hi

How cut is this bow? I tore some fabric I had into a long narrow strip to make it. The papers are either from October Afternoon's Thrift Shop or October Afternoon's Fly a Kite. I get them so confused, similar colors and awesomeness and all. The "Hi" is thickers letter stickers. REALLY simple card, but cute too.

In the sky

I recently got the hot air balloon set from Papertrey. I love hot air balloons and my mom loves them too, so I figure she might want a set of cards.

This first one weighs a TON so I won't make a set of these, can you imagine having your whole set cost like $2.50 to mail each! haha. But it's fun for a one off! The balloon is shiny with crystal effects, so that's fun. Next is playing with the cloud stamp. For this one I stamped in white ink and embossed with white powder. The stamp is sorta scratchy looking, not totally solid. So of course the clouds are not totally solid. I'm not totally thrilled with the effect, but they stamp ok.

Then I tried it with the clouds stamped in white but no embossing. that's not bad either and was faster of course. I hand cute the clouds for the rainbow, but I did order the cloud die last night so I'm excited about that. I use clouds a lot so I figure it's a pretty good investment. I'm going get some white felt to make a whole whopping stack of clouds with.

And on this one I didn't really do a sky at all, just used the solid images to make a really quick card. I kinda like it too!

In Other News:

If you are a STamp Shack girl watch out. I finally cleaned out the WHOLE stinking craft room. I gave stuff like papers I don't care for and half sheets of stickers to the kid but all the stuff I think might sell is stacked up and I will sell on SS probably starting tomorrow! It's a TON of stuff. You are going to think I'm quitting stamping or something with this much stuff for sale. Really I'm just decluttering in a major way. It's more than half of my stamps though! a ton.

Baby seems to be doing great. No name yet, but that's ok I rekon. (actually it drives me nuts and I want to shake Brian and force him to pick a name, but he thinks it's no big deal.) Baby moves pretty often which I love. I get tired way too easily which makes me feel lazy. I also tend to black out/get faint spells and that's been pretty bad this week. Not really bad like I'm falling out all over town, just a pain. I totally blame the heat. It's CRAZY hot and humid here. Even my POOL is hot, over 90degrees! Like taking a huge bath!

I guess that's it for now, I made a TON of cards yesterday so stop back tomorrow, there should be a new post!

Cool off with Paper Garden Projects.

Its another 4th Friday - so time for another challenge!

This month, we want to see projects that make us feel cooler. Whether that is cool colors (like blue and green), or cool images (like swimming, ice cream or even snowmen). Anything you think is cool goes.

For my project I made a small hostess gift you could bring to a summer party.

A spray bottle is the keeping cool part. Then a jar of candy and a sweet card. All packed inside a strawberry basket. I used papers from the October Afternoon Fly A Kite paper pack. These papers just make me think of picnics!
If you want to take the challange go make your "cool" card. Remember it can be a cool theme, like water or a cool thing, like a spray bottle or even cool colors! Just have fun and keep it cool.

After you make your project and upload it to the internet go The Paper Garden Projects Blog and use the little link thing to enter. You can win this adorable Kraftin Kimmie stamp:

In case you were wondering...

The baby is a BOY!

I mean definately, even I could tell and I kept thinking the baby's butt was his head! (I stink at reading those ultrasounds).

I'm excited. I did think it was a girl so that was kinda shocking to me. I don't know why I thought that. Apparently Brian only makes boys. It was funny, when we came out Stephen was dancing and saying "Boy boy, three boys!" So everyone in the waiting room knew. Brian got high fives from some of the dads. But poor Brian wanted a girl.

Luckily for Brian they did all the healthy stuff first and I saw him fall in love with the baby. I mean I literally saw it happen, he was talking to it by the end and just in love. So when she said it was a boy he didn't really care, he already loved him.

Ethan is bummed. He cried! I don't know why he wants a girl so much, but he did. :( I'm totally ok besides not having a name picked out.

The name problem is that we have a few pretty good ones. But Brian loves his favorite, and I don't like it at all, and I love my two favorites but Brian doesn't care for them. We have no name we agree on. I'd say we are both liking Lincoln, but it's the second choice for both of us. It's weird, in the past we were SURE of the names.

Someone please have a girl and name her Lily. I'll buy your little girl cute dresses if you do!

new art!

If you don't read my family blog, you might want to read THIS POST. It's about me nesting/redecorating. I'm having a blast. I think the family is in shock, I keep changing things. Brian is thrilled though because I'm also a cleaning FOOL right now.

Anyhow I bring it up because I made a new art for the room.

How cute is it? Sorry the colors are a bit too dull, we are about to get our daily thunder storm, so it's very cloudy in there. (well not IN the room, we have a roof and all, I mean the light is cloudy.)

I got the template and directions on Skip to my Lou HERE. It's designed by a guest blogger over there named Larissa. It was super easy. It does use a TON of pop dots.

Celebrate. Twice

I made two careds with my new Scarlet Lime kit and made them both into "celebrate" cards.

Similar colors, very simple cards. easy goes to peasy!

Paper Garden Projects Summer Stroll Garden Walk.

Welcome to the Paper Garden Projects Summer Stroll Garden Walk
Take a stroll through the blogs of the Paper Gardeners and enjoy some friendly inspiration. This month we are focusing on some big summer fun.

While you visit, subscribe to each Gardener's blog and take note of each designer's name and their special summery garden walk word in their blog post. Once you finish your garden tour, send an E-mail to custserv@papergardenprojects.com with the list of designers and their garden walk word.

Everyone who sends the correct list of designers and words will be entered in a random drawing to win a prize. You need to send an e-mail to the address above; please don't leave your list as a comment. You have until midnight (EST) on Tuesday, June 22 to send your list.

And the prize? How about this fun summer unmounted stamp set from Kraftin Kimmie - Mae (love that hat!).

So enjoy the garden tour (don't forget your sunscreen). Here is the garden tour guide list:

•Cathy
•Amber
•Tangii
•Erin You are HERE!
•Andrea
•Alyssa

So on to my project! I made this card using some stinking ADORABLE Beach Bum Summer Penguin stamps. I can barely handle the cuteness of these penguins enjoying a vacation away from their southern frozen climate. I also used the Cover-a-Card Bubbles Background stamp on this card. I stamped it just one time on a scrap of turquoise paper for the card. I then used a craft knife to cut it in waves and just overlapped them until I was happy for the bottom portion of the card. The cover-a-card line of stamps are HUGE by the way. 5.75" square, so any of them can be used vertically or horizontally on a card. Didn't really matter so much with this bubble one, but GREAT for other designs. Love it! I did my coloring with watecolor pencils. I hope you are enjoying him.

If you are doing the blog hop you might be looking for my special word? My word is picnic. Best of luck to you!

kwernerdesign case

So you may know I'm a huge Kristina Werner fan. When I saw today's Finally Friday post I got up RIGHT AWAY to make a similar card.
I don't have any black glossy paper with white flowers on it. I tried to make some with white glossy paper and embossing and inking with black, I made a huge mess. So I went in my scraps files. At some point I had stamped this flower over and over on black cardstock with white ink. I decided to use it! See the corner of the Thank You part, where it's sticking up a bit? I fixed that. I'm sure you were very worried. *wink*

I don't too often so clearly CASE stuff. I try to take elements or ideas from things, but this is VERY similar, even same colors. Of course I'm glad I did because I LOVE the original. Oh I want to say that my gray is the SAME gray she used, she's just a way better photographer than I am. I mean she's a way better cardmaker too, but THAT issue is photography, not ability to pick up dark gray paper.

So just for fun:
I went though aLL my stuf lately. A few weeks ago and again today. I first got out some of those huge zip lock bags. I filled up SIX of them with embelishments, papers, stickers and so on. I labeled each one with one of my kid's names. Well it's been the BEST. They make "cards" all day long every day if I let them. Of course they have good stuff, great stuff even. It's just stuff I was tired of or knew I'd never get around to using. But GOOD stuff. Oddly they get the most excited about letter stickers. STephen is starting to read and he likes to use them to label his art. VERY cute. Ethan uses them randomly. I have a stack of stuff for Brian for Father's day, Stephen SOLD an art piece to Roniece for a whole DOLLAR the other day! I think next week I'll do a post with all their art so far, some of it is pretty cool, all of it is CRAZY creative. Stephen even figured out how to make a pop up table on a card. haha, Ethie just brought me a "card" which he literally stuck hundreds of stickers on. I can't really tell what's going on, but he tells me it's a Dinosaur Eating the City. I can see the dinosaur and the city,I guess the rest is wreckage? hahah.

Check back tomorrow for my Garden Walk blog hop. I have a fun card for ya!

LIfe is better

Today I have a super simple CAS card for you. I had been eyeing this "life" set by Papertrey for months and finally purchased it last month. Pretty much to make cards like this one. A few colors of ink, rounded corners, nice cardstock. done and done.

Martha Stewart Doilies

So there are these little paper tag thingies, they look like mini white doilies by Martha Stewart right now. They are the hotness for creating your own embelishemnts. Like a good little crafter I had to jump on board! For the pink one I inked it up with pink ink, then covered it with glitter embossing powder, did the same with the little white prima. Otherwise this is a very simple card. You can't see it on my photo but the black piece is embossed with Papertrey's woodgrain embossing die.

Both of the above I just inked them in black then used this yummy red to make paper flowers. I used one of those HOT buttons I got on Etsy a few weeks back on one of them. Delightful.

Looks like I got fancy on this one but it ws super simple. Inked the doilie brown, added premade flower. I did stamp the background paper with a Cornish Heritage Farms background stamp. Easy goes to peasy.

I really do like working with these. they fancy things up very easily. I think they work with my generally CAS style too. I've seen them on VERY fancy cards and they look good there too.

Purse Card and camera woes

Did you ever make a card you just can't get a good picture of? That is the case with this purse card. I'm going to include all three of my stinky shots. I can't reshoot because Brian it out of town again and he took the camera.

The thing is that the card is not nearly this washed out looking in real life.

Anyhow it's the next card from my working my way though Go To Sketches bookazine. I'm still enjoying that challange. Shaped cards are HARD for me. The next one is a pocket! Jeepers!

I used papers from the October Afternoon Thrift Shop collection and the stamp is from Penny Black's Salutations stamp set.

I rearranged some of my craft room yesterday. Just minor stuff. I have this strong itch to rearrange my whole house. Welcome nesting! I want to put my TV in the corner, get a second couch and arrange it on the current TV wall. I did move my kid's furniture all around on them. I just can't seem to stop! We are having a kid from church come paint my bedroom this weekend so that should fill up some of my nesting need.

Sweet Kids

I know I personally have the sweetest kids. At 5 and 4 they are actually helpful, they let me sleep late, they are fun. I love them to pieces.

So when I saw the Sweet Kids stamp set at Paper Garden Projects I knew it was for me.

For both cards I kept it soft by using watercolor pencils on the kids. I wanted to have them be soft and dreamy. I stamped them in brown ink for the same reason. I love the sayings on this stamp set, so vintage!

Winner!

Ok yall Sorry it's been a few days, I have some throat thing. coughing a lot and so on.

Anyhow the winner of the emmerson set is:



christy b., that's me! said...
Your cards are great, but a stamp with an Emerson quote on it...C'mon, that's like eating icing from the container when no one is around. :o)

Friday, 28 May, 2010

Christy B please email me your info to serinone@yahoo.com and I will get your goodies right out to you!

There will be more giveaways in the next few weeks so stay tuned.

Fourth Friday Challange Start to finish

So this week is the Fourth Friday Challange with the Paper Garden Projects Blog. Click HERE to enter the challange and see all the deets. Basicly make a girly card, upload it, use the frog likn on that post I gave you and whammo you are entered to win a super duper cute stamp!

On to my project! The first step for me is usually flipping through my idea book or magazines and getting an inspiration. It could be a sketch or colors or just an idea. The paper pieced girl with the umbrella here is my inspiration. I liked the colors on kraft and the paper piecing. Then I pull some products for the card. Kraft cardstock, fun print paper and a cute girl stamp. I know I'll need these scissors too!

Stamp the girl a few times on print papers. I figured I'd need all three prints to really dress her the way I wanted to. Then the one on the cream is for the parts of her I will color.

Color the girl and arrange the paper piecing. It's not glued down yet, I'm checking to make sure I like it. I also drew in a grass line and sponged in clouds.

This next step is the longest for me. If I have a sketch it's easy I just use the sketch. If I don't like this card I put my stuff I want to use in a little pile and stare at it for a while.

Got some more stuff out and stared at it some more.

Stamped a sentiment. More staring. (Did really dig that sentiment with this girl though.)

Then whipped it up into a card. Here is another close up of the piecing. I really like it. I want this dress.

Here is a cute little button accent I made for it.

And here is the finished card. Ta-DA!!!

Ok here's all what I used:

Darling Sisters set by Greeting Farm

Sweet Kids set by Crafty Secrets

Kraft Cardstock

Thrift Shop Print paper by October Afternoon *Which is on sale 20% off this very moment!

Everything else is random stuff I found in my stash. :)

Ok Don't forget to go enter the giveaway contest. We all love to make frilly girly cards so it's EASY. The prize is THIS super cute stamp. Hey! I want that stamp! Can I enter? haha kidding

PS, the winner for my stamp set giveaway will be tomorrow, I forgot that I'd want to keep this post on top all day and not put the stamp set thing on there too. So it will be one more day, and I'll add a treat to the package for the winner!

Black and white floral and FREE STAMPS

Isn't this card cute? I really love this black on white polkadot paper. I've had it for years, I bought like 10 sheets. I'm down to just the smallest scraps now. It's by Making Memories, has some weird red and pink flowers on the other side. The card is super simple. Just some Papertrey flowers peeking in and a sentiment, bit of ribbon and a border punch. Easy goes to Peasy. You know what else is Easy Goes to Peasy? Winning free stamps from me. Over the next month or so I'm going to be randomly giving away some stamps and sets. I did a clean out of my stamp room. Some stuff I sold. Some I'm going to just give away. Roniece got a pile last night.

Today I'm giving away this cute little Stampin' Up! set. (not the just perfect alpha, I thought I was doing that then realized Roniece took it last night! opps!) The little quote stamp on this says, "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson" There is a super cool silhouette flower, a negative image bird and a butterfly attacking a flower. There is almost no evidence of use on these stamps. I think I used them once. They might be from hostess rewards? I'm not sure. Anyhow one of the commentors on this post will be getting this in the mail. Anywhere in the world. I'll pick the winner sometime tomorrow.

Wishing

This card I made with one of the Papertrey Year in Flowers sets. I really really like flowers. It's a funny thing because I read online that there are so many flower sets and no one should make anymore, but whenever I get really excited about a set it's usually flowers! The flower stamps on this set are HUGE. Love it. I've also been digging this turquoise and brown color scheme. And lightly stamping an image then stamping the greeting over it.

Watch the blog if you like free stamps. That's all I have to say about that. Oh wait, especially if you like free Stampin' Up stamps. THAT'S all I have to say about that.

Hello card

This is another Go To Sketches card, I like how this turned out. The flower tag thing is actually the product tag from the Liberty of London basket thing I got (seen in the background of this photo). I colored the flower with copice and white embossed the "hello" on it. Easy goes to peasy. Also I don't think I've shared these yet. I got the most amazing embelishments from My Button Boutique Etsy store:

They are hadmade flatback "buttons". I mean for embelishment there is not a way to sew them to a sweater or anything. But perfect for papercrafters! I used one on a scrapbook page for Stephen's school, but it was kinda silly, I pretty much just let Stephen use it.

I don't know if you recognize any, but she uses print papers to make them, they are covered or laminated with some thin plastic too so they are not frail like a paper button. I totally love them. I bought the bulk supply in multi and black/white. She shipped super quick too! I love getting stuff on Etsy. Gives me warm fuzzies. :)

Tomorrow is Stephen's last day of VPK. he says it doesn't really count either because it's a party all day. I'm so excited because I've been having to wake him up every day, which means he will most likely sleep a bit later. So I'll get to sleep in. I lately look forward to sleep like other folks look forward to trips to Disney World. I feel totally fine now in the pregnancy, except TIRED. The school was great, he learned tons and had a super fun time with friends, but he's looking forward to summer and then Kindergarden.

stinking shaped cards

Ok I'm kidding. Sorta... I don't love shaped cards. I SEE them and they rock but it's like any skill I have leaves me when there is a shape other than square/rectangle. So here are some of the shaped sketches from Go To Sketches: Went way simple on this "hello" card. I have lusty feelings about these felt letter stickers by the way.

I couldn't do it with the moon. Then I saw one of the samples put the shape ON a normal card! (theirs was clear and cooler than mine, but let's leave that be) I actually love this card in the end.

And the Star Card. It took me WEEKS to get past this sketch. I don't love it. It's super duper simple. But I don't know what else to do with a shape like this. So here it is. I dedicate it to just getting by. haha.

In Other News:

I went to the Dr the other day. My Dr's office is a practice and when you are pregnant they encourage you to see everyone because who knows who will be on call and avaliable to deliver when it's time. I have three favorite Dr's there. I love them all but these three are like family. This week I saw one of them Dr Slade. She was totally agast that I went through so much trouble. She was astounded that no one gave me medicine for all that throwing up. She said if it comes back at all call her and she will get me fixed up. She did give me meds for the terrible headaches. And I took some. And it worked. But it makes me really high feeling. So I'm definately using it sparingly, but it's good to have. The baby sounded great. It was an appointment where we just heard the heartbeat.

June 24th we should find out the gender of the baby. I think it's a girl. I don't know why. I'm good with whatever though. :)

fill this day

So, funny thing about this card. It opens on the left side! I happily designed it, with the scallop thing on one end, based on a sketch from Go To Sketches. Loved the funky huge flower and the fun handmade button. Loved the BRIGHT reds on the black and white. I was thrilled with it.

Then I realized it opened wrong.It was the scallop edge that messed me up. It's on the sketch. I have never put a scallop edge on the fold edge so I just made that an open edge. I still really like the card, but it's super weird. haha.

New-ish Papertrey

I got a new to me Papertrey order for my birthday a few weeks ago. I know there is another new release after that but this stuff is still new to me! :) Super simple masculine card. The dot is from that set you could earn by buying enough over the previous year. The whole set is pretty cute but I LOVE this dot row. :) The other stuff is from a set called masculine motifs I think. I have SUCH a hard time with masculine cards, I hope this helps.

The woodgrain here is not papertrey, they have some fine looking woodgrain stamps, but this is my Hero Arts one that I'm in LOVE with. The dahlia and sentiments are papertrey though. I really like this turquoise/brown combo. :)

In Other News:

In about an hour I go to the Dr for a baby checkup. Oh this will come as a SHOCK to those who know us well but if the baby is a girl we think we may not name her Megan, we have been feeling like she's a Lily! And that doesn't end in an "n" so we think we will do Lilyann, pronounced "Lily Ann" not "Lily En". I've even been calling the baby in the tummy "the LilyBean" I don't know what brought all this on. Just in the past few weeks. I don't even know yet if it's a girl. If it's a boy we promise NOT to name him Lily ok? haha. I mostly feel fine, I get headaches and I get dizzy/black out pretty easy. It was super hot in Sacrament meeting at church yesterday and I blacked out. Gross. But mostly I'm good.

My hair is still weird. I tried to bleach it lighter with some medium gold blonde, but it turned DARKER. Way darker. So weird. I'm leaving it now though, enough's enough.