Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #2

This card is for Dawn's color challenge! I love this color palate, I don't know why I don't use it more often especially for masculine cards. For some reason, this teal paper kept photographing more blue than teal. Must just be the sky I guess.

I used my Crafty Secrets Tea & Coffee clear stamps to make the blue paper and the espresso sentiment. I colored in the espresso sentiment and the coffee cups with Copic markers and Prismacolor markers and colored in the coffee with brown and ochre watercolors. Then I added Glossy Accents on top to make it look like coffee :)

The brown paper went through the Cuttlebug with the textile embossing folder, and I cut the circles with my Spellbinders.

The lace is from my stash, the paper is from the Penny Lane collection from MME. The blue gems are Kaisercraft.

TFL!

In Black and White

Today I'd just like to share another quick card :) I haven't done much black and white stuff lately, and I forgot just how much I love it! The stamps are from Unity (tree), Stampendous! (bird and sentiment). The cut border was done with a Paper Studio border punch. Those Paper Studio punches are awesome, they do straight borders, 2 circles, an oval and a square with just one punch. Gotta love that!

The solid paper is also from The paper Studio, with exception of the blue which is American Crafts cardstock. The houndstooth is from Tinkering Ink, I've had that paper for a couple years now I think and never used it. I used Kaisercraft blue gems on the tree, I just picked up those at my LSS last week.
And of course I cuttlebugged the white circle and the black background with Swiss Dots.
TFL!

Cuttlebug Meets Cupcake Challenge #24

Head on over to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for their weekly challenge! This week's challenge is all about cupcakes, and you know I love those. :)


Here is my entry. You can't tell very well from this angle, but it's a card.
I free hand drew the cupcake bottom on corrugated cardboard and cut it out. I tore the top off of it so it looked like a cupcake liner, slapped some white paint on it and covered the wet paint with glitter. IRL, it's very sparkly!
The cupcake top was free handed on plain pink cardstock. I took the page of an old book and tore a few patches out. I glued them to the cardstock and then took a piece of pearly vellum that I Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots and layered it over the top. I stitched around the vellum and cardstock to stick them together and distressed the edges.
Then I simply stuck on puffy American Crafts white Thickers and used my Signo pen on black cardstock for the "you" and "are" labels.

I finished it off with some old raffia that I unwrapped at the ends so it looks like a bow. In reality, it's just tied with a knot.
Thanks for looking!

Must Love Butterflies

The movie "Must Love Dogs" was on the other night and even though I do like dogs, I think I love butterflies more :) So many butterflies to choose from! I love butterfly paper, butterfly stamps, butterfly rub-ons, you name it.

On this card, I used a butterfly print I picked up at my LSS. It's a very simple card, but the frilly lace and blue/green trim added enough oomph for me. I used my Swiss Dots embossing folder on the white strip at the top and layered a white sentiment (Olivia Cuttlebug font) on top. I don't often do white on white, but I'm finding I love it! Especially when there is a texture difference, it just creates a pretty effect.

On my next card, I chose to use a Crafty Secrets butterfly wing stamp. I stamped on white pearl vellum and then used white embossing powder for a sheer look. I cut it out and adhered the center of the wings to the card so I could bend the rest of the wings out away from the card base. Using a Zig glue pen, I filled in the antennae and body and covered it in plain glitter.

Thanks Card

Paper: American Crafts Tropicals Cardstock, The Paper Studio white cardstock

Accessories: Cuttlebug Olivia font, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Misc: ribbon and lace trim

Favorite Things Card

Paper: The Paper Studio Cardstock, Basic Grey Sugared Collection

Accessories: Crafty Secrets wings stamps, Making Memories journal note, Ranger embossing powder, Misc vellum, ribbon, glitter

So what are your favorite butterfly items? Is there a particular stamp set that you just love? Paper? Let me know! :)

Come on Spring!

We've had a few really nice days so far this late winter/early spring. Today is not one of those days. BRRRRRR it's freezing and windy and just not conducive to those spring thoughts I'd like to be thinking!

I did this card a few days ago for a contest when it was actually feeling nice and springy outdoors. I didn't win the contest, but I still like the card :) It just says "spring" when I look at it!

I created the pink background paper with Clearly Inspired stamps and a white Signo pen. The swirly journal spot is a stamp from Unity, the butterfly and sentiment are from Verve. I used Tsukineko ink and Fiskars scallop scissors (small and large). The cardstock is the tropicals pack from American Crafts.

For those who aren't getting the nice spring weather, this card is for you!

Perk up!

Here's a fun card I made this week with Crafty Secrets stamps. I colored in the stamps with Copic and Prismacolor markers and used Stickles on the coffee. I used my Spellbinders and Cuttlebug to cut out the circle. I used white embossing powder and embossing ink with a border stamps by Clearly Inspired on vellum for the roses. Paper is by Tinkering ink, and the Ribbon is RibbonFx. Thanks for looking!

MIA!

Sorry I wasn't here posting this past week. It's our down time from Scrap 'n Art and I was just taking a bit of a breather. Not to mention I worked tues-friday this week, and the kids were also on Spring break. So it was a bit hectic!

Here are a few late photos from the last few weeks. Micah's birthday party where they made cookie pizzas and the Spring Mooosical.

I've been making some more Mothers Day cards lately, I might get those uploaded this weekend sometime.

Mother's Day is coming soon!

And I have to get my cards finished! Here is one that I did today. Pretty simple and straightforward :) I used Stampendous! Fun Flock (white) on the daisy centers so they're nice and fuzzy.

Used my new SWISS DOTS Cuttlebug embossing folder I picked up the other day. woo hoo!

Paper: Melissa Frances, Kraft Paper

Sentiment: Melissa Frances

Accessories: Misc Lace trim, Stampendous! Fun Flock, Misc foam leaf stamp, Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots embossing folder

Hope you all have a great weekend!

More Chicks!

I had several people who really liked the chick, so here is a quick and easy tutorial for how I made it along with another to share :)

First I free hand drew a chick shape onto yellow paper. Then I cut it out with my scissors and applied an even layer of glue. I like using Aleen's clear gel tacky glue for flocking.

Then I dumped on a whole bunch of white flock. I didn't have yellow, but the white over yellow worked well for the chick anyway. I pressed it down so the flock was well adhered to the chick.

Then I tapped off all the excess flocking and put it back into it's container. I wanted the chick to have eyelashes, so I stuck the googly eye to a small daisy punch out.
Then I used the Tacky glue to glue on my embellishments!

Here is another chicky I made this week. I made this one hatching out of an egg. For the egg, I traced around the chick (top and bottom) on plain white paper with a black pen. This was so the egg would fit perfectly on top when cut out. Then I applied a thick layer of Glossy Accents by Ranger. I waited for it to dry and then cut around the edges. Cutting around it cracks up the glossy surface a bit, so I got my cracked eggshell look quite easily!

Thanks for stopping by!

If you're looking for AWESOMENESS

Then you need to go to http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/. The best papercrafting blog I've ever seen, this lady is my hero!

In slightly less awesome news, I've got a few more cards to share. These are very simple cards that you can do in about 15 minutes or less. It's nice to have a few easy go to cards when something comes up!

Paper: TLC, American Crafts Cardstock
Accessories: MME Penny Lane flower, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Fiskars Paper Crimper, Misc. ribbon

Paper: American Crafts Cardstock

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Paisley Cuttlebug dies, Olivia alphabet

Paper: American Crafts Cardstock, The Paper Studio
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug embossing folder (birds and swirls), Cuttlebug Olivia alphabet, Misc Ribbon, Stamping Bella Bauble

Check out Melissa's blog!

The wonderfully talented Melissa has a blog candy giveaway going on! Don't miss out on that and visiting her awesome blog :)

Cuttlebug Crazy

I got my Cuttlebug last week as you know, and I have been LOVING it! The two weeks before I got it, I was going into HL and scoping out the embossing folders they sold there. I knew for SURE I wanted the Swiss Dots and the sales lady told me they were getting in two brand new ones so I didn't buy any. Well, last week, there was a 40% off coupon and so I printed out 3 and went to get my folders! Of course, they were out of Swiss Dots and told me they weren't getting any in for the week. UGH! So hopefully they'll have them in this week. Of course there are no 40% off coupons, but since they're only $5 to begin with, I might be able to swing one ;)

I did get a set of Spellbinders nestabilities (circles) at HL. I've really been wanting circles for a while, and didn't want to spend the money buying several punches when I could just buy a circle set. I love the embossed ring that you can use with them as well.

Here are a couple cards I did this weekend. I had the most fun with the Chick card! I free handed the shape on American Crafts yellow cardstock and then covered it with a thin coat of glue. When the glue had dried just a bit, I covered it with white Flock. I didn't have yellow flock, but the white on yellow paper worked well.

I wanted the chick to have eyelashes so I adhered a punched out daisy to the back of the googly eye before putting it on the face. Alexis just loved this chick, and wanted to take it for show and tell!

Paper: American Crafts Cardstock, The Paper Studio white cardstock and folded card; Stamp: JustRite; Ribbon: Daisy D's; Border Punch: Martha Stewart (doily); Flock: Stampendous!; Cuttlebug and embossing folder; Misc. pearls, eyes

This is a window card I created using my Spellbinders and Cuttlebug. I used the cut out circle for the back of the card. The Bella is cut out and placed over the blue sponged background.

Stamps: Stamping Bella, Verve Stamps, Kodomo (background stamp used on front); Ink: Momento (blue), Colorbox (pink); Baubles: Stamping Bella, Makers: Copic, Watercolors: Kimberly; Misc: flower, lace

Zooming towards the 21st Century

After yesterday's wonderful mail day for me, I wasn't expecting anything to come today. However, we received our extra ram we ordered for our computer! Now, you might think that we needed to soup up our computer so we can let Micah play all his fast paced games or so I can finally get Photoshop or something like that. Nope, we just needed to get our computer up to date so it can run......McAfee. That's right, our computer is so OLD that it couldn't even run McAfee without taking up 95 CPU. How sad.

Now we have a whole honkin' 1G of ram. The really sad part is that the new computers at Best Buy nearly all had 8G of ram and that was totally standard. Oh well, it's working fine now and I really can't complain because it's been a great computer these last 8 years.

On a good note, today was BEAUTIFUL in the high 60's. I guess my card worked! I picked up another can of Watermelon Krylon spray paint from HL so I could finish painting some more of Alexis' doll house walls. We got the 3rd floor and the staircase looking mighty...pink. Now I can do some more decorating with my scrappin' stuff.

Here's a card I did this past weekend. I'm really into yellow and blue and yellow and red lately.

Well, hope you all had a good day, time for Micah to finish up his online homework!

Awesome mail day, but just too busy

Ok, so I finally got my amazing and awesome box of adhesive! 3L is now contracted with Scrap 'N Art and so we get to exclusively use their adhesive in our eZine projects. And it is a BIG 'ol box!

I also got my Cuttlebug from Heidi! Thanks girl! So needless to say, after work I was standing in line at Hobby Lobby, 40% off coupons in hand buying a set of Spellbinders nestabilities and an embossing folder. :) Love those 40% off coupons. I have one more that I will hopefully use tomorrow on the Swiss Dots embossing folder. They're only $3 with the coupon, so not bad at all. HL didn't have the dots in stock today, but they were putting away a huge mountain of boxes and said to check back tomorrow.

So as you can see, it was a good mail day. However, I had to work until 1:30PM and then I was busy with Levi and the kids until late afternoon. The kids had their spring "Mooosical" tonight, and we just got back from that. Talk about funny! There was a little kindergartner that stepped up to the very front of the stage after one of the songs and waved her little arm off. When whoever she was waving to didn't wave back, she stood on her tippy tip toes and waved even harder. She was up there for a good 20 seconds while people laughed until she finally got waved at and walked back with the other kids! :) A total Junie B Jones moment for sure.

There were little boys who were just groovin' away too. During the Chicken song that the Kindergartners did, one little boy seemed to forget all his G rated moves and morphed into VHS chicken...spanking moves and all. That was a sight! He also had a speaking part and after he finished, proceeded to stick his eye into the microphone and make a huge crazy face.

Of course Micah and Alexis were awesome as well, just nothing that stood out like those other kids. Alexis had a line and delivered it perfectly. Micah was in an air band, playing some sort of air guitar like a maniac. It looked kind of like he was frantically brushing lint off of his shirt.

Well, I have to get back downstairs to play with my cuttlebug. Here's a card I did this weekend, probably in the hopes of more spring like weather. Peace out!

Best Wishes

I love to create my own paper to use on cards. For the patterned paper on this card, I started out with a sheet of Watercolor paper. I stamped the music stamp over top (Stampendous!) in black Brilliance ink and then stamped some swirls over the music in clear Tsukineko ink. I embossed them with clear powder and then rubbed different colors of Momento ink over the images. Where I stamped the clear image, it showed up white with just the black music showing through.

The sentiment is from Crafty Secrets and so is the magic wand. They're not in the same set, but I wanted to use the magic wand with the "wishes" sentiment to make a magical and whimsical sort of theme. I applied Martha Stewart glitter flakes to Glossy Accents on the sentiment circle.

Here is the inside sentiment of the card. The sentiment and the flowering branch are both from Crafty Secrets. I colored the branch in with pink copics and a green Sakura stardust pen. Thanks for looking!

March/April Scrap 'N Art is HERE!

Don't miss out on downloading the new issue of Scrap 'N Art, it's amazing! With over 100 pages, the Spring issue of Scrap 'N Art is filled from cover to cover with fun and informative tutorials, product reviews, and project ideas. Check out the products from JustRite Stamps, Kodomo, Inc., Scrap Within Reach, TaDa Studios, and Eidou.com! Don't miss out on the awesome free digi items as well, our digi artists are fantastic. Just go to the Scrap 'n Art site to subscribe if you haven't done so already. If you are a subscriber, you should have gotten a link in your e-mail you provided us with. You can also go to the site, log in and then download the issue.

Enjoy!