to 365 Cards by Monday night!

Ladybug, Ladybug

Hi there, blogger friends!  Happy Saturday to you all.  I'm singing at a conference here at church today, and I'm trying to do something useful with my time until the next session.  I haven't had a chance to blog anything these past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd do that :-)

Let's flashback to Thursday.  It was Day 31 at 365 Cards.  The challenge was to use a piece of poetry on your project.  It was a little hard to start with the image and find a poem to match, rather than starting with the poem then finding an image to compliment.  So with a quick search for poems about ladybugs, and then sifting through a bazillion preschool songs, I found this poem that I thought would be perfect for a card:

"I'm sending luck and wishes

All wrapped up in a hug

Good things should come your way

With this tiny ladybug."

~Author Unknown 

The image I used is from our sponsor this week, Digi Doodle Shop.  They have some super cute things, so make sure to check out their site!  Also, it's not too late to play along with this challenge (or any of the challenges this week)-- You've got until Monday night to post the links to your cards :-)

Oh, I'm such a terrible blogger!! You know those badges that everyone likes to tag other bloggers with?  Someone should come up with a "Hey, where the heck did you go?" badge.  Actually, that might not be a bad idea.  It might be encouraging, for those people who wonder if anyone is really reading their blog, to get a comment saying "Your blog hasn't shown up in my feed for a while, and I've missed it!"

But I'm just rambling now.

The card I have to show you today is for Day 3 at 365 Cards. And yes! We just started a new year of cards, so now would be the perfect time to jump in and join us!  Today's challenge is to use fabric as a tool to apply ink or paint to your card any way you'd like.

I found a piece of material that had a pretty nice texture and applied white paint directly to the fabric.  Then I flipped it over and pressed it onto the paper.  I did use a brayer to make sure it got pressed down all the way.  It was also a little less messy that way ;-)  It ended up with a pretty cool distressed look.

Now remember, you can use the fabric any way you want, so you could scrunch it, roll it, twist it-- whatever!  You've got until Monday to link up :-)

Peace

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I'll be celebrating with a snow day.  It started falling last night, and this morning I woke up to this:

My sister, attempting to clean off the cars... I'm not sure why.  I don't plan on going ANYWHERE today.

The patio furniture in the backyard is a pretty good indicator of how much snow actually fell...

I will be spending the rest of my day nice and warm inside the house. Lol.

But anyway, back to business...

The card I have to share with you today is for "Inspiration Week" at 365 Cards.  The word I picked for today is "Peace." This word means a lot to me right now.  It seems these last couple of months have been a little crazy.  Lots of family stuff, ridiculous stuff at work, but I feel like I've been able to maintain at least some peace in the middle of it all.  It'd like to think I'm not a person who's not easily stressed out, but I guess we all have our moments. :-) I came across this quote sort of by accident, while I was googling something else.  But I think it's absolutely perfect for today's word.

This card is made from a hodgepodge of scraps: some lace, wallpaper, a wedding invitation and the last scrap of some shimmery cardstock I've been trying to use up.  I think it's fun to make cards that way... except that it's very unlikely that it will ever be duplicated!  I guess we'll have to go for variations on a theme ;-)

Now it's your turn!  Head on over to the 365 Cards blog to check out the other words of inspiration from this week and maybe pick a few (or all of them!) to play along with.

Since I began this post, I've been informed by my sisters that I will NOT be allowed to stay inside today.  I guess I should go find something warm to wear.... ughhhh... ;-)

Color and Dimension... and Mice in the Jam

Hello Blogger-friends!  Happy Thursday, once again.  We've survived another week!  For my friends here in the States, I hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend.  We had some awesome weather here.  My sisters and I lit up a bonfire in the backyard and had a couple of friends over.  It was so much fun :-) And since no one had to be at school or work the next morning, we were outside until about 3 a.m.   We even ran out of firewood!  But that didn't stop us.  Earlier that afternoon, we'd seen a stack of wood on the curb a few blocks away.  So a quick trip around 1 a.m. solved that problem. Lol.

Today I've got a card to show you for the challenge over at 365 Cards.  Click on the link to view the details!

I love coloring with markers.  Especially new markers ;-)  The ones I use on my cards, most of the time, are a set of Prismacolor permanent markers that my dad used a bajillion years ago.  They sat up in a closet for the longest time and then, a couple of years ago, I adopted them.

Another thing I did on this card was use foam squares.  I never used to do a lot of layered or dimensional stuff when I first started making cards.  But recently I find myself using them on EVERYTHING. Haha.  My only problem is that sometimes even the 1/8" squares are a little too thick for my taste.  So in some cases (like today's card) I'll split each square into two layers.  You get more "pop" for your money and the card still fits in the envelope! *clapping*

Okay peeps, I've gotta get to sleep now (cuz it's still Wednesday night as I'm typing this)!!  See y'all soon... I'm shooting for at least one more post this week!

Scrap It With a Song reveal

So I'm a little late getting this up. Oops.

Yesterday, we kicked off yet another week of this sing-along challenge.  This time, our song is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  The version we're working with is by Katherine McPhee.  I remember watching her sing this on the only season of American Idol that I ever watched from beginning to end. Haha.

The lyric I chose to use on my card is "... and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true."

I really love this song.  My goal here was to do something OTHER than a rainbow.  That was harder than I thought. Haha.

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go on and check out the Scrap It With a Song blog and join us for this week's challenge :-)

OH geez.

Well friends, it's Monday again... Wait. Wasn't it Monday, like, yesterday?  This past week has been WEIRD.  It's been one of those that zooms past so slowly... if you know what I mean.  I've been going non-stop since last time I posted!!  I haven't even had a chance to go through the entries from last week, but it's time for another challenge from Scrap It With a Song!

This week, our song is "I Can See Clearly Now" as recorded by Jimmy Cliff.  Here's the card I created:

For this card I stuck with simple shapes and lost of bright colors.  If you look back at some of my first cards that I posted on this blog, this is the kind of thing you'll see.  I love punching out different shapes and piecing them together to make images like these.

I hope you'll stop by and check out the other creations by the rest of the DT, and maybe play along with us!

I just have to make it through the rest of this week and then July is gonna be a blast! Can't wait :-)

Also, keep an eye out for my post this weekend for the OWH Independence Day Blog Tour!

I think that's all, folks.  I've gotta get to bed before I crash here on the kitchen table!

Imma Bee, Imma Bee, Imma-Imma-Imma Bee...

Just kidding. I'm a wasp. *UGH* I know. It's a terrible joke. But I crack up every time I hear it. Lol.


And now I've got The Black Eyed Peas stuck in my head.  Good job, Hannah.


Anyways, the reason I'm singing this song is because that little bee stamp from yesterday's card is making an encore appearance in today's challenge for 365 Cards.  For this challenge, "repetition is key."  We have to "use a word and an image at least three times."  I don't know why this one was so hard!  It's not really a complicated challenge, but my brain was having a heck of a time turning the guidelines into ideas.  This is what I ended up with:

It's SUPER simple, but I think I like it. 

Where Do I Even Start?

Happy Monday! (I guess... lol.)  This week has been absolutely crazy!  It's been kind of up and down emotionally and physically.  I slept in BIG TIME today to catch up from this week, and I fully intend to hang out at my craft table this evening when I get home from work :-)  Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to show you over the next couple of days.

In the meantime, here's the card I created for this week's challenge at Scrap It With a Song.  Our inspiration song this time is "True Colors" as recorded by Cyndi Lauper.  I love 80's music. It's just fun. Haha.  A little bizarre sometimes... but fun. :-)

The lyric I chose for my card is from the end of the second verse... "If this world makes you crazy and you've taken all you can bear, you call me up because you know I'll be there."  I thought this might be kinda cool for an encouragement or "thinking of you" type of card.  If you'd like to play along, make sure you hop on over to Scrap It With a Song.  I can't wait to see what all of you come up with!

OOOH!! I almost forgot!!!  We've got a great sponsor this week: Sew Many Cards.  The winner of this week's challenge gets 5 digi stamps!  So don't miss out on this one :-)

Monster Post!

Hello Bloggerland!  Hope you all are enjoying this lovely Easter week :-)  I'm about to bombard you with all of the cards I've been making this week.  I've been playing along with 365 Cards everyday so far this week, but haven't had the time to sit down and actually post anything yet.  My brother is home on pre-deployment leave for two weeks, so between that and Easter preparations, it's been busy.  Anyways, all this to say, I sincerely hope you make it all the way to the end! Haha.

Day 28- Super Sketchy Sunday

This one took me SO long to do!! I don't know why.  But I like how it turned out.

Day 29- A Certain Sentiment

Use the sentiment, "Hang In There." I have to give credit to my little genius sister for the frame idea.  Thanks Gina Marie.

Day 30- In Pieces

Use an image on the outside of your card, then use it again on the inside but don't use it in the exact same way.  I created the bunny image for this project.  Gina Marie gets minus 2 "cool points" for calling it a "hippo bunny."

Day 31- All Mixed Up

Take and image and break it down into thirds - 1/3 no color, 1/3 patterned paper, and 1/3 hand-colored.  I realized when I read the challenge that I really don't have much of a selection when it comes to image stamps.  I have a lot of little sentiment stamps, but that's about it. So, I bought one. :-) This SUPER adorable image is from Meljen's Designs.   I stumbled across these stamps on Etsy, but she's got a new website where you can buy directly from her and get and instant download. Sweetness.  The mushroom cap and stem and the book are paper-pieced, the mouse is colored with pencils, and the rest is... well... white.  I wasn't gonna color the grass, but I started, so then I had to finish.  Oh well.  Haha.

Day 32- Recipe Card

Create a card that is suitable as a recipe card. I really loved how Vicky created the inside pocket on her card, so that's what I did too.  The chef image is a free clip art image I found online. Oh, and Gina Marie get's one of those "cool points" back for suggesting the cork "button."  We just sliced off the end of a wine bottle cork that happened to have a design on it.  Coolness.

It would be awesome if I could put my mom's spaghetti sauce recipe in here... But I can't, cuz it's a secret ;-)  How 'bout lasagna? Lasagna's good.  This card makes me wanna sing that song from Lady & The Tramp. Hehe.