Is it just me or is it gettin' hot in here?

OH, I just crack myself up.

Thursday has come to us once again, which means it's my turn to take on of Pam's fabulous challenges and attempt to inspire you all to play along!  Today the challenge at 365 Cards is to use our gardens as inspiration.  "Do you have a garden?  If so, what sorts of things do you have in your garden?  If not, what would you want in your garden?  That is what should inspire your card."

That's not too crazy, right?  My family used to have a small garden in our backyard.  I don't remember everything we had in there, but I know for sure that we had chili peppers.  We can go through dried chiles like nobody's business.  I remember one time my brother convinced my little sister to take a bite out of one... It's funny now. Hahaha.   Here's my chili-inspired card:

So what's in your garden?  I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!

Summer... it's Hot.

Haaaaappy Thursday!  How's your summer going?  Mine's flying right by and I'm trying to hang on :-)  I did get to spend a couple hours in the pool on Tuesday.  It was SO hot, it felt like bath water. But then it rained for a bit and cooled everything off and it turned out to be a gorgeous night, which we spent at the Muny. This is pretty much my only "free" week this month.  For the next two weeks I'll be out of town for two different summer camps.  One is a girls camp here in Missouri, the other is a mission trip with 8th graders in New Orleans.  I'll have about half a day break in between the two, but I think it'll be fun.  Then maybe I'll sleep for a week when I get back ;-)

I have a card to share with you today! This week at 365 Cards, we've been making collage cards.  I've said before that I tend to stay away from putting lots of "stuff" on my cards.  But then it's always fun to step outside the box and stretch a little bit.  For today's challenge, your collage card should include sponging, scallops and stitching.

There's plenty of sponging around the torn edges of the paper.  I didn't feel like lugging out my ridiculously heavy sewing machine, so I had to do the stitching by hand.  It turned out pretty good, I think.  For the scallops I used crepe paper ribbon.  There are so many possibilities with a challenge like this, so I hope you'll stop by and play along too!!

Fun With Old Cardboard

Today I'm playing along with City Crafter Challenge Blog.  I've been following for a while, but this is my first time joining in :-)  The challenge is to use paint and recycled cardboard.

 

I have a stash of cardboard that I've saved from different packaging and boxes and whatnot, but today I had a cardboard mailing envelope sitting at the top of my wastebasket, so I decided to go with that! Haha.  I cut the star and anchor with my Cricut, then used white acrylic paint to create the distressed look.  My favorite part about this card is that rope-looking trim in the background.  I cut super thin strips from the cardboard, then carefully twisted them as tight as I could without breaking it.  Since one side of the envelope was coated white, it looked pretty cool.  I did that with several trips, then glued them side by side.  Kinda nifty, huh?  I also used a piece on the rope for the anchor.  I thought about putting a sentiment on there, but I just think it makes a great summery generic card for anytime.

Thanks for stopping by!!  Have a great day :-)

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!

Nature Stuff

I keep sitting down to write this post and I just end up with an insane case of writer's block!  This past week was a little crazy.  We had tornadoes ripping through St. Louis like nobody's business.  You see this kind of stuff on the news, but it's a really weird feeling when it's quite literally in your backyard.  Our church (which is where we were when the storms came through) and our house missed the worst of the destruction by a matter of blocks in both cases.  It's amazing that there were no fatalities.  And the only minor injuries where at the airport.  My brother was supposed to fly in that night from San Diego, but ended up having to turn around in Phoenix.  I'm just thankful that his flight wasn't a few hours earlier! Maybe it sounds a little cliché, but it really does make you realize that your stuff isn't going with you and it's having your family and loved ones safe that truly matters the most.

And speaking of nature... Lol...

I have a card for you today.  This one is for yesterday's challenge at 365 Cards, Day 59-Feeling "Kraft"y.

The challenge is to create a nature-themed card with kraft paper.  The image I used for the branch and the background pattern is from our sponsor this week, Shannon's Sentiments.  There are some really great images, so be sure to check it out.

If you wanna get in on the fun, come on over to the 365 Cards blog! You have until Monday night to get your project uploaded :-)

Again with the late blogging. Gah! lol

Let's just cut to the chase here.  What I have to show you today is actually Thursday's card for 365 Cards.  The challenge is to pick something that is currently trending and use it on your card.  Now, I don't necessarily focus on what's trendy (at least not on purpose), but if I spend a little time thinking about it I do notice certain things.  It seems like I've been seeing a lot of lace everywhere lately, so that's what I decided to use on my project:

I kinda like how this turned out.  There's a lot of "stuff" there on the card, but it's not overwhelming. Well, it's past my bedtime PLUS I'm losing an hour of sleep with Daylight Savings starting tomorrow. Uggggh. Lol.  Well, good night all! And don't forget, you still have until Monday night to link up your cards for this challenge-- it's not too late!

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 :-)

Fabulous

Hey there, friends!  It's been a while.  I'm sorry. :-)

It's Day 347 at 365 Cards!  The challenge for today is to "divide your card into three parts so that none of embellishments or the sentiment overlaps from one section to another."

Here's how I did it:

The sentiment is from this week's sponsor, Digis With Attitude.  The silhouette is from the Forever Young Cricut cartridge.  It's definitely one of my favorites.  I haven't used eyelets in a while, but I finally have a Crop-a-dile tool.  I should have gotten myself one of those a loooong time ago. Lol.  It's SO much easier than that ridiculous hammer!

I'd love to see your take on the challenge, so link it up right HERE!

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... ;-)

Hi there, friends!

The year 2010 has come to a close and we're kickin' off the new year with hopes for another 12 months of endless possibilities.  I can't wait to see what happens :-)

These last couple of weeks have flown by.  We've enjoyed having my brother home for the holidays.  He'll be leaving on Monday already, and I have to go back to work.  I have to start getting up early again. Ugh.

I do have a card to share with you.  This is a little late, but there's still time to play along!  We're doing a "flashback week" at 365 Cards, so we're revisiting a challenge from June called "Stunning Silhouettes- With a Twist."  Obviously, there should be a silhouette on your card, but the "twist" is that the whole card should have a black and white color scheme.  I'm a big fan of black and white.  Here's what I did:

The silhouette is from the "Sweethearts" Cricut cartridge.  I created the "charm" by punching out a heart from the patterned paper and then covering it with diamond glaze.

Thanks to all of you who've dropped by over this past year! It's been fun :-)

Let's Catch Up... or Ketchup... However You Wanna Do This

Hey there, everyone.  I can't believe I've let over two weeks go by without posting.  *facepalm*

I've got a card to show you, but first I just wanted to say "way to go!" to everyone who participated in the 365 Cards Vintage Love Blog Hop.  You all came up with some flippin' AMAZING cards.  But also, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who commented on my blog with the things that you are thankful for.  Some of the stories you shared were so touching.  I see so many of your names all across Blog-land, but it's kinda cool to learn one more little thing about the person behind the link :-)

Okay, so here's my card for the Day 284 challenge from Thursday.  The challenge was to create a card with two pockets.  You can interpret that just about any way you want, but here's what I came up with:

 

Kinda cute, huh? lol.  The stickers are from E.A.D. Designs. I actually managed to create a SVG file to cut this with my Cricut.  It needs to be tweaked a bit, but if I ever get around to it, I'll share the file with y'all.

Again, I know this is late, but you still have a little time to play along.  You have until Sunday at midnight to get your cards linked up!

We've got a bunch of fun stuff to talk about today, but first of all,

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.  Which means some of us will be doing our card-making while we watch the parade (or maybe the football game) on TV :-)  I know I have so much to be thankful for, but one HUGE thing this year is that my brother arrived safely back to the states from Afghanistan last week-- He's still in California for a couple more weeks, but we're looking forward to having him here at home for Christmas! Yayyy!!

And now, on to the main event...

365 Cards Vintage Week Blog Hop

If you're just now joining us, go ahead and click on the link above to go back to the beginning.  It will take you to the 365 Cards blog where you can get the details on how to navigate through this week-long blog hop and find out all the ways you can be entered to win some fabulous Graphic 45 prizes (brought to you by our very own DT member, Gloria!).

If you've already been hopping along with us, your last stop should have been Kim's blog.

Now finally, here's my card for today:

The challenge for today, and your ninth "ingredient" for the recipe challenge on Saturday, is: A dimensional sticker.  On my card, I used the clock sticker by Jolee's.  I've had it forever.  It was nice to finally have a reason to use it :-) I really love the look of vintage-style cards, but it's always so hard for me to do!! I tend to take a "less is more" approach to my cards.  Vintage is kinda like... "more is better." Ha ha. It's been so much fun looking at what you guys have come up with so far this week.  Can't wait to see what you do for today's challenge!

One more way to earn another chance for one of the awesome prizes is by commenting on this post.  But since it's Thanksgiving and all, I'm going to make it a little more specific... Leave a comment below answering this question:

What are you thankful for?

It doesn't have to be a sappy answer :-)  I'll take cute, funny and clever, too! Haha. Tomorrow, whenever you come out of your food coma, come back and check out your next stop on the hop:

Sophie's Blog

Just Relax

So today's post revolves around something that is near and dear to my heart:  Nap time.  And I don't even mean MY nap time.  I work in a preschool, so that hour and a half (ish) is precious... assuming they actually get quiet. Lol.

For today's challenge at 365 Cards, I've created a card based on the theme "nap time."

Personally, I don't take naps.   I can't fall asleep during the day.  BUT I definitely like to get some "relaxing" time in.  For me that usually means some time at my craft table or browsing my YouTube subscriptions :-)  How do you relax?

In other fabulous news, next week at 365 Cards we're having a blog hop!  There will be some awesome prizes and all kinds of fun, so keep checking back for those details :-)

BOiNG!

Good morning, Blogger peeps :-)
I'm super excited about the cards that I get to share with you today because I think they turned out so flippin' cute!  The challenge for Day 249 at 365 Cards is to create a coil pop-up card.  For those of you who have seen this before, it's waaaay easier than it looks.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look...

This is actually the second card I made, but you can see the coils easier, so I'll show you that one first:

To make the coil, all you do is start with a circle and cut it into a spiral from the outside, almost all the way to the center.  For me, the trickiest part was figuring out how big of a circle to start with and then how wide to cut the coil.  On both cards I used a 2-inch circle for the main coil.  The smaller coil on the butterfly card was made from a 1.5-inch circle.  I found that somewhere between 1/8th and 1/4th of an inch works for the width.  Too much bigger and it's not as "springy".  Too much smaller and it doesn't hold anything.

For the next card I used acetate for the coil.  I think it looks kind of cool with the leaves.  Also, I really hate when I use acetate and I can see the glue, so I usually try to cover it up.  In this case, I cut mirrored versions of the die cuts and sandwiched the coil between them.

 

I'll also mention this: In order for the card to lay flat, the coil has to line up.  To make sure mine was lined up, I glued one end on the bottom of the card, then let the coil lay flat.  Then I put glue on the end that would be attached to the top and closed the card.  When I opened it, the top end was positioned right where it needed to be.  (Hope that makes sense... :-P)

Okay, well, I think that's enough blah-blah-blah from me!  I'm telling you-- this was SO much fun.  Go give it a try and then link it up RIGHT HERE!

Hi everyone! I've got some serious writer's block. So while I would normally attempt at least one funny thought, I find myself at a loss for anything clever to say.  And we all know that "if you don't have anything clever to say, don't say anything at all."  Or at least, I think that's how it goes... uhh... Let's move on.

Today's challenge at 365 Cards is to create a card using two techniques:  Sponging and sanding.

For the background, I crinkled up the kraft paper, flattened it back out, then lightly "sanded" it with an emery board.  It gives it a cool suede-like texture.  I did the sponging around the edges with a wedge cut out of a kitchen sponge.  Sometimes you just gotta work with what you have, y'know?

Alright, now it's your turn!  Prickley Pear is sponsoring this week of challenges, so play along and rock those challenges ;-)

\m/_ (-_-) _\m/

F-F-F-Fun

Hey there peeps! It's Thursday! (Well, it is as I begin to type this entry, but we'll see if I actually finish it before midnight.  Probably not.  I've already restarted this twice.  But anyway....)  Thursday means it's my turn again to show y'all what's up over at 365 Cards.

Today our challenge is to use these three "F's":  Fabric, Fringe and Floss.   This one was super challenging for me!  First of all, those are three things that I don't use very often.  And then even what I did have didn't necessarily go together.  But you know how that goes... you just keep experimenting and hope you come up with something spiffy.

Here's what I finally came up with:

I've got the red embroidery floss, some red fabric that I cut into a strip and then twisted.  For the "fringe" I just used my CutterBee scissors and veeeeery carefully cut the black paper.  I think it worked out pretty well.  I absolutely love the "Lantern Rin" stamp from Sparkle Creations-- in fact, they're all really cute, so I hope you'll go check out the other designers' cards from this week!  OH, and as a bonus, the little tag is from the Pagoda Cricut cartridge-- it means "friend." Extra "F" points!! :-)

Check me out... it's 11:58. Hehe.

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!

Ad Inspired

Happy Thursday!  Thursday used to be my least favorite day of the week... now I think it's turning into my favorite.  It's the only day where I don't have anything major to do.  I don't really have anything on Mondays either, but it's the beginning of the work week, so it's tainted.

ALSO, it being Thursday means that I need to tell y'all about the challenge for today at 365 Cards!  I really enjoy ad-inspired challenges, and that's exactly what I've got for you today...

Here's our inspiration piece from Pier1:

And here's my take on it:

When I saw this ad I knew exactly what paper I was going to use.  I've had this last little piece of embossed paper by K&Company forever.  It's so pretty and now I finally knew what to do with it.  The only problem was that it was an off-white color and I needed gold.  Thankfully, I've got some metallic acrylic paints.  I just used a little bit of paint on a dry brush to cover the paper.  It took a few coats, but I didn't want to get it too soggy and mess up the embossing.  If you're able to see the large version of the photo, you can kind of see the brush strokes which gives it a little bit of an antique-y look.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with!!  Thanks for stopping by :-)

This whole 5 a.m. thing is gonna kill me...

*Yawn*

Hey guys! Didja miss me?  This week has been quite an adjustment.  Monday was the first day of school, so that means it's back to work for me.  Last year I was the aftercare person, so I only worked a few hours in the evening.  THIS year I'm working full time and I'm opening in the morning, so I have to wake up at ungodly hours.  But that's not really the tricky part.  I'm usually a night owl, and that's when I did all of my card making.  So I'm just working on rearranging my schedule ;-)

In all of the craziness leading up to the first day of school, I didn't get a chance to show you my card for the challenge at Scrap It With a Song this week.  When I first watched the video for "Summertime", I definitely LOL'd.  But you just gotta love The Fresh Prince ;-)  My card is super simple, but I just really like the green striped paper:

Your turn! You still have until Sunday at noon to upload your creations-- can't wait to see them!

A Jeans and T-Shirt Kind of Girl

Hi friends!  It's Tuesday.  That means I forgot to set up a post for yesterday's Scrap It With a Song reveal. *palm face*  Better late than never.  (<--- I hate that saying. Lol.)


Okay, so this week our song of inspiration is "With You" by Jessica Simpson.  It's been a loooong time since I've listened to any of Jessica Simpson's stuff.  You'll see that my card doesn't have a sentiment, but the idea behind it is from the line "The real me is a southern girl with her Levis on..."  So the girl on this card is wearing actual Levis :-)  I had a pair that was on it's way to the trash anyway, so I saved a small piece for the card:

I have to keep this short-- I've got to go up to school and work on finishing up one of the rooms before the open house next week.  AAHHH!! It's gonna come up so fast! But I'm kind of excited :-)


Y'all have a fabulous day.  Check back on Thursday for a new project, and don't forget to upload your awesome creations at Scrap It With a Song this week!