Been a month YIKES!

Yes it has been nearly a month since I posted anything... what a drag! But today is a new day and I have lots to post. Here is a Christmas card I am working on for mass mailing. It's a bit detailed, and as usual I am over ambitious, so need to scale it back. I did have fun making it, and playing around with some of the embossing stuff to get some texture.

This card was inspired by AKJUDA at Splitcoaststampers! Here is her nice card:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/635636

I really love these classic colors for Christmas....of course Certainly Celery is included....obviously! I got the swirl thing from a junk email I received over the weekend, I think it just adds something fun to the card.

I started by stamping my image on white cardstock from Papertreyink, then coloring it in with markers and blender pens. Blender pens are great if you aren't wanting lots of hardcore color in one blop! I used my 2 way glue to adhere the white embossing to it, and that made the stuff crackle and thick. I then went back in after heatsetting it and used a thick clear embossing powder to add some dimension to the snowman, and although it didn't work out like I wanted to, it did adhere to the white embossing powder, and melted together, giving the little cap some streaks and gloss. I did the same on the scarf.

The background was stamped by placing all 3 snowflake stamps on an acrylic stamp pad, and stamping the background by dipping in the celery ink, then the versamark. I have an extra pad just for this purpose because it tends to leave the ink on the pad. I embossed it in thick embossing powder to give some "wetness" to the snowflakes. I went back in with the Merry and Bright snowflake background stamp, and lightly stamped the background, you know stamp on stamp off, then on your paper!

The red scallop tag was stamped in Papertreyink Borders and Corners Circle loopy stamp in white, then dazzling diamonds added. After I mounted the snowman to the scallop circle, I went back with the stitched circle from Papertreyink to add some more texture. You could make it easier on yourself by putting that detail on before you punched it out... but hey I don't think that far ahead sometimes.

Wrapped it in celery ribbon, and then attached the circle with some of that new stretchy silver cord from SU. Have fun making your own card! I sure did.

Life happens!

What can I say, Life got in the way, and I have not even had an inkling...hee hee, to get to this blog. I literally have fallen off of the earth. One thing I am thankful for is my family! Our family has been to heck and back, and if my Sisters, Dad and Brother-in-law had not been there in our darkest times, I don't know what I would have done.

With that said, my favorite sister asked me to make her some cards for a Theater production she was helping to create costumes for. She is UBER talented, and makes some amazing things from fabric. These cards were for cast members she had designed for, to wish them luck.... or as they say in the theater.. Break a Leg! The production is a spoof on Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, so the look she was going for needed to fit that.

The layout and inspiration for this card came from Nichole Heady, and her super cute ( does she do anything bad???) bag design on the front page of Paper Craft magazine. I stamped the background image first, then printed the Break A Leg sentiment on cardstock. I stamped it with Borders and Corners and then punched it out with a Marvy Giga punch. I found a coordinating Nestabilities to add some depth to the card and a little punch. I love the little bling, and the soft velvet, it just feels so Dickens to me.

When my sister was here, she slipcovered a chair AND an ottoman out of fabrics I have been hoarding. How amazing is that... and it's sooooo CUTE! LOVE IT!

One piece I had leftover was a red ticking stripe, and it just looked so cute with this card. Since she only wanted to write a quick note on the flipside, she didn't need a full card, so I decided to stich the outside border of the card in red, so that when you flip it over it has a red stiched border to write a note in.

I hope she likes it..... she means the world to me! SISTAH!!!

The never ending card!

Okay, so it's been ions since I have crafted a card, and you can tell! Ha ha! I have been so busy with work and kids and activities, that I can't find a spare moment. That said, I finally found a few HOURS to make ONE card....how sad is that! Seems like the longer you stay away from this stuff, the longer it takes to make one....you want to make it perfect, AND use all your cool stuff!

So this card I wanted a Halloween card, and I had been thinking about this for awhile. I like the idea of interjecting the turquoise into this color scheme, it just makes it different.

So I started with my Cuttlebug and my Spellbinders Nestabilities. I embossed the center of the card. I used a pre-cut and scored cardstock from Papertreyink, and it just turned out so nice with little effort. Those Nestabilities are awesome, and if you don't have any, I would encourage you trying one set. They seem to fill in where the punches leave off, plus I LOVE the embossing capabilities.

I then cut a piece of computer paper out to a 4.25 x 5.5 piece, and then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Nestabilities to remove the center rectangle. I used that to MASK off the area that I didn't want my Cheesecloth Stamp to print on.

Once that was done, I painted the outside of the embossed frame with my Certainly Celery marker, and then lightly ran my Versamark Marker over it and embossed it with Silver. I didn't want a heavy coat of the Silver Embossing because I wanted to see the green underneath.

I stamped the witch in White Craft on Black paper first, and cut it out. I didn't really define the edges that much, I really just left it more as a outline of the image. Then I stamped the Witch again, and colored it in. That's when it happened.... I went Silver Stickles crazy.... eeeeek!

I needed some bling, so I just added it where it fit. I also used a white gel pen in her eyes, and dress, and broom just to jazz it up a bit and give some more dimension. I cut out the image, this time paying closer attention to the the image, and cutting more away. The idea was to create a shadow. I used StampinUp Dimensionals to give the depth to the two pieces.

Initially I had cut out and embossed the circular moon, but it just didn't look right, so I used my StampinUp punch 1 3/8 to cut the circle out, then used my Stampin Pastels to color the Moon! I blended 3 different colors to get the look. I used one of the sponge applicators to move the Silver Stickles around, I just wanted a little shimmer on the moon.

Before applying the witch and shadow and moon, I went back to my embossed cardstock and used the Stickles in the "ditch" of the embossed frame, to add some glitz, and also dimension. Stickles!

I then decided that some funky circles would be nice on the outside, so I pulled out my Green Thumb set from Papertreyink, and used several circles stamped around the edges. I didn't want the interior stamped, so I just used a scrap to cover and mask the interior of the square when I got close to the edge, and that worked out okay. It still needed something else, so I went back in with the circular piece from PRICELESS from StampinUp. Yet it STILL needed something.... wait for it.... wait for it... YES! STICKLES! See what I mean about that never ending card thing?! So I just went back again, and filled in the circles with some Silver Stickles.

I then cut a rectangle piece with my Marvy Super punch, and stamped "spooky" on a piece of white cardstock. I have always thought that "ransom note" look would be fun to try, so here is my attempt. I just used markers to color where I wanted, stamped the image from the Papertreyink set, and then cut it apart. I used some black eyelets to attach the ribbon to the tag, and attached it to the card. I guess you could say it's "spooky" with all that SticKles! haha. Enjoy, I sure did while I was making it. Man I need to get back in the cave and be creative!

Meet CHEETO!

Okay, so I have been out of it soooo long. I have created nothing..... what can I do with nothing! I promise to have something here soon, perhaps this weekend, well maybe not.. we have paper routes to deliver this weekend... not gonna lie it's not my most favorite time, except for the fact that it traps my teenager in the car with me for several hours with nothing to do but talk.... so I guess that's a good thing! Ha! We also have a new puppy! YEAH! Like I need another dog, but this one was too cute to ignore. Her name is Cheeto, and she is a 4 month old pug. She is a little terror! She has two speeds, Tornado and dead! She is just a crazy girl, and we love her so much. Weenie our male pug is protective of her, and biscuit our Westie, well let's just say she is NOT so thrilled. So we are working on adjusting that and making sure everyone gets lots and lots of hugs. So here are a couple of photo's I just took.... what a face...what's not to love!
The family that had Cheeto and named her Cheeto Bandito....hahha! were ALL allergic to her! Can you imagine? So we rescued her..... wink wink! It's a dirty job but someone had to do it right? This is my birthday present, and actually she has become my husband's dog in a way. She ADORES him. We love her.. and the kids are getting lots of laughs.. actually we all are! EVERYTHING is a chew toy for her, paper, hair, pillows, furniture, plastic, stuffing carefully removed from stuffed toys.... you name it... she can chew it! She also has the funniest bark, it sounds like a cat being run over! Her favorite thing to do is to sit on top of the ottoman or couch and smack Biscuit over the head then run off! Maybe that would explain why Biscuit is less than loving this. She has also figured out how to run through certain places in the picket fence to the next door neighbor's house. They have two little girls and magically the exit from their yard is usually blocked by a beach ball once Cheeto "wanders" over to their side! Cheeto runs in circles and the little girls follow her. Needless to say it poops her out for awhile.

New Papertreyink Forum

Hey all you papertrey fans..... Nichole and her crew have a new forum! It will be the place when she has her new release coming up. You can post comments and start threads etc. Looks kind of fun... I'm game!

Here's the link:

http://papertreyink.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

Easy Please!

So I needed a stack of cards quick, and had favorited this card from Inglishrea to change up in honor of her Featured Stamper :

DTGD BEate Sketch Card

Yeah, I am a little late making the deadline.... but it's the thought. I really like this new set True Friend, so many possibilities, and I combined it with Papertreyink Borders and Corners to make it more interesting. I used a very small teardrop shaped piece, not sure which Borders and Corners set...oops, to trim out the scallop, then stamped over it with the larger circle image. It was a goof originally, but I like how it turned out. I am not a big fan of Cranberry Crisp, really tried to embrace last years IN colors, and honestly, they were OUT for me.... just never really liked them. But Cranberry really worked with the DP I had and it used up some of my ribbon. Honestly, I really like this color combo and will use it again. It looks very ethnic and I like that it is a bit unusual, or unexpected from what I usually do.

It went together quickly, and I will use the layout again!

Farewell Beautiful Friend

This card was for a personal friend who passed away last week. He started the company I work for .... J.T. Posey Company truely from the back of his car. A wonderful character and a very warm spirited man. I am proud to work for his company, and have gotten to know him. In this day and age, it's hard to find a company that is still family owned and operated. His son Ernie is alot like his dad, and has done so much to not only grow the business, but maintain the quality and integrity his Dad built.

It is a little feminine, but as I mentioned, the company logo is a Posey flower, and I just thought it fit. The company colors are also green, and adding just a little of that back in really seemed to work. I used the Nestabilities I just got a few hours ago from Papertreyink.com and really had a good time playing with them. It did take a few minutes to figure out the "sandwich" you have to build. In case you haven't seen it on Nichole Heady's blog here it is...

Cutting Sandwich for a Cuttlebug... because that's what I used:

plate A

plate C

die with the ridged side facing up

paper/cardstock

plate B

Embossing Sandwich:

plate A

plate B

die with ridged side up

beige mat from Spellbinders

3 pieces of cardstock

plate B

I really like these things, and I think I will find alot of versatility in using them. I embossed the so saffron layer, and you can barely see the edge of it, kind of looks like I embossed a circle there. I also embossed the olive piece. Once you cut it, you just remove the excess, change your sandwich around and emboss it. It really is that easy....

I used the Linen background stamp from SU on the river rock, and then stamped my flower image. I love those little velvet flowers from Maya Road, purchased from Papertreyink.... they have everything! The sentiment is also from the new release from Papertrey... beautiful flowers or at least I think that's what it's called. The pearl finished off the flower, and I bought them from target... KC and company. Tres Chic was stamped in the background, and I just love how several of the words really fit this card and what I was trying to convey. Hope Ernie and his family like it!