Touch of Thanks

Finished another card for the Clean and Simple Design Team challenges. Quite by accident, this one covers the next two challenges: the color challenge to use monochromatic in shades of browns with a touch of red AND the theme challenge to make an autumn/autumn holiday card.

I had originally pulled out the retired SU set Country Blessings for my autumn themed card. Somehow, the monochromatic theme pushed it's way into the mix!

The card base is SU's kraft with Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red (which looks much brighter in this pic for some reason....I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with my "editing") for the other layers. The Leaves were embossed with Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossing powder onto Close to Cocoa card stock. They were cut out using my favorite SU paper snips (LOVE that those scissors can get into those tiny nooks and crannies) and adhered over the chocolate grosgrain ribbon at the base of the stem with a glue dot, giving some dimension. The sentiment (from the same stamp set) was stamped with the craft Chocolate Chip ink and clear embossed also. Supplies: Paper: SU's Kraft, chocolate chip, Riding Hood red Inks: SU's chocolate chip craft ink. Stamps: SU's Country Blessings. Accessories: clear embossing powder, heat gun, stampamajig, ribbon

Very simple. Overall personal rating: *** 1/2 stars out of *****.

I'm off to see about completing another card (Hey!! Why not? Kids are gone, DH and the pooch are gone~~and the craft room is already a disaster!!)

Decking the Halls In July

Anyone still hanging around wondering if I'm ever going to create again?!! Geesh....I'm tellin' ya~~it's just amazing what one must go through to not only get a card made but posted too?! (But, but, MOM!! We want dinner now!! We're s..t..a..r...v...i...n...g!!!!)

Well, never fear. No children (or Toad) went hungry. All creativity and posting was put on hold until all pushed themselves away from the table proclaiming that they could not eat another bite.
I was pretty determined to make a card today. Printed out the sketch challenge from SCS last night and even came up with an idea. But then!! The Ways to Use it challenge threw me for a loop. First of all, Christmas in JULY?!! HELLOOOOO!!! I barley get Christmas out in December!! Secondly, my idea was SOOOO not Christmas. But!! I revamp the thinking and here is what I came up with:

I flipped the sketch to work with another challenge that I added to the previous two~~ use only SU (current or retired) product. I believe I have mentioned that I am a demo for SU, but I'm more the "hobby demo with a few friends/customers" than I am a business demo. But lately, I have gotten into the habit of combining all kinds of wonderful goodies from different manufacturers to make my cards. I just thought that it might be interesting to see what I could do with SU only.

Now for all the details: I used the the SU exclusive texture plate for the dotted layer (I ended up lightly misting the paper with water to get a more distinct impression). The swirls were stamped first in versamark then heat and stick was applied and heated (think that is why they call it HEAT and stick?!! snort). Dazzling diamonds glitter was then sprinkled over the warm sticky glue. All the matting layers are Wild Wasabi (that has to be one of my favorite colors. I am soooo sad that it is retired!). Made the scalloped border with the scalloped edge punch and added the dots with my white pen (not sure on that one...but what is done, is done). Decided to pull out (wait....are you sitting down? This is gonna knock you for a loop) BOTH my silver hodgepodge accessories AND the pretties kit!! I know, I know!! I've been hoarding both of these kits, but I finally decided to see what happens when you actually USE the stuff you buy!! Pulled out the old silver cording and looped it behind the main panel and through the hodgepodge to make my dangle for the pretties. All the stamps came from the Season of Joy set. Supplies: Paper: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi. Inks: Wild Wasabi. Accessories: Big Shot, SU exclusive texture plates, heat and stick, dazzling diamonds glitter, silver cording, silver hodgepodge kit, pretties kit, scalloped edge punch, white pen, 1" circle punch.

Thanks for stopping by again!! I'm going to go do the dishes from dinner and maybe think about doing the "original" card idea that I had. I don't know.....two cards in one day after such a long hiatus might throw me into a tailspin that I'll never find my way out of!! hehe

Foiled.....

.....that pretty much describes my afternoon~~~foiled.

The Toad (aka DH) and his dad took the boys (including the dog) for an overnight camping trip this afternoon. They are driving within 2 miles of their camping spot then loading up all their gear and the boys' on their mountain bikes and "biking" into the camping spot.

WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS FREEDOM TO CREATE ALL DAY!!

Except I got foiled. By a book. I'm sure that I'm the last person to read (or as the book cover indicates, seen the movie) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Yup. Finished 423 pages today (ok...I had started it yesterday...but had only read the first 70 or so pages as of this morning). All my FREE hours that I was going to create, create and then create some more were taken up with reading and ended with me bawling my eyes out over this book and giving myself a headache.

But!! I still need a card for DH's grandfather and for DH for father's day (which, according to my calendar, is TOMORROW). Soooo, I remembered a card that Gina K did on stamp TV. Loved the technique and the colors. Decided to adapt the idea for DH's grandfather's card.

I used SU's exclusive texture plate with an extra piece of paper for the sandwich in my Big Shot with regular tin foil. Stamped my sentiment form SU's All Holidays and did all the matting/layering. IRL the sentiment does NOT look like it is layered crooked. I have looked at it several times to make sure my tear fatigue eyes are not playing tricks on me!! The "brads" are faux made with my 1/4" hand held punch. How can someone run out of something so basic as black brads, I ask you?!! Leave it to me, I would be the one! But this needed something to add that little extra "pop".

I wish I could say that I LOVED how this turned out. But I'm going to be honest here. This one was better in my head (ok, ok, it was better when Gina did it!!). I'm going to walk away from it and see how it hits me tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have time to come up with something else if the effect is still the same in the am. Supplies: Paper: SU's cranberry crisp, whisper white, basic black. Stamps: SU's All Holidays. Inks: SU cranberry crisp. Accessories: Tin foil, Big Shot, Texture plate, 1/4" hole punch, mini glue dots

Thanks for dropping by again! I'm going to try and stamp out the new images I ordered for DH's card (how many hours do I have before they get home?!! Nothing like procrastination to make one create!!)

Rolling Thanks

Do you ever get it in your head that you can't do a challenge days after it is posted because no one will look at it or comment? I find myself in that position quite often and it is just PLAIN AND SIMPLY DUMB on my part!! HELLLOO!!! The goal of the challenges is to get you (me!!)creating!!

One of my current favorite challenges is the Clean and Simple challenge on Mondays on SCS. This week was a sketch and I really liked it, but never had a chance to do it on Monday.

My DH is the liaison for our little private church school and the city basketball league. He requested that I make some SIMPLE thank you cards for all of the parents who helped coach the different levels of basketball this season, this sketch just popped into my head! With 13 to make, this was an easy sketch to mass produce:

EASY PEASY!! I stamped the "thanks" in Chocolate chip then did the generation stamping of the basketball from right to left. I used the stampamajig (my FAVORITE tool!) to line up the rolling basketballs. I then stamped another basketball image and punched it out and put it on dimensionals right by the "thanks". Can't get much more simple than this!! Supplies: Paper: SU's Whisper white. Inks: Chocolate chip and pumpkin pie. Stamps: SU's Just Basketball and Much Appreciated. Accessories: stampamajig, dimensionals.

My challenge to you today is to create SOMETHING!! Whether it be for a challenge (current or past) or just for yourself~~keep those creative juices flowing!! I'd love to see what you did, so link back here and I will take a peek over the weekend!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Later gators!!

Simply

Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short (haha) but got a challenge card done!! WoooHooo!! Actually, I got this done late last night....but the lighting was REALLY bad at that time (ok, ok...it's not much better now, but that work thing is going to get in the way of posting if I don't do it now).


This is for the CAS05 challenge on Splitcoaststampers. This is SOOOOO not the card I started out to make!! LOL. Seriously, I wasn't even planning on using this die, stamp set or anything. But this is what came to be. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

The butterflies are only attached by the middle of their bodies. In real viewing mode there is a lot of dimension on this card with their wings lifted. But, since I'm also the last one to get a photo box and my attempts at using a work light to get a photo just resulted in REALLY deep shadows, you will have to use your imagination on this on!! Supplies: Paper: Su's whisper white, Brocade blue. Inks: Kiwi Kiss, Old olive, brocade blue. Stamps: Inspired by Nature, All holidays. Accessories: small oval punch, Big Shot, Beautiful butterflies die, Pretties kit, sponge daubers.

Thanks for taking a peek! Now it's hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go!!

Hit by a Semi

Ok....not literally. In reality, on Tuesday I got hit by the cold/flu bug that MADE me feel as if I had been hit by a semi truck. I started trying to overdose on Vitamin C and see just how much water a person can consume before floating away. Even took a two hour nap in the afternoon (which is usually a death sentence for sleeping that evening....NO PROBLEMS!). By Wed I just felt like I had been beaten up by bat welding thugs (a HUGE improvement!). Thursday, almost human. Today, I have a nice painful cough, but overall, I think I can pass for a human being again.

That all aside, I have a CAS (clean and simple and even better yet~~QUICK) little card to share. I made this for a customer/friend who I kept neglecting to send a package too. So, I included this stamp set in the package. I had only used it once (maybe) and it was in my pile to "get rid of".

I still had/have my stuff laying out from my workshop so I just used scraps to put this little card together. This is a little 4x4 card (I think....to be honest, it is in the mail and in my medicated addled state, I forgot a lot of details on this little guy! YIKES!! scary that I'm in charge of getting kids to school in this state of mind!! For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of this stamp set either. It had four stamps this same style.....if anyone remembers the name, let me know and I will edit it in). *ETA: the stamp set is Wishing You the Best (thanks Amber!) The card base is SU's Kiwi Kiss with a light sponging of Old olive on the white and along the edge of the scallop. There is some paper piercing in the top corner that is hard to see. The scallop was made using SU's scallop circle punch and the center image was punched out using the 1 3/8" circle punch. The scallop and the center image are both on dimensionals. A little ribbon and it's done!! Wah~lah!!

I'm soooo glad it is the weekend (almost). I hope to finish cleaning up my workshop mess so that I can just mess up my space again with creating something new.....wink!

Have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by!