Another ATC!!

I am having the best time making these! I sat down today to work on my Christmas in July ATC swap and thought for sure I would breeze right through it! Wrong!! I went through several designs before I found one I was happy with! I knew I wanted to use this cool Santa stamp from Serendipity and the color scheme was pretty logical! Giggles! I tried coloring Santa and then just shading him and then chalking him, but I didn't like any of it! I tried just coloring the hat and tried glittering different parts of the image, but none of it was working! I finally decided to put all of my color in the background and let the stamp stand on its own! I used the grid technique and marked and drew all my lines in green and then added a few red accent dots. I did glitter his glasses for a touch of sparkle. I used a punch and a red bauble to make a holly berry leaf for my one required embellishment. I am happy with this one! Now to make nine more...Big grin! Have a great night everyone! : )

Recipe:
Paper: SU! Real Red, Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter and Whisper White
Ink: SU! Going Gray, Glorious Green and Real Red markers
Extras: Punch, Stickles and Red bling from Mike's

Help!!! I am HOOKED!!!

In my defense...I was minding my own business! I was just browsing around SplitCoast like I so often do and happened to wander into the ATC (artist trading card) swap forum! (mistake #1!!) I opened a few threads and followed a few links (mistake # 2!!) and before I knew what hit me I had signed up for 2 swaps! LOL Now I am hopelessly hooked!!! Hook, line and sink-her!! I started working on my very first ATC this morning (mistake #3!!) and I have to admit I am in LOVE!! These little guys are the most fun things to make ever!! Now if you have never made one...you have to stop reading and go do it now!!! They are tiny little works of art! They measure 2.5 X 3.5 and can be used on card fronts or as scrapbook embellishments or gift tags or...list just goes on and on!! You can layer on them and stamp on them and add ribbon and embellishments and sparkle! They really are a ton of fun to make! After I finished my first batch of ATC's for my first swap I went and signed up for 5 more! LOL My only complaint with this whole process is that the swap time frames are soooooo long! You usually have about 4 weeks to sign up and another 4-6 weeks to make and mail your cards. I am so impatient and it could very well possibly kill me having to wait so long to receive my ATC swaps back!! Wish me luck! LOL

It is late so I am not going to go into details on these, but I wanted to share them with you! If you have any questions, please just feel free to ask! The butterfly was my first attempt and the giraffe is for swap #2 (zoo theme!). Hope you like them! I will post more as I get them finished! Now I am off to make more ATC's! LOL : )

Have a super night!!

Part 1 of a 2 part post!

Recently I went with some really wonderful girls to a project class in Winston-Salem! It was so much fun! We made this really cool accordion art book and 4 fun cards! The book was made from envelopes which we stamped and assembled! The theme was art and we had a ton of great stamps to choose from! We fan folded a piece of card stock and attached each envelope to it. then we stamped and assembled inserts for each of the envelopes! We added vintage pictures that really pulled the whole thing together! We finished it by making a card stock spine to wrap around the back and make it book like! I was really pleased with the way it came out! : ) I will definetley be making this sort of book again! : )

Part 2 of a 2 part post!

These are the four cards we made in class! I do not have the paper names, but feel like they were all from the same 'family!' Aren't they gorgeous?! I LOVED them! Our instructor said they were just left over from other projects. The first card is a birthday file folder card. We added a flower for some sparkle! Isn't it pretty?! We stamped on vellum and then added glitter glue which magically curled up the petals! The card opens by unwinding the string! (this one was my favorite!) Card number 2 was made from a giant 'U' pattern and sweet friend sentiment. We added lots of fun ribbons to dress it up! Card number three was the most fun to make! It is a side pocket card! It had the most stamping and we colored the images with chalks! They are not my favorite medium, but I am learning to enjoy them more as I work with them more! Card number four was made using the cuttlebug to emboss the background! That is such a fun toy! We also had to glue each of those letters on individually!! It was fun though! I really enjoyed this class! : )

Sister's Summer Swap Card!

I figured it was safe to post this card now! I participated in a swap with my SBS2 Sisters and mailed them all out last week! The theme was Summer and this is what I came up with! I brayered the background with SU! Orchid Opulence, Marigold Morning and Yo Yo Yellow with a rubber brayer to make the sun appear to be setting. I then added a brayered layer of SU! Brilliant Blue for the water. I tore and layered two pieces of Close to Cocoa to make the beach sand and added some sparkle to the water with Stickles. I used a beach stamp from Rubber Necker Co for the focal image. I paper pieced each bathing beauties bathing suit after adding a little color to each. I also popped each girl up off the sand with pop dots and did the same to each hat to make them look 3D! I drew in some birds and added a sentiment with a brad. Making these made me want to stroll on the beach! : ) Hope you like them!

Hanna Pillow Challenge!

I am participating in the Hanna Pillow Challenge this week! Kristi over at Hanna Stamps offers a fun new challenge each week and then matches you up with a partner! I will be sending my creation to Carolina and this is what I made for her using the pillows Kristi picked out as inspiration! I had so much fun making these little britches! I used My Garden Riley stamp from Hanna Stamps and went with the whole garden flower theme! I filled two little bags with chocolate (caramel filled kisses to be exact!!) Yummmmm-o!! and stuffed them into each leg! I sure hope they arrive to Carolina in tact and not as chocolate soup! : ) Hope you like them, Carolina!

Spinning coaster mini book!

I created this mini spinning coaster book with the intention of tracking my weight loss journey! I used some of my favorite colors and stamps to help keep me motivated! I made the covers from coasters and all of the fun add-ons came from my scrap pile! I used my book binder to assemble the whole thing! These spinning cards are so much fun to make and play with!

Stamps: BarBella, RubberNecker Goddess stamp and SU! BoHo Backgrounds
Ink: Pixie Pink and Old Olive
Paper: Misc papers
Extras: Coasters, Sparkle Bling, Stickles, Ribbon scraps, Tag punch, Word Window punch, gold brads, paper flowers

Spinning cowboy card!

This card was sooo much fun to make and even more fun to play with! This was hubby's Father's day card from me. I have a special place in my heart for cowboy's and just love this image from Lizzie Anne Designs. I thought it would be perfect for a spinner card! He flips in circles across the card! Which just begged for an inside sentiment that read "I am head over spurs crazy about you!" Giggles!

Stamps: Lizzie Anne Designs, SU! BoHo Backgrounds
Ink: SU! Ballet Blue and Cranberry Crisp
Paper: SU! Sky Blue, Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa
Extras: Word Window punch and Stickles

Every man needs a wallet!

I have to say that my hubby is the absolute greatest dad I could ever ask for for my kids! He is patient and kind and loving and caring! He is truly a great dad and I sincerely hope that my kids appreciate how wonderful he is! : )

Thought I would share the crafty stuff we gave him this Father's Day! We usually get him a wallet for Christmas, but didn't buy one this past year! So I thought it would be cute to make him a paper wallet instead! I used Mel's Faux leather technique (linked below in the tool belt post!) to turn card stock into what feels like real leather ** Disclaimer!! No cows were harmed in making this wallet!** : ) . It was very simple and actually looks like a wallet when it is all closed up! Too cute! The pattern came from Jackie Topa. She has a great blog! I filled it with pictures of our kids and each kiddo wrote him a note to go with their photo!

Also pictured is a card my youngest son asked me to make for him to give to his dad! We kept it simple, but the sentiment on the inside was heart felt!

Wallet:
Stamps: Happy Father's Day $ stamp form Mike's
Ink: SU! Brilliant Blue
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Sky Blue & Blush
Extras: Brads and window punch

Card:
Stamps: SU! Seaside Sketches
Ink: SU! Handsome Hunter
Paper: SU! Sahara Sand, generic paper
Extras: Ribbon and paper piercing tools

Father's Day!

Father's Day is just around the corner and I have been searching for some fun projects to make! While blurfing (blog surfing!) one day I found the most adorable project pattern ever! Now I must preface this post by saying that I am in awe of this particular blogger's work! She is absolutely amazing...*Read paper genius* here! She is one of my SBS2 sisters and I visit her blog often for inspiration! This is her pattern and her template. Her name is Mel and she is quite talented! You can find her here! Thanks so much, Mel for sharing! Be sure to check out her blog! : ) You will LOVE it too!!

I did a couple of things different when making my tool belts! I did not add the ink to lighten the color of the Close to Cocoa card stock and I added paper tools instead of those cute mini tools Mel used. (I couldn't find them anywhere!) I added some chocolate to the box and cannot wait to give these to their respective recipients! These were so much fun to make and are just sooo darn cute! they actually feel like real leather! Toooo coool! I made two! One for my step dad and one for my kids adopted grand-dad! Hope they like them! : )

I wet and crumpled the card stock per Mel's instructions. Then I ironed it flat and rubbed it down with my Versamark pad. I cut out the pattern pieces and paper pierced them all and then added the faux stitching with my Basic Black marker. I assembled the whole thing with sticky strip and added the tag! That was that! : )

Also pictured is the card I made to send my step dad! I used my favorite froggy image from RubberNecker and chalks to color it! I added a little Stickles for color on the flower and added some green sparkle bling!

Stamps: none
Paper: SU! Close to Cocoa and Very Vanilla
Extras: Basic Black Marker, paper piercer, gold brads, gold eyelets, crop-o-dile, sticky strip


Have a great day!

A true challenge!!

Ok , so at my monthly demonstrator's meeting our challenge was to come up with a one layer swap card! Piece of cake! (or so I thought!!) This was by far the hardest challenge I have ever participated in! I was 100% stumped! When it came time to sit down and create this card I was stuck! It is really tough to make a card that has no layers!! Every thing I did just felt naked and blah! LOL So I decided to try to think 'outside of the box'! First thing I did was to change the shape of the card! It transformed from a rectangle to a circle via the help of my coluzzle! (LOVE that thing!). Next I used my gold marker pen to outline the edges of the card. I couldn't stand not adding something else to it though so I stamped that cute butterfly and flower from SU!'s Merci on a separate piece and cut them out and attached them with ribbon to the card! They dangle freely and are not layered on the card so my card still fell into the One Layer Card category! : ) Big, cheesy grin! I was pretty happy with the result! I do think it will be a while before I attempt another One Layer though!

Stamps: SU! Always and Merci
Paper: SU! Sahara Sand
Ink: SU! Pink Passion and Old Olive
Extras: Gold pen, Rose Ribbon, Ice Sparkle Brad, Paper piercer and coluzzle

More graduation gifts and a card!

My oldest son's girlfriend graduated High School today! I made her a paper bag album using all the pieces of the invitation she sent to us! Her school colors are red and white, so I used that color scheme through the whole album! Hope she likes it! : )

Stamps: SU! Graduation set
Paper: SU! Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White and Sahara Sand
Ink: SU! Real Red, Basic Black and Very Vanilla
Extras: Gold brads, Red & White ribbons, Sparkle bling, white gel pen and White craft bags

...and the rest!

Thank you cards!

I finally did some stamping! It was sooooo nice to get back to it! I am way over due with some thank you notes and so that is what I started with! : ) These two cards will be going to people that have really touched my heart! The first card is going to one of my very special, very sweet SBS 2 sisters, Lori A! We recently had an image swap and one of the sets that I chose was a 2 step set. Rather than trying to guess what images I would like Lori surprised me by loaning me the whole set!! Sent me the whole thing!! I thought it was soooo sweet. Thank you Lori for being so thoughtful! It meant a lot to me! : ) If you are reading this your set will be going back in the mail today! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!

The second card is for someone that I have never met! My grandma (who is one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world!) lives several states away from me. She and my uncle have had a tough year due to some health problems. One of my Uncle's school friends stepped up out of nowhere and has helped them both out so much! I truly believe he is an angel that keeps his wings hidden! He has been so good to them. I wanted to let him know how much I appreciate his help so I made him a card and a little gift. Pictured is the card only. I hope he knows how much his help means to me!

Stamps: SU! Fresh Fowers, One of a Kind. Mike's Dollar Stamp
Ink: SU! Pink Passion, Old Olive
Paper: Daisy D's, misc
Extras: Embossing powder, sparkle bling, ribbons, white gel pen