Valentine's Graffiti

I had so much fun making my funny Valentine with this week's Dude Time Doodles FREEBIE (join the challenge for your chance to be Guest Designer!), that I wanted to follow my heart and make another, ha ha.

I've been itching to use one of the neato wooden picket fences I got in a swap, so I decided to pair it with this cute Penny Back stamp. I stamped the image with black StazOn and then cut it out with a cut beautiful Spellbinder's die in my Big Shot (LOVE that machine!). I colored the frame & background with watercolor crayons, but I used watercolor pencils for the image itself. Using double-sided tape, I added some flair to the top with pink tulle. I adhered the image to the base with double pop-foam.

I painted the wooden fence with brown acrylic paint, sanded it a bit, and heat-embossed some hearts in red. Before embossing it, I sprayed the piece with matte coating, which has the added effect of repelling the stray embossing powder. I tied a small charm on it before gluing it down.

I was inspired by the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday #189

Penny Black @ Allsorts January Challenge: Love & Hearts

Red and White / Blue Suede Shoes

I simply can't pass up a Stampin' Dymonz challenge, and the 4th of July Explosion Box challenge was no exception. I had so much fun making it, and making it my own, that I totally blew the deadline even though she gave us an extra week! I'm happy that I get to share it with all of you, though, and I'm also entering into this week's Allsorts Challenge.
Here's Dymonz's Explosion Box recipe:

• Box must be red, white, and blue.
• There must be an "explosion" inside the box of some sort in addition to the box itself exploding.
• There must be plenty of red, white and blue flowers and ribbon throughout.
• You must use the pictures you took (or found online) of this year's 4th of July festivities.

When I saw the 4th of July Fireworks coloring page at Made by Joel, I knew I just had to heat-emboss it for this project. I know it's not what was intended, but I hope Joel will understand. I printed it on Recollections Metallic paper; for this type of paper, I find that printing at "best quality" for "plain paper" works best. I used a combination of gold, silver & copper embossing powders.
I love how neat and tidy the box looks. And then it explodes: Before I even cut the box pieces, I decided that I wanted to use some of these wrapped-wire embellishments. I figured I could walk into WalMart and grab something USA-themed, but let me tell you my wonderful & patient husband walked many an aisle in various stores until I finally smartened up and we just stopped by Party City. Honestly, America, don't we buy cheap useless patriotic decorations anymore?!
The ribbon "explodes" from the sides as well, on two different layers.
Here are the mats for the photos: The background paper is something I've had in my stash forever, and the star stamps are heat-embossed. I made the flowers, which took me significantly longer than any other part of this project. I made my own paper flowers, inspired by Dr Sonia's Circle Flower & Punched Flower tutorials. Hmm, I think it might be easier with thinner paper? I ended up making some final flowers by just swishing up small punched circles. They're actually my favorites! I made a mix of blue, white & red daisies (thank you Mother Nature for making anything possible!), and added golden centers with Stickles glitter glue. I carefully followed all of the directions except for the last one, because I want to use photos from last year's 4th. I have lots of great photos that I haven't scrapped yet, and, well, this year the most exciting thing we did was bathe Percy, and I'll make a special book for that. Here's a peek: Have a wonderful day!

Thinking of blossoms...

One of my favorite parts of living in Baltimore is the brief and beautiful flowering of the trees. Neighboring D.C. is famous for their Cherry Blossoms, but Baltimore puts on its own show...my favorite part is the "Spring Snow," when the blossoms drop and the streets are filled with pink, peach, and white petals.

With Spring just around the corner, this seems the time to practice with my new Cherry Blossom Branch stamp. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect color combo for inspiration than this week's Color Throwdown Challenge: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip. I pulled out my chalk inks and carefully inked on the separate colors; I found that a makeup sponge works great for applying ink in small areas. Happily, I've seen blossoms exactly these colors. Our neighbor has an bright-orange-flowering tree that's simply breathtaking. Can't wait!

Although it was very difficult to keep it simple, Allsorts' Handmade Flowers challenge inspired me to add a little paper blossom on the front. Coincidentally, I have a bag of different-sized tiny flowers and leaves that I designed and cut with SCAL and Cricut last year and never used. I worked the paper with an emery board, and sewed the blossom and leaf to the backing paper, including a orange seed bead for the center.

I had so much fun sewing the front panel with my machine, that I added some stitching to the message portion inside. Also for the inside, I found a complementary branch stamp and stamped it several times in the same soft brown I used for the branches on the front image.
Inspiration:
Color Throwdown #130
Allsorts Challenge #92: Make your own flowers

Supplies: Hammermill, DCWV and Core'dinations cardstocks, emery board, Cricut & SCAL, ColorBox and Martha Stewart chalk inks, Cherry Blossom Branch stamp from Inkadinkado Asian by Design set, branch stamp from K&Co. Amy Butler Lotus Floral set, sentiment stamp by gstudio, stash plastic bead, sewing machine and thread

...Flock together

I've really been having fun with my Bluebird stamp, and it's actually made me really long for Spring. Especially today, which is gray with the threat promise of snow.
I went to nature for color inspiration, and decided to color the three birds as English, American, and Australasian robins. I love to think how these birds are "common" to their communities, yet are so different in their coloring. The differences in beak and leg colors were especially interesting to me.


This is a foldover layer card, which I've seen several places including the awesome Extreme Cards & Papercrafting blog. It's oh-so-easy to cut and lays relatively flat. I was inspired to try something different by this week's Fancy Fold challenge at Allsorts. In this case, I'd say that birds of a feather fold together (you didn't think I could let that go, did you?)!

Allsorts Challenge Week 85: Fancy fold

Supplies: Bluebird rubber stamp by Carolyn Shores Wright for Stamps Happen, Inc., Recollections & K&Company cardstock, Memento ink, Fiskars papercutter and deckle scissors, ZipDry glue, Martha Stewart detailing scissors, stash brad, Crop-O-Dile II, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Garamond typeface, Copic Ciao B color set

Last-minute Greetings

This week's Aud Sentiments and Allsorts challenges pretty much sum up how my house looks right now: Happy Holidays and Last Minute Christmas!

My creative life was changed forever when I discovered the world of origamic architecture, and it was further changed by my discovery of the pop-out pencil holder at Extreme Cards & Papercrafting. Using her template, I created my own version in SCAL. I had precut 7 yellow houses on my Cricut, so when I realized I needed some special cards for family all I had to do was glue on some pretty paper! The little cards on the front are hand stamped and punched; I also made small yellow message stickers for the inside.

Supplies: DCWV, Martha Stewart and Recollections cardstocks, gStudio silicon stamps, Stash brads, CraftSmart ink, Fiskars scissors & punch, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, Offray ribbon


Happy Holidays! You can download the personal use only cutting file for this card here.
If you do, please leave a comment to let me know. And I'd love to see photos!

Lightin' Up the Night

Because I get distracted enough during the holidays, I haven't been doing many card challenges. There are still gifts to make, cards to send, and a house to organize so as to fit my folks and our Christmas decorations. Happily, several months of entering holiday-themed challenges has pretty much taken care of my card list. I had a few very special people I still wanted cards for, and I found the inspiration I needed in this week's Allsorts Challenge: Light Up the Night.

I had so much fun making the Santa Stocking pull-card with Therese Travis's freebie that I was super excited at the possibilities when I saw her whole stocking series. The "Lights" worked perfectly for this challenge, as did the easel card shape.


Inspiration: Allsorts Challenge #81
Digi stamp: Stockings series by Therese Travis

Supplies: K&Company, DCWV & Core-dinations cardstocks, Offray ribbon, Smirk, Elmer's and Sakura gel pens, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Crop-O-Dile II, Marvy Snow marker & heat tool, Fiskars papercutter & scissors, decorative papertrimmer, ZipDry glue

Full of St Nicholas

I've been really intrigued by the current "Twas the Night before Christmas" challenge over at Allsorts, but my ideas were all over the place so I put it on the back burner. I pulled the pot out front the moment I saw the precious (and free!) Vintage Upon the Roof Top digi by Tlc Creations. I went back to the original poem and rediscovered a favorite stanza:

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys and St Nicholas too.

I've always loved the image of the "sleigh full of St. Nicholas."

For the card design itself I looked to the zig-zag fold, which I unnecessarily cut on my Cricut. At first I wasn't sure how I'd color such a detailed image, so I decided to use chalks to give it a "vintage" feeling, whatever that means. I've been pretty confident about working with snow on images ever since I found Polar White FlowerSoft. Oooh it's so pretty. For that "something extra" I pulled out my snowflake punch and made good use of some silver and gold scrap paper.

Inspiration: Allsorts Challenge #77, Twas the Night before Christmas
Zig-zag fold adapted from OWH Tutorial
Digi Stamp: Vintage Upon the Roof Top by Tlc Creations
Supplies: Recollections and K&Company cardstocks, ZipDry & Tacky glues, Cricut personal cutter, SCAL2 software, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Pebbles Inc. chalks, Martha Stewart & Fiskars punches, FlowerSoft

[Thanks to all the inspiration, this card made the Allsorts Challenge Top 5.]

New Beginnings Challenge

This weekend I found myself Crafting with a Purpose, the purpose being trying to get myself out in the crafting blogosphere by entering challenges. The word "overwhelmed" comes to mind...the last challenge I did, late last night, actually used scrap paper that was on top of what used to be my crafting table, and now looks more more like an art school paper-only dumpster. It amazes me, sometimes, how only half of my life can be organized at a time.
So happily, I'm caught up sorta on my weekend goals. Maybe I'll actually do some housework! Gee, I'm so lucky to have a husband who not only enjoys cooking, but feels that my crafting messes are part of a wild, romantic ride.
Anyhoo, I'm entering my new rocking horse card in this week's Allsorts Challenge, "New Beginnings". To be honest, the idea came from my awesome Mom; I wanted to make a baby card for some friends, but I was feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities, so I called Mom and we bounced around some ideas. The one the stuck was the rocking horse card: as Mom said, "knowing you, it will actually rock!"

O. Yeah.
I found a free rocking horse cut file at SVGcuts, and liked it so much that I bought the set it comes from (thank you, Labor Day discount!). If you'd like the full SCAL file for this card, please email me (cgsayssomethingloudly [at] gmail [dot] com) and I'd be happy to share it (for personal use only).
Since I was making one of the cards for first-time parents, I wanted to add something a little...different. So I came up with "Rock On!" which tickles my bad-pun bone.