Glittery Snowflake

This card is for todays Less Is More challenge which for the second Saturday of the month is a OLC. This weeks theme, Let It Snow.

The snowflake is made with a set of sticky rub-ons from Close to My Heart that I bought a year or two ago. When I saw todays challenge I decided to blow the dust off the package and actually give the embellishment a try.

the picture doesn't do the glittery snowflake justice, it's really pretty IRL because the glitter has a lovely range of blues to it. The sentiment is from Verve stamps using a chalk ink from colorbox. The lovely pearls are Kaisercraft the color is demin.

This next picture is a close up with the light hitting the card from an angle.



I made another card using Serene Snowflakes and purples, but then I saw Vicky's snowflake submission and our cards are almost identical; so I'll remake mine later cutting it up so I can use layers (not for LIM obviously). :)

Thanks for taking the time to stop in; looking forward to seeing all the lovely creations.

Memory Box Dies

Over the last few weeks I have seen a number of crafters using the ornament, snowflakes and Christmas tree dies from Memory Box and everyone seems to agree; gorgeous dies but hard to glue down because the dies are so finely detailed. I've struggled with the ornament and Christmas tree die as well but think I have fixed the problem.

Last week I bought some adhesive sheets to make one of those Holtz 12 Days tags. Once they arrived, it struck me that this might be the solution to the Memory Box dies. I gave it a try last evening and am pleased with the results.

I made three attempts; one using gold foil and one with a metal sheet and one with card stock.

The foil attempt didn't work at all. There wasn't enough strength in the foil/adhesive combination and the diecut didn't make it half way out of the die before tearing. I continued on just to test it and the same problem came up when removing the open cut areas.

The second attempt was card stock. The ornament worked beautifully, the tree was a huge disaster. Personally I don't think that die is deep enough so while it did cut through the card stock, it didn't cut completely though the thin layer of adhesive. When trying to free the open areas, the adhesive wasn't cut all the way through and pulled on the diecut areas. :(






My third attempt was using some thin metal sheets that I had purchased eons ago. This medium worked so well I ended up cutting two from the metal sheet. Once I had the die cut free of all the bits, the adhesive backing made placing the cut very easy. It's a stong bond; both cuts are attached to bases that are covered in embossed iridescent ice and I have tested the bond in several ways and its firm.

To bond the metal and card stock to the adhesive I cut equal sizes of both then starting at one end of the adhesive, I peeled back the edge placed it on the metal/ card stock edge. Using the brayer, I rolled the adhesive along the metal/card stock as I pulled the backing off. This really helped to keep the tape to medium smooth and bubble free. Added bonus, I finally found a use for my brayer!!



I placed the die and metal into the Bigshot; added a folded sheet of computer paper between the metal and the top plate then cut the die. I add the paper because my plates are so old, the cut marks can sometimes transfer to the item being cut. Since metal is very sensitive I knew adding the paper would keep the final cut clean and free of the marks. I took the same steps with the card stock. Once cut, the removal of the open areas was really easy. I think the weight of the metal made it easiest to remove the open areas.



The completed ornament is the first metal try; the one without the bling is the second one and I'll finish it up tonight. Both cuts will be used on Christmas cards. Not sure which direction I'll go with the card stock ornament.



So for anyone that may not have discovered this idea yet, and plan to give it a try, please let me know if you get the tree to work. I'm more than a bit disappointed in that one right now.

Supplies:
The metal sheets were probably purchased at Recollections; so they might be available at Michaels.
The adhesive sheets were purchased Ellen Hutson LLC: Be Creative Tape Sheets by Skoowang
They also carry all the Memory Box dies, DP and stamps.

Babe It's Cold Outside ......

..... and raining! YEAH!!!! Finally. I'm a winter person and as such love the cold, rain and even the snow. I also love fall and spring; but definitely winter is my favorite. It's been raining since yesterday morning off and on; I think the highs are in the 40's, maybe low 50's. After the miserable summer we had I am enjoying this gorgeous rainy weather. Sadly it won't be enough to overcome the huge drought we are suffering through, but at least it will save me from having to water my foundation this week.



So enough of that; below are the last of any cards I'll be doing in green. I have two more in the making, but again, they need to dry. I might post them later this week. Oh and no more trees for me, this is the last of my tree stamps. LOL!!

The first card is stamped in Old Olive onto Shimmery White card stock. The stamp is called Holly Jolly Christmas by Unity. The gorgeous ribbon came from Micheals and the glitter is by Glitter Ritz in Grasshopper. It's hard to see in the picture, however the two larger tree centers are popped up. I tried the heart in red on the sample card, but it ruined the monochromatic theme instead of adding a "pop" of color. Glad I tried in on a sample first. :) The layout is a modified case of a card my friend Linda Keal made back in April. Seems I case her wonderful cards alot, as well and hit her up for techniques. I'm so glad to finally have someone that stamps so close to me.



The second card was for last weeks SCS color challenge. I'm posting it looking for help/input; this card refuses to come together. I love how the image turned out, but I am lost on how to layer it. As of this moment; I don't even like the scalloped die frame anymore. Any and all input or ideas on how to save this card from the trash is welcome. Oh and if you think it works, please tell what it is that works, truly I'm just lost with this one. So frustrating. (Stamp is retired Illuminations by SU; stamped in Gold embossing powder, colored with Pear Pizzazz and Crumb Cake)

Thanks for popping in. It's dinner time here and I still have a few chores left, so I won't be back on line tonight.

Hope all my blog friends are well and have a good week.

Hugs,
Carole

Going Green ......

Mandi and Chrissie are tapping into my favorite things these last two weeks. Last week was bling and this weeks Less Is More is a color challenge to use green.

This little card is made with a cling set by Penny Black; however I have already misplaced it in the chaos of my craft room so can't let you all know what it is called. Should I find it tomorrow, I'll edit this post.
EDIT: Thank you Mandi for finding the name of the set; it's Winter Wonders. I used SU!s Shimmery White and Lucky Limeade card stock with VersaMagic chalk ink (Tea Leaves). The bling is a mix of pearls and rhinestones from Zva and look wonderful IRL. That pretty much covers this one.

I have three other cards on the table, two of them drying, and one from last weeks SCS color challenge that received much needed input from a fellow stamper so I could finish it.

Thank you for stopping by,
Carole

Pear Pizzazz Trees

This card is for SCS Color Challenge #351 (Pear Pizzazzz, White & Craft) and my final submission for Less Is More #43 (A bit of bling). This little card has left behind heaps of destruction. It has been torn apart at least half a dozen times since Tuesday leaving fallen scraps of paper, bling and embossed trees littering the floor around my table. Unfortunately I dropped my Cuttlebug machine and it landed on the handle and the whole thing came apart. I managed to snap the casing back on, but nope, it's definitely broken. :( I still have the Big Shot but must admit that I prefer my smaller CB. Oh well, the plus side is that now I have a bit of space for something else. Silver lining and all .... gotta love 'em.

About the card:
The card stock is SU!s retired Kraft and 2011 In-Color Pear Pizzazz. Sentiment is SU!s Teeny Tiny Wishes stamped with Early Expresso. The trees are a die and embossing folder set from Cuttlebug that is made up of three trees and a Santa shaped like a tree. The lovely bling is by Zva and the puffy snow is Liquid Applique.

It think that covers it. Thank you for stopping by and I hope every one has a great weekend.

Carole

Bling It On - la parte due

Two more submissions for this weeks Less Is More Challenge which is to use a bit of bling.



The card above looks so lovely IRL. I tried like crazy to capture the pretty colors but I don't think the picture does this card justice. I used SU!s Wisteria and Concord Crush card stock and ink. I used two stamps here; Agapanthus Cluster and Agapanthus Long (Stampendous!). The large cluster image was done in Wisteria (stamped off once) and the smaller image in Concord Crush. It's really hard to see, but there are three rhinestones on here; a medium one in the center of the Crush solid agapanthus and two smaller ones in the flowers to the left and right.



This card might be a bit too much to be called CAS with the layers and ribbon, not to mention barely a stitch of white to be seen, but it did start out with all white so I thought I'd toss it in anyway. There are absolutely no markings on the stamp so I have no idea who makes it. I've had it for several years and think I may have purchased it at my local stamp store. The card stock is Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black and Whisper White. The sentiment is a portion of a stamp that reads "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". I masked off the HNY portion; the set is called Occasional Quotes by SU!. The image is stamped with Stazon black and colored with a mixture of SU! markers and Prismacolor pencils. The three blings are ornaments on the image. I colored in the little caps and hooks with a gold Zig pen.

I have three more cards on the craft table tonight, but won't be able to finish them until tomorrow or possibly Wednesday. I'm in a mad rush to get as many on-off cards made as I can before the 9th. Whatever number I come up short, will the count that will haveto be mass produced. :(

I can't believe how fast Christmas has rushed up this year. Anyone remember when they were young and it seemed like Christmas would never get here?? What the heck happened to those days?? LOL

Tomorrow will be dedicated to leaving comments. Hope everyone is well.

Carole

Bling It On .......

First off I need to make a HUGE apology to Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More. They did me the honor of selecting my week 40 submission and I didn't even know. It's rare that I don't look to see who has been ShowCASed because I like to see if I selected the same cards. My only excuse (and a sorry one at that) is I have been so busy at work, I don't bother getting on line in the evenings. **hangs head in shame**
Ladies, thank you both for the honor of selecting my Orange and Red card to be ShowCASed. As soon as I can figure out how, I will make sure I place the tag in my side bar.

Now for this weeks challenge ......






Above are two submissions for this weeks Less Is More challenge; to use "a bit of bling". On both cards the bling is the buttons; the pink is obvious, but unfortunately the black rhinestones don't show up in the picture.

A little about the cards:
I used glitter on the black card and Stickles on the pink, I like the glitter better as it toned down the blue highlights made with a marker. On the hat I used Copic Spica glitter pen in black, it looks wonderful IRL. The Snowman is Inkadinkado and the sentiment is SU!s All Holidays. I used SU! markers in Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Blue Bliss and Pumpkin Pie. The Rhinestones are from Prima and the die cut snowflakes are by Memory Box. Card stock is SU Whisper white, Regal Rose and Basic Black. I think both cards turned out well and are cute. I prefer the card with the black trim, but the pink one is special because it is for the youngest daughter of my BFF.

I have two other cards in the works but need to get to my chores and make some dinner. Hopefully I will get them done before I go off to bed and can post them tomorrow.

Thank you for stopping by; looking forward to seeing what all the LIMettes have made. :)

It's Black or White ... no gray areas

This lovely little card is for the Less Is More challenge (#42) which is to make a silhouette card. I started this card on Sunday with the "fall" stamp from this set but could not make it work. Then this morning at SCS the CAS challenge was to make a Wintery card and that sent me in a different direction for the LIM card; I used the "winter" stamp from this set and wow ... finally got it to come together.

Not really much to this card: the stamp set is from CTMH, the paper is SU!s Whisper White and Basic Black; the ink is Varsafine Onyx Black (love LOVE this ink pad) and the embossing folder is an old one from Cuttlebug. Though it doesn't show up in the picture, I went over the image with my black Spica Glitter pen and it really added a lovely subtle sparkle to the silhouette.

On to the old ......

This next card was supposed to be for last weeks LIM challenge which was OLC week with the added instruction to use leaves. Unfortunately I didn't get home in time on Friday to post it. :( This card started out as a test (black was the closest pad on hand) but I liked it so much I decided to throw caution to the wind and make black leaves.


The stamps are my first from Paper Trey Ink; the paper is SU! Whisper White the ink is that fabulous Versafine and SU! Real Red. There is layer of fine black glitter over the leaves and last, my much loved Kaisercraft pearls.

PS - Those ultra fine glitters .... they get everywhere!! No matter how careful I was, that stuff just would not be contained. I swear those little glitters have legs and wings. LOL!!

Thank you for stopping in. It will be a slow at work this week (finally) so I hope to get in a lot of card making. Plus I'm looking forward to checking in with all my favorite blogs.

Carole

LIM In Orange and Red

At Less Is More this week, Divas Chrissie and Mandi have thrown down a color challenge: orange and red. Gorgeous fall colors that scream "leaves please".

This is the third card that I made for this challenge. The first ones were too embellished and/or had all the wrong card stock for the stamp. As I was coloring in the third set of leaves I realized that the stamp was very casual and so instead of using a smooth white I tried SU!'s Natural Ivory card stock. It was just perfect for these colors and stamp.

I stamped out the image in Soft Suede two times; once on the card and once on a scrap. I colored in the leaves with red and orange pencil; ran back over the red with SU!'s Real Red marker; took the Soft Suede marker and darkend the lines back up where they had faded under the pencils; then in a few spots used a glitter pen in red to add a bit of highlight. I cut out the second set of leaves, stuck a foam dimensional under the larger body of the leaves popped it onto the card, then put a dab of glue under the inner tips so that the leaves are flat to the card near the sentiment, then flare out from there. The dots are part of the stamp (which is by Unity) and I added the glitter to the inner dots and red Kaisercraft pearls to the dots at the tip of the leaves. (Unfortunately the picture looks like orange and darker orange, but it really is orange and red)

Other then the glitter pen and pearls, I let this stamp do all the work. I layered it only because I went back and forth with myself on whether or not to add a red or orange framed layer. I obviously let go of that idea, but decided that a color on color layer was enough and right for this card. The picture below is a close up of the leaves.

I missed last weeks Star challenge because I ruined my card with a water spill before I could take the picture. I plan to make another one sometime this week and will post it with next weeks LIM challenge. :)

Thank you for stopping by.

Sunday is Snippet Day .....

It's week 42 of Jules' Sunday Snippet Challenge over at Always With A Heart. I can't believe it's already been 42 weeks. I remember the Sunday Jules' set the challenge for herself and thought it was a good idea so I joined in.



Sadly, I haven't made a dent in my snippets; I think those scraps of paper procreate at night while I'm sleeping. LOL!! Of course my snippet box isn't just cut scraps from some other project. A heavy number of my scraps/snippets are cards that didn't turn out so the whole thing gets dumped into the scrap box. That is the case with todays card.

This card was originally intended for Less Is More (Wk34 Sketch Challenge) and the snippet challenge for week 38. Obviously it never made it to either challenge. Today as I was digging for some white card stock I decided to give it another go. I trimmed down the original single layer base then added a nice framed layer of black and popped it back onto a different base card. I added some black Stickles to the butterfly to give it some sparkle as it looked kind of dull next to the speciality paper. Though I don't really care for the sentiment, and may try and wiggle it off, over all I'm very please with this second version. The sentiment is there because it was the placment for the sketch challenge; however I don't like sentiments dropped in big open spaces. I tend to keep everything together if I add a sentiment at all. If I manage to get rid of that sentiment without doing damage to the card I'll repost a picture.

The card stock is retired SU! Presto Patterns Speciality paper; the Crushed Curry ink and colored card stock is also retired. The Spellbinder dies are from the Fancy Tags One and Fleur de Lis squares. The pearls are Kaisercraft and the butterfly is Martha Stewart. Unfortunately I can't remember which set the sentiment came from, but it's SU!.

Below is one of the pictures I took of the card before it hit the bin last month. The jewelry was too much with only the curry frame on and single layer base. I'm sure I'll try and use the jewelry piece again, and hopefully it will work out next time.

Polka Dots ....

Ok now that is a challenge. I'm not much of a polka dot girl but I knew with all the DP I have there had to be something in here that I could use. :)

I kept this one very simple. I used the DP and one sentiment. The little birds were on one of the sheets of DP so I cut those out and added them to the sentiment center. The first card I did I added embellishments and it looked horrid, so I made a second one (this one) and kept is plain.



The Dp is Hey Birdie by Kaisercraft and the sentiment is Verve's "Kind Words".

I wanted to say that I think I've been away so long that Mr. Blooger has decided to punish me by not letting me post on anyone's blog. :(

At every blog I visit and try to leave a comment I get a message that I need to sign in; then it gives me a second message that I don't have rights to my own blog!!!!!

On top of that, going from the dashboard to my actual blog I'm getting kicked out and I have to sign in again.

I'm going to give up for the day. However ... for all you ladies at LIM and Katina and Jules; I tried ... I really did try and leave several comments on your lovely cards. Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow.

Hugs to all

A Masculine Birthday Wish - LIM#7

This will have to be my final entry for the this weeks Less is More challenge. My mom is here for a visit and I've been sneaking into the craft room for three days to make cards whenever she gets distracted. Not a very good way for me to spend time with her. I'll make it up to her over the rest of the week. :)

Anyway, this lovely card came together so nicely and quite by accident. I was tossing about in the scrap bin and put the center oval to the side to see if I could make use of it. A bit later I tossed the die-cut to the side (where it landed on top of the oval) and thats when I saw that the two together looked rather nice. The center oval is a scrap of some unknown DP (wish I did know because it is lovely); the black die-cut is by Memory Box. The sentiment panel was cut from a piece of scrap using Old Olive along the inner edge before I removed the Spellbinder die to give it some depth. The sentiment is from SU! called Sincere Salutations and it is popped up on dimensionals.

So I guess since this one is scraps, I can submit this for Jules Sunday Snippets as well.

I've decided this is a nice masculine card, good colors and not too fancy but with just enough flare to keep it from being too plain.

So good luck to Mandi and Chrissie; I'll try and check back in before I head out tonight and hopefully the 1000 mark will be met.

Flowery Thank You - LIM#6

This is submission number six for this weeks Less Is More challenge; which is to get to 1000 submissions in honor of reaching 1000 Followers.

This card will also get tossed into Jules Sunday Snippet challenge bacause its all scraps. In fact if you look closely, you can see how messed up the tag is, I had to squeeze the bit of green to make it work and it is tucked under the rosette because it didn't quite make it to the end of the sentiment panel. LOL!!

Just a Note = LIM#5

I can't believe how many cards I've made this week. They are simple obviously but not normal for me to make up this many cards. However I just had to keep going to help along with the Less Is More challenge this week which is to hit 1000 submissions. So with that .......



This is very plain but sometimes one needs a card that isn't bulky so it can actually go in the post without a special envelope. So I avoided adding pearls to the butterfly and no ribbon. :)

This is also done with scraps so I'm going to enter it into Jules Sunday Snippets challenge which I haven't done in many weeks.

Thanks for stopping in.
Oh and hugs to Mandi and Chrissie.... you ladies amaze me.

Paper and butterfly are Basic Grey's Out Of Print line. SU Sentiment from Sweet Little Sentiments

Wow That's Bright .........

This is submission number 4 for this weeks Less Is More challange. The lovely Diva's at LIM have tasked us with hitting 1000 submissions to celebrate the 1000 Followers. While I'm guessing that the LIMettes can meet this challenge: I'm wondering how badly Chrissie and Mandi's fingers and wrists will be aching after acknowleding all these submissions!! You go ladies, I have no doubt you can do it; keep ice on hand to cool down those fingers. ;)

There isn't much to tell about this card. I pulled scraps from the bin and colored the flowers to match. Added some Stickles here and there and a bit of twine with a button and topped it off with a small tag from SU!

Other than the main image and twine, everything else is SU! I popped up each layer on dimensionals and left the inside blank for personalizing the T/Y.

I'll try and make a couple more cards before tomorrow nights deadline, but my mom is here visiting and its rude to stay in my craft room and not visit. :(

An Old Favorite ....

This is submission number 3 for the this weeks Less Is More challenge. The challenge this week is to hit 1,000 entries in celebration of 1,000 Followers. The Divas have given the LIMettes an "anything goes" platform as long as it's CAS. :)

This card was really hard to finish because I kept adding ribbon and buttons, then DP as a layer or layers; but in the end, I had to just let the water coloring be the embellishment. It was very hard to take this picture and not try one more time to add something else to this card.

The main panel is very old and from a retired SU! set called Heartspeak. When I first received this set I stamped all the images out and colored them in to submit to Splitcoast Stampers to use as the "index" card for this set. After that, I tossed the images in my to-be-used-later bin (this is the bin where I have images that I've colored in while watching TV with no real card in mind) and there it has been all this time.

Today I went digging for ideas and came upon the actual stamp set for Heartspeak; it was then that I decided to pull this pretty panel out and finally use it.

To there is my long drawn out post for a very plain but colorful card. Thank you for stopping by.

Pink Snow

This is my second submission for Week 33 Less is More challenge.

The stamp set is one of my favorites from Stampin Up! and it has seen ink many times. I have seen such lovely Christmas cards over the years done in pinks that I thought I'd give it a try. As usual the picture isn't the best but the card is very pretty IRL.

I used SU!'s shimmery white paper and several different SU pinks. The pink frame is Regal Rose and so is the sentiment. Again, IRL the frame and sentiment match perfectly as all SU products do, but somehow I managed to make them look like two different colors. Maybe its time I took a photography class. LOL!!

I have two more cards in the works, however my Mom has come for a visit this week so I have to fit in crafting time when she is doing other things.

Thanks for stopping in.

Come on autumn!!!

This card is for Week 33 at the Less Is More Challenge. Chrissie and Mandi have given us a "free of all" challange which is make whatever we want as long as its CAS. Yeah!!!

So this one is pretty simple and I got the inspiration for the Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoast which is to use leaves.

There are almost a dozen colors in those leaves which I watercolored using the tops of my SU! pads. Love watercoloring that way.

Thank you for stopping by.

Stamp: Memory Box Brilliant Maple Branch
Card stock: Whisper White and Lucky Limeade
Ink: Chocolate Chip Craft, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Lucky Limeade, Certainly Celery, Really Rust, Dusty Durango, Marigold Morning, Tanferine Tango, More Mustard, So Saffron and Crushed Curry (which I used last to paint each of the leaves)
Embellisments: bakers twine, wood button by Kaisercraft

One Layer Belated Birthday

First ....... OMG!!! My card from last weeks Less Is More challenge (to use metal) was selected as one of the cards to be ShowCASed!!! Mandi and Chrissie ... I am so honored .... thank you ever so much ladies!!! I also want to apologize for the late thank you. I have been off line all week and had to rush to make todays deadline so only noticed it when I checked to see how much time I had left.

Speaking of .... sliding into home base at the bottom of the 9th.....



My submission for Less Is More Week 32 Challenge. This weeks challenge was my personal bane, the one layer card with the added "Seeing Double" tagged on. I have to admit I thought of this card first and then tossed around several other ideas in my head all week; however it came down to the wire today and it was especially nice to see that a week later I could still use my original idea. Mainly because I needed to be able to make a card, take a picture, label it in PS and post in in under 44 minutes. :)

I used a 2001 hostess set from SU! called A Greeting for All Reasons and the sentiment (also SU!) is It's Your Birthday. However only after posting this do I realize I used the sentiment incorrectly. The gap between the "thought and thought" and "HBB" is so one part of the sentiment can go on the outside of the card, while the lower half goes on the inside. I'll have to do a remake. Anyway, I stamped out the candle twice, gave it a bit of color with pencils and then dabbed on yellow Stickles for the flame. I'm please with this one. It is actually very nice IRL and will be even better once I fix the sentiment. LOL

In other news; I will be back on line on a regular basis again. I broke down and dipped into my savings and bought a new computer. I hated using my work computer and it was a nighmare trying to log on to some sites and blogs. The security on that thing is so tight it would block even the simplest sites because it detected something on the blog/site that it considered "inappropriate". Whatever!! So I now have a new HP laptop. I had an HP destop for years and it never gave me any trouble so I'm hoping I have the same luck with this new one.

Looking forward to this weeks LIM challenge that is a "free for all" .... as long as its CAS .... and the goal is to hit 1000 posts in honor of the 1000 Followers. I've got a few cards in mind already. :)

EDIT TO ADD THE REDO: I like them both, even with the booboo on the first one. :)





Thank you for stopping by!
Take care
Carole

i miss shoe .......

This card is for todays Clean and Simple challenge at Splitcoast stampers. The theme was "shoes".

I've had this Uptown Design stamp for ages and thought of it immediately when I saw todays theme. This if one of those rare stamps in my collection; it's seen ink many times. LOL

I copied the colors that are on the stamp label so I can't take credit for the lovely combination. If it were left to me I'd never use yellow; however I started making this card at 1:00am so I didn't feel like "thinking" about colors. :)

There are three layers to this card; the first is the base card, then a frame in Elegant Eggplant (though for the life of me I can't get it to look like anything other than black), followed by Very Vanilla for the main panel. I masked off a very loose rectangle and spounged on Daffodil Delight. I inked up the shoe stamp in Elegant Eggplant (making sure not to ink the attached sentiment) and stamped that into the masked area. I removed the mask and using the fine tip end of the Elegant Eggplant marker, drew in a broken line frame.

By time I finished coloring the shoe it was getting towards 2am. I stopped for a tea break and then I bravely picked up my clippers and cut out the shoe!!! I didn't mess up the image or lose a finger....miracles really do happen. LOL

I attached the shoe to the top of the banner; then attached pop-ups to both pieces to give the card some depth and called it done. :D

I'm very pleased with this card even though its mainly yellow. Heck I'm so pleased I'm going to keep the Daffodil out and use it on another stamp project.

Heavy Metal

This is my submission for Week 31 at the Less Is More challenge. This weeks theme is colour, more specifically, metallic.

"METALLIC - something that has a METALLIC finish to it... ink, embossing, card, charms, actual metal... "

This morning when I logged on to see what the LIM Divas had in store for us I was thrilled. I've had this fabulous fan for some time now and always knew I wanted to use it on a thank you card, but never really found a good layout. So after I double checked to make sure I could use it for this challenge, I flipped over to Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge thread to see if I might find something to inspire me, no luck there. However I found this gorgeous card called Water Lily by Chris Dickerson who is this weeks Featured Stamper challenge.

I'm not so sure the Divas are going to let me get away with this one since I used a little more than half the white space up with DP; however I'm game to try again if this one gets the buzzer. :D

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated.

Some Happy Balloons

This my my submission for this weeks Less Is More challenge. The Diva's theme this week was "Things that move". :)

I'm still playing with ways to use ink from last weeks challenge. The blue background was another test I tried so instead of tossing it, I decided to trim it close to the color edge and stamp it with the balloons. The ballons are DP from the scrap bin (no clue what company) and to finish it off I embossed a scrap of white with dots as a carry over from the largest balloon; some stickles; and a mini tag from SU and a tiny stamp also from SU! I might go back over the stickles again, it seems to have a bald spot, but thats an easy fix.

Thank you for stopping by. I have more cards in the works, I just can't seem to finish anything. UGH!!

Summer In Texas .........

This is the 10 day forecast for Dallas Texas ......

I'm looking into property in Alaska ..... I am not a summer person and these temps are depressing the hell out of me. I'm literally house bound if I'm not at work. Not sure who is getting those 70's at night because a 3:30 this morning on my way into work, the temp was 90!!

I loathe summertime. :(

Home Made Smooch ....

It's Saturday which means a new challenge is up at Less Is More... yeah!! ... and what a fantastic challenge. Today is the dreaded One Layer Card which I tend to suck at; or at the very least struggle with; however today there was a lovely add-on to the challenge which was to use inks in a new way.




Here is what I did:
I heat embossed the leaf image in clear powder onto whisper white card stock. Then I placed several drops of Lucky Limeade ink into a mini mister and added a couple drops of water. I misted the corner area then blotted the excess off with a paper towel. I added a few more drops of water to the ink and sprayed again only further out into the card area. I repeated that one more time so there was a light, medium and dark progression of color.

Then I loaded up a paint brush with several big drops of Always Artichoke and "tapped" it onto the card creating the dark ink drops.

At that point I thought the card was going very well, but it definitely needed something else. I looked around and thought maybe I could spray it with Smooch. So I quickly made a "sample" card and sprayed it with the Vanilla Smooch from SU!. (there was no way i was going to try that spray on this card because I really loved how it was coming along and we ALL know what happens when we go too far ... disaster!!!) It was ok, but it really washed out the darker spots on the card and turned the ink drops into a funny greenish gray.

So I sat there thinking .... always dangerous ..... and wondered if the Smooch would take the SU ink. As I was washing out the mini mister my eye caught onto another cool SU product called Shimmer Paint/Ink. I already knew the Smooch faded out my green so I decided to give the Shimmer Ink a try.

It worked!! Unfortunately I don't know how much of each I used. I poured a few big drops of the Shimmer paint into the mister first and kept adding drops of Lucky Limeade until it was a nice blend with the overall card.

This card looks so wonderful IRL but I just can't seem to capture it on film (well digital actually). The glimmer from the home made smooch is definitely not showing up and the layering of color doesn't seem to show up either.

Poor picture aside, the coolest thing about this is I can have Shimmer Mists in any color I want. I'm going to take a stab a Ranger's Broken Glass next; it is one of my all time favorite blues.



Thank you for taking the time to visit, it is much appreciated.

Red White and Blue

This weeks challenge at Less Is More was to use the colors of your national flag. In my case the American flag and its proud red, white and blue. I love my flag, its beautiful. However as much as I love our flag and think it is wonderful, those colors should only be used on a flag. They look awful on anything else. (personal preference speaking)

I would say it's impossible to make a decent card with RW&B but the fabulous examples submitted for this challenge by the other ladies would disprove that statement. So what I will say is that I can't make RW&B cards and would rather they give us another acetate challenge. **sigh**

So keeping that key word "challenge" in my head I tackled this bad boy. On Saturday I was pretty pleased that I actually come up with a card that wasn't too bad. However, when I went to post it someone else had one so much like it and it was SOOO much better that I tore it apart and started all over again.
... and again
... and again

My only proud moment is right now, because I did NOT give up. As much as I hated this challenge, I did it. The cards suck and will hit the trash bin as soon as this post is completed, but I did it. So here are my attempts at the challenge. The first card is the fifth or sixth generation of the original and the second one is one of the several attempts at not using the stars. This challenge was a sinful waste of good paper. :(

Dare To Get Dirty 2011

It's the annual Dare To Get Dirty Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers! It began last weekend and ends tomorrow night. I posted one of the challenge cards early yesterday, today I'm posting two more cards that I have completed which cover a combined 7 challenges. yeah!!


This first card is my favorite so far. I just love how the blue pops against the kraft; unfortunately the touches of blue in the DP don't show up very well in the pictures I took. It looks so pretty IRL.

The flowers are made from punched Baja Breeze; sponged with Baja Breeze and Pacific Point. I then spritzed the pieces with water and crumpled them up. After a few minutes I semi flattened them out, let them dry, then layered the flower together, finishing it off with some old SU! beads that were gathering dust. The DP is framed in Baja, then i distressed both layer and sponged the edges with BB and PP. The lovely wood frame is from Kaisercraft, the leaves are die cut using SU!s Little Leaves and the lovely seam binding is also Baja from SU. The kraft card stock and DP are from Memory Box.




The card above covers 4 challenges and I really had fun making this one. I rarely make masculine cards so I tend to struggle with them, but this one came to me fairly fast and though it will never be in my top 100 I am pleased with it. I'm especially pleased with how the globe turned out. I'm not sure how to explain this, but what I wanted was to give the globe a roundness or to have the center puffed out as if I cut a real globe. So using the large handle on my scissors and a soft pad, I stressed the image from behind starting in the center working my way to the edges with decreasing pressure as I went. Not sure if that made sense, but the result was what I was after. I tried to capture the "roundness" in the second picture, but it doesn't really show up very well.

I used SU! Real Red, True Thyme and cream naturals card stock. The inks were True Thyme and Early Expresso.



So there are two more submissions for DTGD2011 and if I'm lucky I might be able to make two more cards today and maybe even come up with something for the LIM challenge. :)

Thank you for stopping by.

Eating Crow ...

This past week Splitcoast Stampers has been holding their Annual Dare To Get Dirty Challenge Week. Thirty eight (38) challenges over the course of a week hosted by current and past Dirty Dozen members. Its a fabulous way to spent a week especially if you are lucky enough not to work, or can take the time off. Unfortunately June/July/August are incredibly busy for me at work so I'm playing catch-up today and tomorrow. Needless to say I'll be lucky to finish maybe three or four challenges before Monday's cutoff, but if I combined a few challenges I might just get in a good 40%. :)

So now to the eating crow part:
I hate one layer cards. I suck at OLC. They never sparkle, say "wow" or even garner a "ohhhh". I never like the way they turn out and to be honest, I'm simply not talented enough to pull them off. OLC are the HARDEST to make in my opinion. So here now is a OLC that I just finished and for once, I absolutely love how it turned out. Its very plain but I think it works; more so IRL because the embossing doesn't stand out in the picture. So I guess I now have to say I suck at one layer cards 99.9% of the time. LOL!!

I embossed the image using SU!'s Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossing powder (lord only knows how I managed to get it centered); pulled out my re-inkers and colored away. Low and behold, the first OLC that I can truly say I like. :)

Thank you for stopping by, as always its wonderful to hear from old blog friends and new ones alike.

PS - Would have loved to have had this stamp for last weeks Less is More challenge; unfortunately it didn't arrive until yesterday.

Carole

Supplies:
SU! Faith In Nature
SU! Inkers: Pear Pizazz, Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Early Expresso ...

22....23....24....25.....26...............

The following is my submission for the Less Is More challenge #26.... and 25 .... and 24 ..... and 23 ...... and 22........... LOL LOL

I've been really busy over the last month at work with budget season in full swing, and here at home finally getting my craft room done. So while I tried to make cards, I didn't finish most of them by the deadlines and for all of them, was too lazy to pull out the photo tent to take pictures. I hope you don't mind the huge post, but feel free to blow past everything below the current challenge. :D

LIM#26 Something Fruity
I bought this Unity stamp because I liked the way it looked, but then couldn't think of a darn thing to do with it. Thankfully I did buy it because of all the stamps I own, this is the ONLY one with fruit. Butterfly and birds stamps i have by the dozens, but fruit stamps .....





If you look carefully you'll see that the pear with the dark label has a very slightly different stamped image. That is due to the card stock. My Big Shot die plates are really old and all the cuts in it leave an impression on card stock. So now days I use an extra piece of white on top of whatever I'm cutting so the "cuts" in the plate don't come through onto the piece I'm cutting. Well when I was trying to decide how to color the stamp, I reached for a scrap piece of white to see how the Pear and Artichoke looked together. It looked good so I colored the stamp again and stamped it out on a clean piece of CS (light colored labeled card). It was then that I noticed how the scrap piece had taken the ink and I really liked the effect. So I cut both the good image and the scrap image down and made two cards. :)
~Unity Stamp; Pear Pizazz and Always Artichoke card stock and ink; twine; Memory Box Pastry Labels die~


LIM#25 Ribbon & Buttons and Sunday Snippets #30
This first card was inspired by a couple of ladies on blogspot though I can't remember where I saw their cards (I think one is Shirley's); however I remember loving the pink with the black. So I made a flower, found a pretty bright pink button, pulled out two pieces of pink ribbon and pearls and ta-da ..... a very busy and very not CAS card. **sigh**
So I went back to the drawing board and made the kite card. I used the fabulous ribbon as the inspiration for coloring (the wonderful ribbon was gifted to me by one of my very favorite blog friends), dug through my Basic Grey and SU! buttons, trimmed out the kites with a scrap of blue and called it done. Much more CAS than the first one; and though I don't normally get into really bright colors, I have to admit I really like how this turned out. :) With the exception of the ribbons, all the pieces of these cards are scraps. Even the kites; as they were in this little box I have where I toss aside stamped images that I start to use, but then change my mind.
~Verve sentiments; unknown kite stamp; Spellbinders fancy tags die; Kaisercraft pearls; scrap ribbon and card stock~







LIM#24 Circles and Sunday Snippets #30
I made the first card from kraft paper, loved it, but thought it was too busy for LIM. So I made the second card late in the week but I don't really care for it because it's too plain and too washed out; but at least it has big open white (or in this case vanilla) space. :D Oh and absolutely everything on these cards is fromthe scrap bin so it qualifies for Sunday Snippets. :)
~Unknown DP; SU card stock; Cuttlebug die cut~






LIM#23 One Layer Card /Something with Legs
BooHiss .... I do not like OLC. Period. End of story. Like the cat stamp though. :D
~Unknown cat stamp; Verve sentiment stamp; Faber-Castell watercolor pencils~




LIM#22 Shades of Blue and Sunday Snippets #30
Blue is one of my favorite colors; so you'd think I would be able to make something decent. Not so in this case. This card ranks as one of the all time ugliest cards I have ever made. It simply did not gel. Love the paper and the colors, dislike how blah it looks. However there is always a bright spot .... all the paper on this card is from the scrap bin, so it serves the purpose of lowering the bin level. :D
~Verve stamp; Kaisercraft pearls; unknown ribbon and DP, however I think the DP might be Tim Holtz~