Sweet Peas

I received this beautiful Sweet Pea Flowers digi by priscillastyles as part of my prize from MMSC 133/134, and I just had to use it for their February Sketch Challenge. I have a special place in my heart for sweet peas; several wonderful people have given me that nickname, including the woman I plan to send this to (the mother of a friend; my friend is "Sweet Pea" and I'm "Sweet Pea #2"!).

Inspiration/Challenges:
Midnight Madness Challenge #193: February Sketches
Paper Pretties Challenge #193: Unique Fold
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop February Challenge #7: Anything goes...with ribbon
Simon Says Stamp and Show: Anything Goes (+ Vintage)

The image on the right shows the card closed with a tiny clothespin; here it is opened:

I chose these gorgeous papers (two double-sided sheets) from My Mind's Eye's Lost & Found series, and distressed all the pieces with Antique Linen distress ink. I cut all the pieces with a Spellbinders die in my Big Shot...it worked out okay, but I'm not going to try to emboss/cut a stack of embossed glitter paper again! It left a cool texture tho! But I still have glitter on my embossing pads...!

The first image is printed on vellum; the second image is printed on Hammermill, and I made it into a Notch Swing Card element. The concept is simple: secure a piece of paper slightly larger than the cut-out space by cutting small slits, or notches, in both.

And another view:

And the back:

My favorite part of this card is the little bag on the inside (see close-up on right). I've been saving this Seed Packet image from Beyond the Fringe Crafts ever since it was posted way back in August (as I said, I really like sweet peas!). I fashioned the bag from a small envelope; I used deckle scissors for the top and distress it all with Antique Linen distress ink. I printed the image (reversed, at Best settings) onto acetate, and then transferred it onto the envelope/bag. If you've never tried it, check out my tutorial.

I added a little color to the image with Copics, which I used for the rest of my coloring as well. I'm very pleased with this card; now to just remember to put it in the mail!

Have a beautiful day.


Update: I was the bonus winner for Midnight Madness Challenge #193! Whoop!

Dude Time Doodles Challenge reminder and freebie

I haven't participated in the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge for quite a while, and found the perfect reason when I saw "Kris Jingle" being offered for FREE on the Dude Time Doodles blog! It's only available for a limited time, and I'm looking forward to seeing people use it for our current challenge DTD Challenge, "Show Us Your December Holiday Spirit". And while you're at it, why not Bling It On for the December Pile It On challenge‽

Update: This won the random prize for Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 133/134! Thanks Priscilla, you rock!

Punch-flowers and a Pretty Girl

Stitchy Bear is having a month-long contest in August for cards to feature in their ad for the October issue of PaperCraft Essentials magazine. Looks really fun, so mark your calendars!

Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps Online Shop is such a great resource for many different brands of digi stamps. One of my favorites, Gillu's Gallery, is now selling there too. They have a challenge blog, One Stitch at a Time, and their current challenge is Flowers. Perfect opportunity to use the Pretty Girl digi from Gillu's Gallery, as well as to try my hand at a paper-punch flower technique I saw in PaperCraft Inspirations magazine (Jan. 2011).

I tried my hand at a paper-punch flower technique I saw in PaperCraft Inspirations magazine (Jan. 2011), and I'm really happy with the result. I didn't glue myself to it once! For the middles, I made some tiny buttons from shrink plastic (see my previous post), colored them black, and sewed them on.

I used the current Midnight Madness Sketch, but I chose the color combo myself. Everything's colored and/or edged with Copics, including the paper I used for the punch flowers.

I'm entering this card into Aud Sentiments Challenge #33: "Enjoy Your Day", thanks to this lovely sentiment by Marion.

Inspiration:
One Stitch at a Time Challenge #77: Flowers
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #113
Aud Sentiments Challenge #33: "Enjoy Your Day"

Stamps: Pretty Girl by Gillu's Gallery, For all Mothers set by SP & Company, Happiness Ticket by When the Scrap Hits the Fun
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections, Core'dinations, shrink plastic from stash
Tools: InDesign, HP printer & ink, needle, awl, Fiskars papercutter, Recollections punches, Crop-O-Dile, Tim Holtz paper distresser & scissors, EK Success corner punch
Other: ZipDry glue, bakers twin, stash ribbon (Thanks Sandra!), Copic markers

Update 6/25/11: This card made the top 3 at OSAAT!

Spider-Mouse, Spider-Mouse, Does whatever he wants in your house

As I was flipping through one of my husband's awesome graphic novels this morning, I started thinking about how some of the newer ones are colored. It looks like Copics are used, but the shadows aren't blended over, so there's a real line to the rich color. Thinking I should try this, I Googled "superhero digi stamps" and found this adorable SpiderMan mouse (Spider Henry by Alison Acton for Whiff of Joy). It was super-fun to color, and I can't believe it's a freebie!
This is a Happy Weekend card for my husband, and I hope it will make him smile more than grimace. See, we live with super-mice. It's an old house and apparently if you can slide a piece of paper under it, a mice can waltz through it. I'm about ready to put up an altar to Hunca Munca. So, the thought of a mouse that has spider-powers is actually fairly chilling. But it's so cute as a card. Maybe it's swinging down to grab the cheese off the traps...

This is also my take on Midnight Madness Sketch #87. I know they get a kick out of my creations, and hope they will forgive my using rubber stamps for the background and sentiment. They just worked so perfectly with this digi stamp, even if they are so last century!


Supplies: Spider Henry digi stamp from Whiff of Joy, Beatrix Potter rubber stamps from Crafter's Companion, Memento & StazOn inks, Recollections and Core'dinations cardstocks, emery board, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL software, Offray ribbon, Stickles, stash brad, ZipDry glue, MS scissors, Fiskars papercutter and deckle scissors, Copic Ciao markers

Silly Gooses

Today is Lazy Sunday and our whole family's been in a silly mood. Well, maybe not the iguana, but certainly the dogs and humans. It's in this spirit that I embarked on this week's Crafty Ann's and Midnight Madness challenges, which led to this, the Happy Days/Sit On It Notebook Gift Card.

The challenge at Crafty Ann's is to bring in the new, but don't throw out the old. For the "new," I started with an Easy Chair digi stamp I bought for Thank-yous from Crafty Ann (which is how I came across her challenge blog.) Doesn't it just have so many possibilities? And it was only 60p! I also decided to make a little notebook (the sketch calls for a tag) so that I could try my new Bind-It-All. I didn't have the right kind of binding material, so I used the machine as a nice hole punch and bound the notebook with ribbon. I glued in ribbons on top to serve as a closure.

For the "old" part, I returned to what got me started in cardmaking, my Cricut and SCAL. I love, love importing images into SCAL and then "printing" and cutting them with the Cricut. I haven't been doing that a lot recently, but part of my New Year's resolution is to return to some of my older projects and really find my "voice" for my cards. Now, those of you who know me might be saying, O seriously, how could you possibly be more You? And those who know me best might say, Don't you say that every year? Why yes, you silly gooses. That's so not the point! Anyhoo, using Cricut markers I was able to "print" the digi and text. I usually stick to simple fonts for this, but this fancy script came out pretty well.


I adhered the notebook to the card with Velcro, and fastened the ribbon tie for the pencil with a brad for extra strength. The photos didn't come out great, but the paper is edged with Copic markers, which I also used to color the chairs. I used my blue gel pen for the text and the faux stitching on the large ribbon.

Inspiration:
Crafty Ann's Challenge #32: Ring in the new but don't ring out the old!
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #86

Digi stamp: Easy Chair by Crafty Ann

Supplies: The Paper Company cardstocks, Offray ribbon, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL software, stash brad, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, Copic Ciao markers, Sakura Gelly Roll pen, Velcro

Right Here with You

I was very moved by this recent wordart freebie at Create with TLC: "You're not alone; I'm right here with you." So when I needed a sentiment for my card for this week's Midnight Madness Sketch I had the perfect one. Just by chance I'd chosen another lovely TLC Creations freebie as the digi stamp.

In case you're not aware, the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge blog is maintained by the same team that does the Crafters' Digital Art Center (CDAC). Coincidentally, the image I used for this card was given as a freebie in celebration of CDAC's reaching 240 members by TLC Creations, who I first learned of through CDAC.

I love using these woodcut-like images to practice with my copic markers, as the shading decisions have pretty much been made for me. I'm learning, slowly but surely. I'm still nervous about backgrounds, so I cheated a bit and added a blue-tint gradient to the image in InDesign before printing it. It's not very apparent (especially since I shadowed everything with a light Copic marker), but does make a difference.

I wasn't sure about using actual buttons as suggested in the sketch, until I saw this that this week's Delightful Challenge is Buttons. Challenge delightfully accepted! Sewing on the buttons didn't take too long and I love the look, so I will try this again (when I can find the bag of craft buttons that's somewhere in this house.) I shaded the horizontal strips with red ink and then "aged" the frame elements with an emery board and distress inks, which was more work than one would think...I need to find a better sanding method. I added some berry bling with glitter glue around the button brad.

While I was making this card, it started to snow. Such a peaceful scene, inside and out! Digi stamp: Picking Berries Vintage by TLC Creations
Wordart: You're Not Alone by TLC Creations

Inspiration:
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #85
Delightful Challenge: Buttons

Supplies: Recollections & Core'dinations cardstocks, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Fiskars papercutter and scalloped scissors, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors & Distress ink (Fired Brick, Antique Linen & Mustard Seed), Stickles (Xmas Red, Cinnamon & Candy Cane), Metallic red Sakura Gelly Roll pen, emery board, button brad from Oriental Trading Co., Michaels variegated craft cord & needle, Copic Ciao B color set

Christmastide Midnight Madness

I was in Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday when I first saw the Priscilla Styles Midnight Madness December 2010 Sketches; since there were six sketches in total, I felt like a wanted to make a set of something. We were staying at a hotel, so I sat out on a little patio above the pool, watching family dynamics and letting my imagination go. I'd been thinking of making a "Twelve Days of Christmas" series, but didn't want to embark on such a project without a firm idea. But I started thinking...I have that pretty tree stamp, with the bird that I could pop out...a cow stamp...a pair of swans... and next thing I knew I was home in Baltimore, making a series of 12 cards based on December's MMSC sketches with physical and digi stamps I owned or could Google easily. So much fun!

I made a wall hanging of them and they look pretty nifty as a set. To all my friends at and in the community over at Priscilla Styles, happy holidays and thank you for the support and inspiration!

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1 Partridge in a Pear Tree
[Son of G—]:
Tree stamp from Inkadinkado
Pear cut file by My Cricut Scrapbooking

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2 Turtle Doves
[Old & New Testaments of the Bible]:
Turtle digi stamp by Therese Travis
Dove cutting file by SvgCuts

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3 French Hens
[Faith, Hope & Charity]:
3 Women rubber stamp from Stampin' Up!

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4 Calling Birds
[the four Gospels of the Bible]:
silicon Christmas Carolers stamp

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5 Golden Rings
[first five books of the Old Testament]:
Silicon circle stamp, MeltArt embossing powder, Marvy heat tool
Incire Ornament cut file by CPeep

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6 Geese A-laying
[six days of Creation]:
Eggs by My Cricut Scrapbooking
Geese coloring page by Greattattoo

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7 Swans A-swimming
[the seven gifts of The Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge, wonder & awe, reverence]:
For the Two of You rubber stamp from Stampin' Up!
Marvy snow marker & heat tool

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8 Maids A-milking
[the eight blessings (beatitudes) contained in the Sermon on the Mount]:
Russian Dolls rubber stamp by Hero Arts (LP158)

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9 Ladies Dancing
[nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control]:
Dancer Silhouette cutting file by My Cricut Scrapbooking

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10 Lords A-leaping
[Ten Commandments]:
Tree Frog rubber stamp

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11 Pipers Piping
[the eleven faithful apostles]:
Kokopelli image by canadianbent13

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12 Drummers Drumming
[twelve points of the Apostles' Creed]:
Drummer Man Vintage by TLC Creations
















Inspiration: Priscilla Styles Midnight Madness December 2010 Sketches (Fancy and CAS)

Such Classic Girls

Here's a little sneak-peek at the new digis from Paperfaces Designs. Don't forget to follow Therese's blog, as she'll be putting out a call for a design team and offering challenges soon.

Inspiration: Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #80
Digi stamp: Hats Trio by Therese Travis for paperfacesdesign
Supplies: Stemma by Masterpiece Studios paper, Recollections cardstock, brads & pop-dots, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign & PhotoShop, Elmer's, Marvy & Sakura pens, Offray ribbon, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz scissors, Fiskars papercutter, AnAkronism typeface by Nick Curtis
Sentiment inspired by "Classic Girl", Jane's Addiction

MADNESS I tells ya!

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful, heartfelt response to my post for last week's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. For once, I'm really without words. So, here's a super-fun card for this week's challenge!
And I used Color Throwdown Challenge #118 as well, because I love to make them smile too. And O! how I do love their combos.
I wanted to use the digi stamp of our iguana Percy again, so I paired it with a favorite poem, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (our iguana's namesake). Using an iguana as a kind of metaphor works well with the poem's message, and I've done it many times before with very different projects. "Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

The colors are soft suede, cherry cobbler, and kraft. I chose to use the deep red for the text, which makes it more artsy than readable, but that's okay. I colored the image with pastels (that have been sitting in the attic for, my goodness, at least a decade) and Q-tips. I created the "soft suede" background with antiquing mist, on the same paper as the card itself. I ran the vellum text pieces through my sticker machine to give them complete adhesive coverage, and it really worked great! I really like how the iguana overlaps the text boxes but also shows through them. This was so much fun, I hope he likes it!

Inspiration: Color Throwdown Challenge #118 and MMSC79
Digi stamp: Iguana by Therese Travis for paperfacesdesign
Poem text: "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Supplies: Tsukineko walnut ink antiquing solution (Eucalyptus), Staples cardstock, Recollections vellum, Grumbacher pastels, InDesign, Tim Holtz scissors, ZipDry glue, Xyron sticker machine, Fiskars papercutter and embossing punch, Adobe Garamond typeface

Green

Don't get me wrong, I must have a certain amount of confidence to enter—what is it now?—seven challenges a week, but sometimes the enormity of the talent out there weighs on me. You know how it is: You're standing in the kitchen with your glasses fogging up from the heat of the embossing gun and you think to yourself, Perhaps I should leave this to the professionals. But then you suck on your fingers and remember how good it feels to sound your barbaric yawp over the blogs of the world...
The Midnight Madness Sketch Challenges by priscillastyles especially make me feel like this, which is in fact a compliment. So many talented people inspiring so many talented people! But I find myself entering their challenge week after week, I guess because of that yawp thing I mentioned earlier (original quote from Walt Whitman.) I still feel very green and creatively raw when it comes to cardmaking, but challenges like these help me develop my skills and keep me happily occupied. Thanks to all who've peeked at my cards! and especially thanks for commenting.
Anyhoo, I had lots of fun with this week's sketch:

I've really taken to coloring stamps on vellum, because it's a bit easier to keep within the lines and the end result really pops. I read about this technique somewhere in the blogosphere, where you color on the back of stamped vellum. I also broke out my brand new mist, and I'm hooked. I used painter's tape to mask the main stamp and spray on the mist background. It worked so well I couldn't believe it.
I choose a green/brown color palette because I'm in a flowery mood but can't separate myself from the autumn tapping on my window.

Inspiration: Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #78
Stamps: Russian Dolls & Flower Circle Border by Hero Arts; silicon stamp by gstudio

Supplies: Tsukineko walnut ink antiquing solution (Eucalyptus); Recollections cardstock & vellum, StazOn brown ink, Marvy & American Craft paint pens, Copic markers E33 & E35, Tim Holtz scissors, Fiskars papercutter, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software