Friday, May 30, 2008

travel

I was tired and cranky last night, but really wanted to do some crafting. I've enjoyed Mary-Jo's challenges at Technostamper and wanted to try my hand with this week's challenge.

I'm in a kind of mono-tone mood; consider two of the last three posted cards. :)

I've also got travel on my mind, but that's 'cause I'm still playing with the photos from Bucharest. So with that in mind:

Materials: cardstock: Bazzill; designer paper: Basic Grey; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; stamp: Limited Edition; ink: Tim Holtz distress ink (Walnut stain); brads: Imaginisce; adhesive: Pioneer mounting tape.


Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Back from vacation

Once again I have been neglecting my poor blog, but I have a relatively good excuse: we were on vacation to Bucharest, Romania.


north side of Palace of Parliment

While we were only gone for 1 week, I'm afraid that the blog was ignored for more than that. You know the excuses already: work, life, sleep. But I thought that I would share a picture or two from Romania.

My dear sweet mother-in-law during her lifetime was known to share the phrase: it's nice to go away, but it's nice to come home. We loved Romania, the people, the sights, the food. But it's nice to be home and back to "real" life.

Thanks for looking.

Happy Birthday, Janice

We have a relatively new nurse working with us now and tomorrow is her birthday. When our education coordinator today mentioned that tomorrow was Janice's birthday, I couldn't stop myself from asking, "Do you want a card?"

Since Janice has only been with us a few weeks, I don't really know her well enough to know her favorite colors, etc, so....... this card is just sorta spirit-driven. (I hope my Florida State Seminole son never sees this post; the colors on this card look like they were inspired by the spirit of a Univ. of Florida Gator!!)

The background is embossed with the wonderful Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder. The stamped image is from Autumn Leaves; the doodling around the birdy is my own (which is scary for me.)

Materials: white cardstock: Georgia Pacific; colored cardstock: Bazzill; colored pencil: unknown; happy birthday rub-on and orange snaps: Making Memories; black pen: American Crafts; adhesive: Pioneer mounting tape.

Thanks for looking.

Little Lamb

The challenge this month at the RangerInkLink group at Yahoo groups was entitled Snap, Crackle and Pop. A variety of different crackle products were suggested for projects. Of the products listed I only have a couple of colors of distress crackle paint. So, right from the get-go, I knew that I didn't need to stress too much about WHICH product to use.


But from there, I didn't really know too much what I wanted to do, except that this seemed like a really great opportunity to play with a product that I've really not used too often previously. So, with PLAY in mind, I pulled out some of the Tim Holtz Grungeboard which I've had for awhile and used a couple of my old Sizzix steel rule dies to cut out some shapes to paint with the crackle paint. (I now have, in addition to this complete project, a couple of primitive hearts painted in red.)


I painted the die cuts last night, left them to dry overnight and decided that in the morning I could figure out what I could do with the finished products. What I found this AM, exceeded my highest hopes. I really like the look of this little lamb.

To give the face and ear more definition, I cut a second face and ear from grungeboard and colored them black with my black calligraphy pen. I colored the feet with the same pen, but didn't bother to die cut more feet; I just colored over the crackle paint.

Once my little lamb was finished, the rest of this card came together quite quickly. I like the neutral monotone look of this card. It will be a nice card to have in the stockpile for that baby shower that you have to attend, where the baby's gender is unknown.

Materials: cardstock: unknown (stash); designer paper: Masterpiece Studios; grungeboard: Advantus/Ideo-logy; crackle paint and distress ink (antique linen): Ranger; grosgrain ribbon: unknown (stash); calligraphy marker: Marvy Uchida; white ink pen: Signo; adhesives: Pioneer mounting tape and Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Glue.

As always, thanks for looking.




Sunday, May 11, 2008

Congrats, Grads

I don't know if I'll get to any challenges in the next week; nothing like KNOWING your life is going to be crazy busy. But I had to make a card this weekend for family. Our nephew will be graduating high school in June. I just can't believe that that young man is 18.

When I was shopping at Michael's last week for another project, I saw the Jolee's graduation embellishments on display. I knew that I wanted to use part of that set on this card.

Since this card is for a young man, I knew that I needed to keep the card less frilly. I also used some of my favorite Congratulations paper from Die Cuts with a View; I love that paper for both graduations and weddings. Finally to keep the embellishment simple (but not too plain), I added a Tim Holtz grungeboard flourish, painted with Adirondack silver paint dauber.

Materials: white cardstock: Georgia Pacific; black cardstock: unknown (stash); designer paper: Die Cuts with a View; grungeboard: Advantus; paint: Ranger; cap, gown, diploma: Jolee's/EK Success; adhesive: Pioneer mounting tape and Crafter's Pick glue.

I'm hoping that he will like this, though I'm sure the other (blue) piece of paper in the card will likely be more appreciated.
Thanks for looking.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

In Love

I saw this title posted on another blog while I was just out blurfing (just love that compound word). And thought of this picture that I took in late April. They tease me a lot at work, when I talk about being in love with this guy. I've been known to sorta "stalk" him (and his wife who also lives in the vicinity). Unfortunately this is about the best shot that I've gotten of him.

While this isn't a photo blog (and I'd never claim to take very many good photos), I just wanted to share this photo tonight. Ah, the poet said it (I think): my love is like a red, red rose....... no wait, he's a cardinal!!!

Thanks for looking.

These colors don't run.....though the ink might

I've enjoyed looking at the Monday Lunchtime Sketch challenges posted at the Techno Stamper blog. I decided to try my hand at this week's fun little sketch.

I have a number of Die Cuts with a View paper packs that I had purchased for scrapbooking, but haven't been using. I had made a couple of cards for a magazine submission using some of these papers and knew that I had these colors available. As soon as I saw the sketch for this challenge, I knew that these two papers would work together perfectly. I'm not sure that the front of this isn't just a little too plain; I've thought about doing this again, but embossing the stamped image to make it "pop" more. We'll see how much time/motivation I have.

Materials: cardstock, designer paper: Die Cuts with a View; stamp: Hero Arts Clear Design July set; ink: weathered wood (Ranger distress ink); thread: Coats and Clark; adhesives: mono-multi (Tombow), mounting tape (Pioneer).

Thanks for looking.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Weekend Sketch Challenge #46--Mother's day flourishes

Well, I've not been holding to my own New Year's resolution too well; I had wanted to post at least once a week to the blog. But the last couple of weeks have been.....life challenged. But, as Ali Edwards might say: I'm okay with that. I craft and blog when I can. But.......I have missed it the last couple o' weeks.

I have managed for the first time in a couple of weeks to get a card made for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. In my spare time I read on one of the blogs that the crafter was going to use this sketch for her mother's day card obligations. I thought that I could/should do that too.

I have been playing with some of my designer paper that has swirls lately and wanted to use that again for this card challenge.

Materials: black and orange bling cardstock: Bazzill; cream background cardstock: unknown (stash); designer paper: Me and My Big Ideas; rub-on: Basic Grey; stamps: Autumn Leaves (Flourishes I and Swirls I); ink: Colorbox (black) and Ranger (black distress ink); adhesive: Pioneer mounting tape.

Thanks for looking.