S&S Sketch Challenge 26 & The Dragonfly

Woo-Hoo!  I've managed to participate in an S&S Challenge and get it posted!

I've had this Hero Arts "Silhouette Spray" stamp for several months and never used it.  (isn't that illegal?)  Anyway, I stamped it using Adirondack Bottle Green then colored the tips with the best ever white gel pen, the Uni-Ball Signo "Impact White."  Love this pen.  The patterned paper is from a very old paper pack from DCWV's "Old World."  The jury is still out on which is most favored, the green or the pink...

The Dragonfly:
I've been looking for the perfect dragonfly punch... this isn't it.  BUT, I very much appreciate Dixie loaning it to me to play with!  I'd love to find a dragonfly punch that is as cute as this one, only a little larger...but not too large.

For this card I punched the dragonfly in both black and yellow card stock and then layered them with 1/16" foam mounting tape.  I wanted to give the illusion of a shadow.  I embossed the base with the Cuttlebug "swirls" and used my new Stampin' Up "word punch" for the sentiment base.  The sentiment is from a Basic Grey "value" set.

Thanks for reading!  Now go get creative...

Time to clean up

It's been a fun week, but the time has come that I must clean off the kitchen island.  My husband and some friends are coming up for the weekend and since the island serves as our dining table, it might be nice to have a place to eat.

My last card to show is using a new EK Success edger punch I purchased yesterday. It was on sale at JoAnn's in Christiansburg, VA.  I briefly looked away and it jumped into my basket!

All total, I will be handing over 54 cards to OWH's shipper Dixie when I return home.  (And I promise, family, I am going to return!)  The backs of all the cards have been stamped and they've been lovingly tucked in envelopes.

Thanks for reading!  Have a wonderful, crafty weekend!

Could it be another one?

Late last night another idea popped into my head... and no, it wasn't painful!  (I can hear my peeps asking)

Here's the prototype.  It may be my new favorite masculine card.  I might make 10 or 12 of these!

I may do some tweaking when I start assembling but for now I think it works.  

Ingredients: Tim Holtz Gears Die on kraft paper then distressed with StazOn Timber Brown ink.  The blue and maroon paper is from 7 Gypsies "savannah" collection.  The background paper is Basic Grey's "dialect" from the Basics collection.  Sentiment from Hero Arts.  Brads from Michael's.

Thanks for taking a look!  The weekend is just around the corner -- hope you get a chance to get inky!

A Personal Challenge

Patterned Paper.  I have a problem working with patterned paper for some reason.  So I challenged myself to make cards using something other than card stock and stamps.  Then, for some reason, I had to go and make the challenge even harder by making masculine or gender neutral cards.  UGH!

I think I did pretty good thanks to the "Savannah" paper pack by 7 Gypsies!  The paper is double sided.

The card on the right is suppose to have one final touch but I don't have my CM corner rounder with me. Rounding the two bottom corners will give it an extra little "humph."

I'm really enjoying my workspace at the river.  We jokingly call the island in the kitchen the "landing strip" and I'm practically using the entire thing.  Only problem, you definitely need to have some sort of craft mat under your project when using small brads!  And somewhere on this island is a clear sentiment stamp...

Thanks for reading.  Take a few minutes to create today...even if it's only dinner!

Let's Get Crafty

It's been a while since I posted.  It's been a while since I made anything to show.  But that's about to change...at least that's the plan.

I packed up my craft supplies and headed to our Virginia getaway place (lovingly known as "the Gorilla") on July 1st.  My family soon followed and we had a wonderful 4th of July extended weekend.  We did things like read and nap after playing in the river.  This is my sister Amy and her youngest, Gabe.

Everyone has returned home and I have elected to stay behind and hopefully be creative for several days.  I've wanted to do this for a while now and this seemed like the perfect time.

Last night I made these two cards for Operation Write Home.

Card on the left: I used a Hero Arts sentiment stamp.  I can't recall where the flower stamp is from.  I used Adirondack "brights" Watermelon for the flowers and Memento Bamboo Leaves for the stems.
Card on the right: I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and the Tim Holtz compass mini mask on inexpensive kraft paper.  The word stamp is also Hero Arts stamped with Brushed Corduroy.

Thanks for reading!  I hope everyone's weekend will include something crafty...

Summer fun has begun

It's beach time!  Every year we take a beach vacation, first a week with my hubby's family and then a second week with my family.  I'm the lucky one that gets to stay put the entire time!

Every year I take my craft supplies and try to squeeze in some form of paper crafting when possible.  I hope to do more this year than in years past. Here's a couple of cards I'm made quickly last night before dinner.  I recently bought these Tim Holtz embossing folders and wanted to play.  The first scrap of paper I came across happened to be the blue and I already had the kraft paper cut to the right size. 

I'm trying to decide if I like these enough to make a handful for OWH or if I should come up with another couple of prototypes.

Pictures aren't the best, but when you stack 3 coolers on top of each other and the wind keeps blowing the cards over, this is what you get.

Thanks for taking time to read!  Have a fantastic rest of the day!

Stars & Stamps Sunday Challenge #17

Wow!  What a busy past couple of weeks I've had.  So busy, in fact, that I was unable to participate in Challenge 16. But, looky here! I have not only completed Challenge 17, I'm getting it posted 2 days before the next Challege!  Woo-hoo!

This week's Stars & Stamps Sunday Sketch Challenge was provided by Lora Brinkman.  Be sure to visit her blog and check out some of her handiwork.

Here is my interpretation of the sketch:

Supplies:

Paper -- Basic Grey "Sublime" Collection on plain inexpensive black paper

Stamps -- Inkadinkado Gem Stone Birds and the words were from Paper Studio stamp set

Button Brads  -- Probably Paper Studio as well.  Definitely bought on sale somewhere.

I really like how this card turned out and I had fun making it. In fact, I liked it so much I made 12 for shipper Dixie's stash.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!

Stars & Stamps Sunday Challenge #15

Wow!  It's been way too long since I've done a Sunday Sketch.  It's hard to believe that I've missed the last 5!

This weeks Sunday Sketch is provided by Bev Epstein...

Here is my interpretation...

I decided to go ahead and make 8 and turn them into Any Hero letters.

Thanks Bev for the sketch idea!

National Scrapbook Day

Ok, so National Scrapbook Day isn't like Christmas. I would compare it more to Arbor Day (the last Friday of April). Arbor Day you plant trees, Scrapbook Day, well, you scrapbook.

This past Saturday was National Scrapbook Day.  Along with a couple of friends, we helped the owner of Scrapbooks & Etc organize some activities to celebrate the day.  There was an all day crop on Friday and Saturday with sales, lots of good food, fellowship with friends, etc.

The plan was to start a scrapbook of my Outer Banks trip.  20 hours of available scrap time. I was pumped! How much did I get done? I made a tag.  An incomplete, ugly, useless tag. My sister had her distress inks out and this is what happened. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast the entire 20 hours but wasn't creative even a smidge... until after I got home.

Operation Write Home decided to rebel against NSD as started throwing out card challenges on their website.  You'd be giving a "theme" and a time frame to create and upload a picture of your card.  I managed to get a couple of the last challenges completed and I think they turned out pretty good.

Personally, I believe we should change the name from National Scrapbook Day to National Paper Crafting Day!  (but being a Rebel was a lot fun)

Thanks for reading and have fun creating whatever you're creating!

From Cardmaking to Scrapbooking

For probably close to a year now I've been making cards and have set aside my stamps and embellishments for working on any scrapbooks.  I have plenty of scrapbooks that I should do, I've just not been inclined to do them. Well, I think it's time for a scrapbook.  It will be a small book about the Outer Banks trip I just took with my sis-in-law.

Since I don't tend to scrap or make cards in any one place, this will require me switching out my totes from "happy birthday/love you" sentiments to my "journey/destination/travel" stamps and embellishments.  This means I have to face my "craft room."  Right now, I want you to remember the music from the shower scene in the movie "Psycho".  That is what I heard in my head when I realized that I had to face this...

I worked for several hours cleaning, sorting, putting away, throwing away, setting aside and it now looks like a place where a person could really create something beautiful... that is if a person actually used the space to create instead of letting it be a placeholder for "things I'll get to later."

I did decide to leave out a couple of my card stamps so when I have an overwhelming need to make a few cards for OWH I can quickly get hold of some supplies.  Does anyone remember Jenga?  LOL