Anything Goes at One Stitch at a Time

It's time for another fun "Anything Goes" challenge at One Stitch at a Time!

My teamie Vicky chose for her & myself this time around, and totally challenged me with Mermaid's Revenge by Delicious Doodles. Since this is an "Anything Goes" challenge, our wonderful coordinator Choccy asked that some of us make something other than a card, so I made a very funky Post-It Note holder:

I just love the digis from Delicious Doodles; they are so fun & interesting, and I had a blast coloring this with my Copics and Glaze pens.

I used Cuttlebug's 3x3 Bubble Frame Die/Emboss Combo for the frame, but since the image was larger I cut down two to make the frame (I used some of the scrap for the inside).
Actually, all of the paper used for this project is from my scrap box. Even the blue cross stitch fabric is a scrap!

The blue flourishes are a Sizzix die cut that I actually found in my scraps... can't remember now what I originally cut it! I've had the little plastic bone buttons (with shanks removed) for the longest time, and was excited to have a funky way to use them.

I generated the sentiment myself using the font Bleeding Freaks, making the outline (or "stroke") red for the first letters and blue for the rest. Thought it worked nicely for the undersea vampire theme. I printed it onto shiny gold paper (Recollections), cut it by hand, and drew the border with a white Glaze pen.

I'm really into cross stitching right now (see my other projects here), so I whipped up a little skull pattern, complete with gold tooth. Too fun! It's glued into an ornamental bottlecap.

Here it is opened up:

I started with a 4.5 x 12 inch strip and scored it at 4.75, 5.25, 10, and 10.5. I used some scrap magnet to make a closure. I ran the seashell-patterned ribbon through a small piece of paper (the same glittered black Core'dinations cardstock I used for the base) to make a loop for the small pen. This holds a regular 3x3 "sticky note" pad.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Allsorts Challenge Week 189: Dies and Punches
2. Crafty Cardmakers: Create a Fairytale Scene (Okay, it's a pretty dark fairytale, but hope it counts!)
3. Digi Haven: Sparkles & Bling
4. Divas by Design #67: Anything goes 
5. Eureka Stamps: Make it Sparkle
6. Haunted Design House Macabre Mondays: Anything dark/Gothic
7. Penny's Paper-Crafty #109: Anything goes
8. Songbird Challenges: Paint It Black (LOVE this song!)

Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join us this week at One Stitch at a Time,

Old-fashioned Pixels

So for the first time in this century (actually since 1996) I rang in the New Year without a cigarette. I would have crafted straight through midnight if not for the fireworks (we're only about 3 miles north of Baltimore's Inner Harbor) that woke up my dog Allen, who then needed immediate love and attention. I wouldn't have it any other way!

I quit smoking 7 weeks ago, and I did it with the help of cross stitching. I found myself a few projects and found it really helpful in keeping me busy.

So...I've been cross stitching all weekend. I made this simple pattern based on a rubber stamp design. I stamped the stamp itself in SU! Whisper White on black paper.

rotated 90° counter-clockwise

The "stitching" on the border of the card is actually a SP & Co. stamp; I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink.


Inspiration/Challenges:
CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #4: Sketch
Allsorts: Black and White
Hotshot Crafts: Clean and Simple




Here are some other designs I made this weekend:

I couldn't find a free pattern for these Space Invaders characters, so I made them (thanks to the document grid in InDesign). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this piece yet...

I designed these myself too, so that they would fit in these 1x1-inch bottle caps. I cut circles from magnet sheets using a Sizzix die and glued them onto the bottle caps to make magnets.

These patterns are available as PDFs; just shoot me an email if you want one or both. (CGsaysSomethingLoudly [at] gmail [dot] com)


And here are a couple of projects I made for Christmas Gifts:

My Mother-in-law's favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz, so I made this for her for Christmas. I got the pattern for this at Sewing Seed, and I plan on making the whole set this year. I found the frame for like a $1 at my mom's church's Thrift Store.

This was a gift for my mom; she mentioned how lovely white-on-red fabric would be, so I found a free pattern for a Coeur Fleuri. I colored the wooden frame with red Tattered Angels glimmer mist, and added liquid pearls on the front & sides. I covered the hoop closure with white Silk Crush ribbon from May Arts, and a plastic red bird charm from Popalicious Too (I received it in a blog candy).

Not bad for 7 weeks, huh?! So far, 2013 is looking good!

Thank you for visiting & Happy New Year,

Mo's Wonderful Time of the Year

How has it already been another year ... I guess time goes fast when you're crafting! I've had a great December full of traveling and visiting family, and now I'm looking forward to a new year full of ... well, all those things that come up when you're an adult!

I thought that the current challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil would be a nice way to both reflect on 2012 and welcome in 2013: We're to pick our favorite Mo's Digital Pencil project of 2012. I was sort of surprised to see that I only made four projects in 2012 (You can see all of my projects using Mo's images here), but I just had to choose Silky Puppy Love:

Silky Puppy Love, February 20, 2012

As you can tell, I had too much fun making that card!

Last year I used Mo's Fan's Cricket to make a Chinese New Year card, so figured I should do the same for 2013. Didn't get this in the mail in time for Western New Year's, so maybe I can send it to someone for the Chinese New Year! 

I printed everything (including the sentiment by TLC Creations, which I inverted) onto shiny Recollections papers (gold, charcoal, white). I was inspired by the lovely sketch from The Sketch File. I used the font Silentina Movie for the Charlie Chaplin quote ("Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles."), some beautiful Graphic 45 paper, and added a bit of white leaf ribbon. 

The Sketch File

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. ATCs & Cards With Attitude: Celebrations
2. Brown Sugar: Happy New Year
3. Fat Pages With Attitude: Celebrations
4. Kenny K's Krafty Krew: It's Party Time (NY celebration card)
5. Little Claire's: Happy New Year
6. Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #238: New Year Inspired
7. Polka Doodles: Happy New Year
8. Pixie Dust Studio: Any Celebration will do
9. Sunny Challenges: New Year's
10. The Sketch File: Sketch

Update: This was awarded a Top 3 spot at Brown Sugar. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting,

Howdy, 2013

I had so much fun Guest Designing this month for Eureka Stamps (you can see all my GDT projects here); their images are so much fun to color, and I liked being able to play with Southwest themes.

For their final challenge of 2012 and their first challenge of 2013, the Eureka Challenge team wants you to use Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. I designed this card, featuring Eureka's Cactus, while visiting my Mom in Arizona.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Eureka Stamps Challenge #20: Recipe
• Old: Metal embellishments (a friend gave Mom a big bag of Western-themed metal embellishments, and she passed few along to me), and jean-patterned paper 
• New: Bright green Liquid Pearls, patterned papers, and star ribbon
• Borrowed: Mom's gecko punch
• Blue: Blue patterned papers & blue thread (machine-stitched)
2. Hiding in my Craft Room #78: Freestyle
3. Jellypark Challenge: Old & New
4. Card Crafter's Circle: Anything Goes
5. Charisma Cardz: Anything Goes
6. Paper Play: Out with the old in with the new
7. Shelly's Images: Out with the old in with the New
8. Great Impressions: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting,

Delightful Dancin'

Wow, Christmas is only a week away! I think I have all our gifts and cards together ... but I always find myself making a few extra things at the last minute.

I couldn't resist making a penny-rocker with Rosa, one of my favorite images from Mo's Digital Pencil.

I'm entering this into the current "D is for..." challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil Too. My Ds are Dots, Dancer, and Doily.

Thank you for visiting,