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!!

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 :-)

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!

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!

Hello blogger friends!  I'm kinda proud of this card I'm sharing with you today.  I just really, really like how it turned out.  Sometimes I have a great idea but, once I get started, I end up having to tweak change my design.  But every once in a while you have that project that comes together just like it looked in your head.  And that's awesome.

It's Monday, so it's time for yet another challenge from Scrap It With a Song.  This week we're scrappin' to "Get Here" by Oleta Adams.  It's a pretty song-- I'd never heard it before this challenge.  My sentiment is straight from the lyrics of the song...

The lovely couple is cut from the "Sweethearts" Cricut cartridge (which my momma found on CLEARANCE! yay) and I absolutely love it.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you come on over and play along with us :-)

HA!! I did it! (Part Two)

Part Two of the super-long catch-up post!  If you got here from a direct link, but you wanna see what else I've been working on this week, you could CLICK HERE if you want ;-)

Day 99, So Charm-ing
Create a charm out of paper.
I stamped the butterfly in this fabulously obnoxious orange ink, punched it out with a circle punch, then added diamond glaze for some dimension and shine.  I love the colors on this one!!

Day 100, All Lined Up
Everything from embellishments to the sentiment lined up in rows. At least three items in each row.
I've got a row of three trees, then the dots and sentiment make a second line.

Day 101, Inchie x 10
Use at least ten "inchies" on your card.
This one was hard to do at first, but then once the idea finally clicked, it came together pretty quickly.

Thanks again for stopping by!  Hope you have an excellent day :-)

Three-In-One

Happy hump day! Today has been kind of nice... a little gloomy and thunder-stormy, but I like storms.  I got a haircut, finally.  You should've seen the pile of hair on the floor at the salon.  I would like to take this moment to thank the creator of thinning shears.  They're those scary looking scissors that look like this:

I have super thick hair so, just about every time I get it cut,  I have them chomp through the layers with these babies.  It feels so much lighter!!

Anyway, who cares about my hair... let's get on to my card for today...

Today at 365 Cards it's kind of a pick-your-own-challenge deal.  Per the guidelines, my card is based on three different challenges.  One from the month of March (Day 8, Imagine This: Outer Space); one from April (Day 53, Front, Back and Everything in Between); and one from May (Day 62, Look Who's Talking).

I kept the inside and back really simple, since the whole point of these cards is for the men and women to be able to write their own messages ;-)  

Well, I'm off!  Thanks for stopping by :-)

Sweet Child O'Mine

Hey there, people of blogger-land! Hope today is off to a great start for all of you... it being Monday and all. mneh.

On the bright side, Monday's mean a new challenge is up at Scrap It With A Song! Our inspiration piece for this week is "Sweet Child O'Mine" by Guns N' Roses.  This one was a little hard for me... there really aren't a lot of lyrics to this song, and while I think it's a very scrap-able song, it was challenging to find something that would make a fitting card.  But I did it, and here's what I came up with:

In the song, there are several references to blue skies and weather, "...everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky."  And the entire song is about thinking about someone special, so I thought the "thinking of you" sentiment worked well.

Now, I hope you all will think about playing along with us this week!!  Our sponsor, CropStop.com is offering this week's winner a $10 gift certificate :-)  Awesomeness! Come check it out.

Well, it's bedtime for me, so I'll see you all again soon!  Thanks for stopping by :-)

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 :-)

More Cards, Less Blah-Blah-Blah

Okay, friends.  I've only got about 15 minutes to make this post, but if I don't do it now I'll ended up posting an entire week's worth of challenges on Saturday, and that would be ridiculous (not that it isn't already). I'm gonna have to skimp on the commentary for this one, but enjoy the pictures, okay?




Sunday, Day 42-Super Sketchy Sunday

The rest of this week's challenges are "White Space" challenges and they are whoopin' my butt!  The challenge is to keep your all of your embellishments and whatnot inside the designated space and everything else is left "blank".


Monday, Day 43
I'm sad to say we've been needing a few of these lately.  But I think it turned out pretty and hopefully it will be a blessing to someone going through a rough time. :-)

Tuesday, Day 44
This one is also for this week's Tuesday Trigger: Lovely as a Rose challenge @ Moxie Fab World.  I got my inspiration from the colors in the photos, but also from Samantha's project with the paper flowers.

Wednesday, Day 45
When I saw this challenge, it just reminded me of butterfly wings.  I did turn the sketch sideways for this one.  And I probably cheated just a leeeetle bit with the stamp and the black matting. Hehe. Nobody's perfect :-)

Thursday, Day 46
I love this paper! I found it on clearance too, which makes it 10% prettier. Haha.  I also used it on the Sunday sketch.

YAY! All done-- and a few minutes to spare! Lol.  Thanks for coming by to look at my cards :-)

Life Happens :-)

Dang it.  I wasn't able to get these done before Sunday night, but I'm still going for completing the whole month again, so here they are-- my cards for the second half of last week's challenges at 365 Cards.

Thursday was the end of Easter break at the school where I work, Saturday I photographed a wedding (gaahhh! stress!!!), all on top of trying to spend as much time as possible with my brother before he flew back to San Diego.  Although somehow in the middle of that, I did manage to squeak in a late trip to Target on the way home from work for a sheet of rub-ons for Day 39-Totally Transferred. There were literally only two sheets of rub-ons in that whole store, so I picked this one because of the colors and the variety of sentiments.  I decided to keep the design really simple and just focus on the colors.

The challenge for Friday was, ironically, a little bit easier.  For Day 40-Friday Five, we had to use five colors, five patterned papers, five blossoms, five buttons and five stamps.  Find five stamps that worked together was the hardest part for me, so I ended up just stamping individual letters. On one of my recent trips to Archivers I picked up a package of these buttons which ended up working out great with the colors I picked for the paper.

The Day 41-DIY Glittered Blossoms challenge was yet another difficult challenge for me.  I don't generally use that kind of stuff.  I've said before that glitter isn't one of my favorite things, but it keeps showing up on my cards (AND in my hair, and the carpet, and my clothes.... and in my family's hair, clothes, etc. LOL).  This is another super simple design, but the textures are flippin' awesome!

That shimmery background paper is from a stash that I've had forever.  I don't even remember why I bought it, or what I thought I was gonna do with it. Haha.  I made the flower from an old gift bow that was smooshed beyond being able to use it again, so I cut rough circles from it and then melted the edges over a candle to make them curl.  I mixed some super-fine glitter into some Diamond glaze and then used a toothpick to put it on the edges of the flower. Silver leaves and a rhinestone in the center finished it off.  (I make this sound easy, but I probably burned and over-melted about 12 circles before I got these to turn out the way I wanted.)

Speaking of glitter, this would probably be an excellent time to share with you this story from the other day... My mom and I were making place cards for her women's group at church.  They were going to be very simple with just a single digi-image (this one) and a name.  For just a bit of extra "something" we decided to add some glitter to the butterfly.  Now, the glitter I have comes in one of those stacked containers, like this:

We were using the silver one-- at the very top.  Now, it seems a little risky to leave them all stacked like that while in use, but we were being careful and we finished all of the cards without any problem.  It wasn't until we started cleaning up that this happened:

OOOHHHHH, man. LOL.  Thankfully, it's a pretty small container.  However, the entire contents of that container was all over my craft table.  Also, I'm not going to point any fingers, but I'll let you figure out "who done it" by the direction of the spillage. Haha.  It's okay mom.  I still love you.

I saw, somewhere, a t-shirt that said "Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."  'Tis true.  We got it all cleaned up for the most part, but we went to visit some family that night and my mom still had it on her face. And you can still rub your hand on my table and come up with sparkly fingers. Haha.

Thanks for stopping by, friends! Hopefully I'll be posting some more stuff tonight or tomorrow ;-)

Happy Easter :-)

Hey there, friends!  Happy Easter to you :-)  I'm so tired, I could probably fall asleep right here on top of my laptop, but I'll try not to.  We got through two Easter services tonight at church and we'll do two more in the morning, so I'll have to be getting up yuck early, but I figured I could squeeze in a quick post.

First off is my card for Day 33-Whip Stitch It! @ 365 Cards.  I also used the colors for this week's Color Throwdown challenge and ETBK's challenge to use string.

Next is my entry for the Day 34- Color Scheme challenge and for this week's JUGS Sketch challenge.

Cute sketch!  Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend :-)

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.

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!

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.