Nuts About You

It's finally friday! Woo hoo! Have you got yourselves any exciting plans for the weekend? I'll be working most of it, but that's okay. I worked tonight as well, but before I left I did get a card made. What do you think of this little guy?


This one required some paper piecing. I made all the elements, from the tree and grass, to the squirrel and acorn. The squirrel and sentiment were stamps from Hampton Arts, but the rest I just did free hand.

It's a 4"x4" square card -- I just thought it would be something different to try. I used the leftover cream colored Bazzill cardstock from yesterday as my base. The cloud DP is a leftover scrap from American Crafts. To complete the natural look, I tied a bit of hemp into a bow at the fold. It's really turning out to be a rather useful material.


I don't know about you, but I am so tired that I can hardly keep my eyes open! I'm going to head up to wash my face, then go to bed. Hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!

Live Your Life Blackbird

Another beautiful day! I'm happy because today I noticed little buds all over my lilac bush. I love lilacs. I mean, I LOVE lilacs. One of the sweetest joys of spring is when their heavenly scent wafts in my open windows. But we're too far North to be there quite yet. Another couple of weeks.

In the meantime, how about a card? This one has a spring thaw feel, with the mix of cool and warm colors, budding branches, and of course, a blackbird.


This paper from Basic Grey was the inspiration. I just loved the colors and pattern. The dark brick color I used for the scalloped edge is actually the backside of the same sheet. I had this bird stamp set from Fiskars, and this little guy perched on his spindley branches seemed like he'd be right at home in that world.

I stamped both him and the sentiment from the same set with Versamark ink, then embossed using black embossing powder from A La Mode. And here's a little tip I learned while doing it that I thought I'd pass along. When embossing words or scrollwork or anything with fine lines, it can be frustrating when the embossing powder collects where it shouldn't, and you lose that definition. What I did was take my mechanical pencil and draw through the powder very lightly, so that no lead marks were left behind, but the spaces opened up again. I did this to separate the dots over the i's and inside the e's and also the little flourishes on either side. Worked like a charm.


Cream colored Bazzill cardstock for my base, and after I thought I was done, I decided to add a bit of hemp twine just to tie in that whole bird's nest idea. I'm happy with how it turned out.

And that's it for me tonight! Enjoy!

Imagination Tree

Hi, everyone! How are you lovely ladies doing tonight? I'm still hangin' in there. My sweet hubby actually took the kids to school this morning and let me sleep in, and then brought me home a cafe mocha before he headed off to class. Is it any wonder I love that guy? I tell ya. ;o)

After I picked my two little guys up from school, I made some grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch, then headed upstairs to get some much-needed crafting done. Here's my card for today.


As I mentioned yesterday, I've been playing around with distress inks, and I really love the watercolor effect they give a project. It's taken me more than a few tries to get the result I was going for though. I think this one here was number seven or eight. It does take a little practice to get the hang of, but I think it's totally worth it.

The main technique to master with distress inks is to start applying the ink OFF the project and work onto it. If you don't, you get the dark impression of the applicator tool (in my case, round make up sponges) which is almost impossible to blend out. By cutting a piece of scrap paper into a rounded shape, I was able to apply the green color (Peeled Paint) to the center where I wanted it to show through the tree, then apply the blue (Broken China) all around the edges. I inked the stamp in Peeled Paint and Tea Dye, then spritzed it with a little water from my Mini Mister, and applied the watercolor paper directly over it, smoothing it out with my fingers to make sure I picked up the entire image. Then I dried it with my heat embossing tool.


I trimmed the image and mounted it on some brown Bazzill cardstock. I had planned to use a white card base, but it looked so drab, I decided to take the distress inks to it as well. On went more Broken China and Peeled Paint, which I lightly spritzed and dried to give it that speckled look.

All that remained to do was to add a layered prima flower with a button center and hemp tie, and to write a sentiment in my Signo broad white gel pen on a bit of scrap cardstock. I think it turned out pretty, don't you?

And that's going to close up this blog for tonight. Lady Antebellum is coming up on Idol (LOVE them!!!) and my boy Casey is currently in the bottom three. This is definitely going to require my undivided attention. ;o)

'Night, all!

A Rose Is A Rose

Happy Tuesday, everyone. How's your week been so far? I've been feeling under the weather the last few days, and fighting it tooth and nail with vitamins and Airbourne. Hopefully it doesn't evolve into a full-blown cold or flu or whatever it is that's on the attack.

I've been playing around with Ranger distress inks and a mini mister yesterday and today, but I've discovered that it really takes a delicate hand that I haven't quite mastered. Either I get not enough bleeding, or bleeding all over the place that ruins my image. Maybe tomorrow I'll upload the photos and show you what I mean, but I'm too tired tonight, and considering my current not-quite-well state, I thought I'd take a book and head to bed early.

Instead, I'll share with you a photo already on my computer. I mentioned before that I'm a novice photographer, and one of my favorite subjects is flowers. This is a picture I snapped about six years ago (wow, has it really been that long?), of a birthday bouquet for my husband's aunt in Germany. We were living there at the time.



Enjoy!

Distress Resist Flowers

Hello, all! TGIF, am I right?

I tried an interesting technique out today. It's called distress resist. What I did was take a stamp with a solid background, stamp it in versamark on a book page, then emboss it with clear embossing powder. Then I took my tea dye distress ink and rubbed it over the image where it collected only where the negative space was. It gives a neat effect.


I cut that out and mounted it on some brown cardstock, then on cream cardstock, and finally on the brown cardstock base. I think the ribbon is from American Crafts.... I thought it was going to be dark brown, but I guess it's actually black. Oh well!

This is the great stamp I used from Hero Arts. Love it.


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Talk to you soon!

Happy Earth Day

Hmm. Well, I'm not really sure if my project for today "worked." I had two things in mind when I began: over at Kristina Werner's blog this week, she challenged everyone to make a simple, one-layer card. Since we're also celebrating Earth Day, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make a card that used a very limited amount of supplies that left no waste. And because Earth Day is all about "going green," I went with some tone-on-tone green ink and cardstock.


First, I stamped a square background stamp from Studio G in a repeating pattern across the bottom of the card, then added some squiggly stitch lines to the top. I used a sentiment from Inkadinkado, and added "earth" into it with a chocolate brown pen for a little variation on color.

But somehow it still looked so plain, so flat. So I tried crumpling it a little, to give it a recycled look. I'm not sure if I accomplished that or if it ended up looking like I just pulled it out of the trash. What do you think? I distressed the edges with the blade of my scissors to try to carry the idea further that it was rumpled on purpose. Again, I'm not really sure that it worked.


I did want to show you some new stamps I picked up at JoAnn's today though. I found them in the dollar bins, which I check regularly for little goodies like these. I normally only pick up one at a time, but most of these were the only one left, so I decided to go ahead and splurge this once on the whole set. The sentiment I used on my card was from one of these. Won't they be great for some summer cards? I love that most of them are perfect for coloring. Aren't the pelican and the seahorses fantastic? These are all from Inkadinkado.


Well, that's it for me tonight. Over and out. ;o)

Fishy Birthday

Happy Wednesday, everybody! How are you all today? Out enjoying this beautiful weather? Today was a good day for me. My hubby took the kids to school so I was able to sleep in, I finished the book I started yesterday (told you it was good!), and even made a card!

This one definitely is more masculine, since it will be going to our Thursday night writer's group leader, who has a birthday coming up this week. We like to tease Todd because he loves the Billy Blue Bass character that sings the extremely annoying filet-o-fish jingle on the McDonald's commercials. I knew I had to play on that when I was brainstorming for his card, but I also didn't want it to be too goofy. I think I struck a nice balance.


I found this great fishy paper from Carolyn Holt at A.C. Moore, and used a sheet of beige Bazzill cardstock for my base. I cut out one of the fish as my "Billy" and bent him gently out so that he looked like he was turning to speak. I mounted him with dimentional adhesive on another piece of beige cardstock that I stamped with a woodgrain background in Chestnut Roan Colorbox chalk ink. I popped that off as well on another piece of beige cardstock to resemble the plaque Billy hangs on.

Then I stamped the sentiment from Fiskars in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and drew a little speach bubble around it. I cut that out and adhered it with more dimentional adhesive near Billy's mouth. I think Todd will get a kick out of it.


Hope you enjoyed today's craft. :o) I'm off to tuck my little ones into bed and tell them a story, then settle in to watch a little Idol Gives Back. Have a great evening.