Inspired for a Simple Embossed Thanks

Hey People!  I'm still having a hard time finding my mojo.  Yesterday, I spent the ENTIRE day trying to get a couple of technique ideas to work for the next E-Team hop, to no avail.  Frustrated does not begin to express my creative mind right now! haha!!

I decided to step away from that project today and focus on getting some very belated Christmas thank you's done.  Since I need to mass produce a few and considering the fact that they are to be from my kiddos (no girly girl stuff allowed by my boys!), I went with a CAS (clean and simple) layout.  I really liked the CAS Challenge for this week on SCS and used that as my starting point.  I was also inspired by Joan's Tone on Tone Dimension card and added my own twist. 

I spent more time trying to decide on what sized circles I wanted than I did die cutting and embossing the elements for 5 cards! HA! Go figure!! 

Deets:  Card base is Pure Luxury Ivory.  Circles are from scap PL Ivory and were die cut using Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities. Embossed with a Cuttlebug folder Diamonds.  The sentiment was die cut using Cuttlebug Olivia alphabet (this is a bonus die with the set). from SU's Taken with Teal card stock. 

EASY! 

I'm going to go finish assembling the rest of the cards.  Then take a deeeeep breath and go back to work on another technique idea. Make sure and check back on Friday to see if I got anything to work! haha!

'Till then................remember that not all ideas are destined to work.  Failure is the stepping stones to success.

WHOOHOO!! It's a COLOR THROWDOWN CELEBRATION!!

Happy Hump day Peoples!!  Today is an exciting day as it is the 100th COLOR THROWDOWN CELEBRATION!!  Talk about a PARTY!  Check out THIS list of companies that are sponsoring fabulous prizes!  Just for Fun® Stamps is one of the many proud sponsors of this party and will be giving away a $25 gift certificate, which can be found on Broni's blog!

Now, for the colors!!

Sitting on my desk is an invitation for my oldest  kiddo to attend a Luau theme birthday party this weekend.  When I saw these colors,  a TROPICAL theme got stuck in my noggin and this is what I came up with:

Now somehow, my "Regal Rose" took a brighter  pinkish-rose tone.  I think my subconscious took over on the tropical theme, hehe!!  I kept this a pretty CAS card as I think I will use it for the 13 y/o girl's b-day card (YIKES!! It looks like the mixed teen parties are about to begin!!).  The base is a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2 " piece of Gina K's pure luxury cardstock.  There is a slightly smaller layer of SU's Baja Breeze that has the same ink sponged along the edges.  Another scrap piece of the pure luxury was run through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and sponged over with Baja Breeze ink.  I then stamped the Large Cherry Blossom from Just for Fun® onto some scrap pieces of the pure luxury paper with Ranger's Archival Jet Black ink.  The flowers were then colored with my Copic Ciaos and cut out.  The leaves were cut free hand from SU's Certainly Celery and then I took the certainly celery ink pad directly to the paper to add some subtle depth of color.   Both the flowers and leaves were then spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl.  The leaves were taped to the card base, leaving the edges loose.  Two of the three flowers were adhered using dimensionals to add some more depth.  I then stamped the Happy Birthday (also from Just for Fun®....sorry, I cannot find the direct link at this time!!) onto a scrap piece of the pure luxury (have I ever mentioned how much I LOOOVE this paper?!!) and cut out the "flag" and sponged along the edges with the Baja Breeze ink. 

I played around with adding some more baddabling, but just couldn't get anything to tickle my fancy, so decided to call 'er done! (now you know the real reason this is a CAS card!! haha!)

Make sure you check out the other Just For Fun® Designers who are participating in this celebration!

Sherry Cheever

Kat Tucker

Roni Johnson

Glenda Brooks

Margarita Ybarra

And of course you don't want to miss

 BRONI!!

I hope you join in on the celebration and share your projects on the Color Throwdown Blog!

Thanks for dropping by again today!!  Remember to make time for some type of CREATIVITY in your day!!

Yellow Jersey

Hey Peoples!!  Hope your weekend is going good!  I'm still fighting the tail end of what ever crud I caught earlier this week (or what ever the exhaustion decided to turn into).  But!! I'm starting to feel somewhat human again and finally found the energy to put together a birthday card for my boss today.

Now, for those of you who do not following professional bicycling (gasp!!) let me just give you a little background.  In professional cycling, and more importantly, in the Tour de France, the leader of the over all race wears the Yellow Jersey or the Maillot jaune.  It it the most prized possession and in Europe, if you are one so lucky to have worn the Maillot jaune, you are considered a super star (much like how we treat the stars of Hollywood).   You may have heard of Lance Armstrong?  The guy who came back from cancer to win a record 7 Tour de France's? (we will not get into the controversary of whether or not he did it clean or with drugs.....personally, I'd like to believe that since the man looked death once in the eyes, he would not risk his second chance at life by taking something that could possibly kill him.....but I digress!)  Well, my boss is a big fan of Lance's (and cycling in general).  So for his birthday, the other girls and I decided to order the boss man a cycling jersey from Lance's Livestrong foundation (now whether or not you are a fan of Lance personally, the man has probably brought more attention to the fight of cancer in the last 10 years.  And I have read countless stories from other cyclists and those who are not cyclists of how much his foundation helped them find the information and doctors they needed to fight their own battles against this disease.  I think it is a good foundation.  I have supported it in the past and will do so again). 

Again, I digress!! (sorry, the brain is not back to functioning normally again it would appear!) So with the jersery colors in mind, the cycyling theme in mind and the fact that my boss usually gives us VERY generic cards for our birthdays (he finds it amusing to give Christmas cards for those of us with birthday's in December, Easter cards for those in March/April....you get the picture!) this is what I came up with:

 This acutally came together quite quickly.  The image of the bicycle is a stencil from Dreamweaver/Lynell Harlow.  Initially, I did the whole lightbox and stencil routine and then messed around trying to custom color the bike with my copics and the stencil still in place (now, I think that would have worked, IF I had actually tried to hold the stencil in place and had tried to color carefully, instead of doing it really quick).  After doing some investigating (and having a major AH-HAH!! moment after reading Claire Brennan's blog on using the Cuttlebug and stencils) I decided to give Claire's version a try.  I inked up my stencil using SU's Summer Sun.  Then I made my sandwich of the A plate, B plate,  stencil, 120# pure luxury cardstock in white, 4 paper shims, black embossing pad (or the spellbinder tan one) and the other B plate. I ran it thru my neglected Bug (the Big Shot tends to get used more).  I then trimmed the image, rounded the corners, matted it on some basic black , rounded the corners again and adhered that to my 5 3/4" x 6" 120# pure luxury card base.  Stamped the sentiment from SU's It's Your Birthday using my stampamajig  and Archival Jet black ink(and yes, even then, I managed to get it slightly crooked and down a hair lower than I would have liked!).  Pretty CAS and QUICK!!  Not a WOW!! card, but I think it fits the bill for the boss man!

Hope you find some time to create something today before the week is upon us again!! I'm off to work on some mass produced thank you cards for those who helped with Grandparent's day and coach the different basketball teams at the school.  Think today's key word is CAS!! LOL!! 

Thanks for dropping by again!!  Till then.......

Golden....

It has been forever and a day since I've done one of the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  So today I decided to combine the sketch challenge with the CAS (clean and simple) challenge which was a color challenge using white and ONE other color.  This is the idea I came up with while walking the pooch (hmmm....maybe I should try walking him more often! lol)

Did you notice the RIBBON?!!  I actually got this tied on the VERY FIRST TRY!! (yeah, I just about passed out!! I'm not getting my hopes up yet that ribbon and I can work out our differences...but I'm giving points to the ribbon for at least working with me on this!!) 

I stamped the Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps with Encore gold metallic ink and embossed using SU's gold embossing powder.  I filled in the stem using my new Krylon gold leafing pen.  Scored an edge around a piece of Whisper White using my Scor Pal and used the gold leafing pen to add an edge.  I then ran this piece  it thru my Cuttlebug with the embossing folder (ok, I'll admit...have NO idea what folder this is!!).  I cut out my squares (2 1/2 x  1/2 inches) and embossed an edge again using my Scor Pal.  Added gold leafing to these edges as well (gotta luv the look of lots of layers without the bulk!!).  I then cut out my main image using my Spellbinders rectangle nestabilitie and did the edge as the previous ones. 

Quick and easy!! LOL!! I will admit that the ribbon is a little more fru-fru than I consider my style (grunge to fru-fru...how's that for an ecletic collection?) Supplies:  Paper:  SU's Whisper White.  Stamps:  D2762 Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps.  Ink:  Encore metallic gold.  Accessories:  Cuttlebug and cb embossing folder.  Spellbinders rectangle nestabilities, Krylon gold leafing pen.  SU's gold embossing powder.  And the beautiful ribbon came from my friend Melody!!

******
On an unrelated subject.  It would seem as if my outdated computer is wanting to die.  It is still (kinda) working, but I'm having major issues with pop ups, virus warnings and my every day applications not working like they should.  I think that a new computer is in the works.  But! Just wanted to let you kow  what was going on if I disappear for a while (oh yeah!! I've prepared you all for that possibility with my flaky postings already!!  Well, good.  At least this time I have an excuse other than my over scheduling of life!! hehe)


Thanks for stopping by again!  I really appreciate all your comments.  It helps the creative juices to keep flowing!
'Till next time!

Happiness

I'm still trying to play in SCS Dare To Get Dirty challenges. While cruising blogs last night, I came across this wonderful creation on the Cosmo Cricket blog by Natasja. It was the perfect inspiration to get a few more challenges done!! This card combines a sketch, texture, non-traditional sized card, paper tole and a color challenge to use black and white with only about 15% red. And if I stretch....the challenge to use dies/punches.

This card actually started out to be a wedding card. BUT!! In all my "hoarding" goodies, I did not have ONE STINKIN' wedding sentiment that the style of this card. I even drug out some stickers~~but NOOOOO!!! All my stickers seem to be geared towards little boy layout/projects (go figure). So, I had to change this card to an anniversary card. Only I don't think that I would ever give this to my DH. Too frou~frou for us. Now to find someone who will appreciate all the pretties on this!! hehe

This is a 6x6 square card (good thing this would require a "box" to give....don't think I'd ever find an envie to fit it!!). I used SU's 12x12 textured white for my base. Then I cuttlebugged the background squares from more of the textured cs. I made my roses out of real red and whisper white card stock (I just drew my spirals like Natasja shows on her video). I had in my head three of each color to represent past, present and future joining together (you know, like the anniversary rings that you'll see in magazines?! This was when the card was still a wedding card. But I guess it could represent the same on an anniversary card). The leaves are free hand cut (that does not sound proper) from scraps of the textured CS. Then I got out my favorite embellishment of late~~my Pretties Kit (I'm going to have to buy a new kit pretty soon at this rate of use!!) and strung the pearls and baubles on silver 26 gauge wire. The scalloped black circle and large white circle were cut using my Spellbinders nestabilities dies. The sentiment is a rub on from the retired Cherished Memories rub on set. In all honesty, I will keep my eye out for another sentiment/style that I like better and will probably replace this. I really don't like it, but again~~I had nothing that was even REMOTELY close to what I had in my head for this!! Everything is adhered with glue dots.

Despite the so-so sentiment layer, I am pleased with how this came out overall.

Ok!! Now that I've totally made my craft area a disaster zone, I'm going to ignore this mess and try and get the needed fixings for dinner going in the crock pot.

Hope your week is starting out grand!!

TOUCHDOWN!!

I TOTALLY SCORED the winning touchdown on this idea! I know that its been a while since I've posted an actual creation. But seriously, I'm doing the end zone dance on this one!!

Wednesday night I got home from work to find that my oldest DS was invited to a b-day party TODAY (you just have to love "coaches/mom's" who throw in a zinger putting me deep into my own end zone to start the offensive run). The invitation was in the shape of a football. Good game plan to start with. Then I RAN with it. Totally dodging blockers from all angles!! This quarterback SCORED!!

I used a full sheet of the new In-Color Dusty Durango and roughly drew out my football shape. Ran the front though my Cuttlebug with the embossing folder. Took my Creamy Caramel ink pad and ran it over the top for a direct to paper grunge look. Then I used a sponge dauber and some Chocolate Chip ink to darken the bottom edge to give it a more round shape. Cut out the strips from Very Vanilla and dirtied them up with some So Saffron ink. Then my first "down". Actually used some vanilla ribbon to LACE THE HAND GRIP!! (oh yeah, oh yeah!!). Added some black "stitching" and highlighted with my Inkssentials white opaque pen.

Now, at this point, I'm in the zone!! All I can see is the markers flyin' by!! Crossed the 50 yard mark and I'm dodging EVERYTHING!! Then I getting deep towards the end zone. END ZONE!! Oh yeah, BABY!! This one is gonna ROCK!!

(ok, some technical difficulties were experienced in trying to photograph the inside of this card. the top of the card is weighted down by the goal post....so I'm trying to hold open the card, get the camera in a position that it might focus AND get most of the picture to be the card and not my hand!!)

Is this just not the BOMB?!! I covered up the lacing on the inside with another layer of Dusty Durango. I drew out the football field on Wild Wasabi using my trusty Inkssentials pen again (and yes, I know that the one end zone is "short".....genius that I am....I did not design my football to fit my playing field, but rather I designed the playing field to KINDA fit my football!). Then I layered that onto some Garden Green. Made a slit about 1" to make the base for the pop up (I'm about at the 20 yard line now!! hehe). Then I made my goal post. The "pole" is actually a yellow craft stick that I had in my stash of junk (I mean STUFF). It's a tad difficult to see in the picture, but I made a transparency pocket (with a half oval punched out to make a grab area) in the middle of the goal posts.

SCORE!! It holds a gift card!! (oh yeah, oh yeah!!)

Now, I did not spike the ball in the end zone, but I sure did a DANCE!! I am sooooo excited how this turned out!! I'm already thinking about ideas using a basketball!!

I was going to put TOUCHDOWN in big letters across the top of the goal post...but I'm thinking that is about the only area for DS to sign the card!! (btw: I scored double on this card as BOTH my boys thought that it was just "AWESOME". Yeah, I'm going to have to ice my shoulder pretty good for all the self patting I'm doing over here!!) Supplies: Paper: SU's Dusty Durango, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, 120# Pure Luxury in white. Inks: SU's Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron. Stamps: None. Accessories: Cuttlebug and embossing folder, 08 black micron pen, Inkssentials White Opaque pen, red liner tape in 1/4" and 1/2", Small oval punch (SU), transparency sheet, craft stick.

So, was it worth the game delay?! I'm on such a high, that I think I just might have to try creating something else just to see what wonders I can come up with again!! BWHHAAAAA

Seriously now. I hope that you found a little inspiration in my card today. It was a fun idea to run with. Thanks for stopping by!!

Pop of Red

Today's color challenge on SCS was to use white as our main color. The catch? Make it a one layer card!!

Now, I personally love this look and definitely wanted to play along. Got a light bulb idea and went to whip out my card. Easy peasy, right? NOPE! Go figure that I'd slip and totally mess up the sentiment when I stamped!! But, mistakes are just a another chance! So I ended up changing the sentiment and the color and rather like the outcome:

I used my Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder along the top and my Scor-Pal for the other embossed lines. The flowers are from SU's Pretties kit and colored with my copic markers. I think that this would be a great card to mass produce and leave the sentiment blank for those last minute "need now" cards. Supplies: Paper: Gina K's 120# pure luxury. Stamps: SU's Warmest Regards. Ink: SU Real Red, copic ciaos. Accessories: Pretties Kit, decorative brad (unknown), Scor-Pal, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots embossing folder

Thanks for dropping by today!! I'm off to continue my quest to get my house CLEAN!

Double Whammy!!

Ok, I promised you a card in the next post and boy!! Did I deliver!! First up (yes....that means there is a SECOND, hehe) is the card my 8 y/o DS made for his teacher. He did all the coloring (with my SU markers) and asked me to cut it out. He then chose the base paper and requested we use the "machine" to make the swirls. He istructed me to put the image at the bottom "because that is the water and the blue is the sky". I think he did a great job!! (and yes, he knows that the second "b" in baby is backwards....adds to the charm!! wink)

Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker. Inks: SU markers, Archival Jet Black. Paper: SU's bashful blue. Accessories: Cuttlebug, swirls embossing folder.

Now for my card. Are you sitting down? I actually managed to combine TWO challenges from SCS!! The layout is SCS 225 and I did the WT215 (using all white paper). Double points for me!!

I was introduced to Dustin Pike from Dawn's blog and I fell in love with his style of drawing (can I just say it is a coloring fanatic's dream?!!). I downloaded this cute brave knight on Gina K' 120# Pure luxury paper and colored him and his pony with my copics. I then carefully cut the image out. I hand drew the "castle" walls and shaded them with copics also. The "black" layer is actually whisper white outlined with the broad tip of my black copic marker and the castle is layered on top of that. I carefully added a very thin line of black on the cutouts (what are those things called? Where the hot oil was dumped between or the archer's shot from? Where is oldest DS when I need him?!!) I then popped the cute~~~sorry, BRAVE knight and his pony on dimensionals. Supplies: Stamps: Digi image from Dustin Pike. Paper: Gina K's 120# pure luxury, whisper white. Ink: Archival Jet black, Copics ciao's (the 72A pack). Accessories: Dimensionals.

Well, DH and oldest son return home from Astro camp tomorrow afternoon. I will have to scramble to get DH's b-day card done before then (as his birthday is SATURDAY!!......have I ever mentioned that I'm also the QUEEN of Procrastination?!!) No wonder I whine soooo much!! I bring the stress on myself! (wink) I think I need to find some GOOD chocolate (the Famous Amos cookies are not cutting it!!) so that I can focus tonight and get another image colored!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Fastest Heat Gun on the West Coast

(insert accent with a drawl here_______)

Wellll pawdners!! Needed to round up a quick "thinkin' of ya'll" card to go along with the grub I was fixin' for a family that just lost their loved ones. Since I was gettin' short on time, I decided to play it smart and CASE myself from this previous card that I made a while back with a little changin' of the layout to one I found on the Clean and Simple blog. Now, not to be pattin' myself on the back too much, but I think that this is one for the record books as far as being a quick draw. I kinda had the general idear in my noggin' so that helped. I knew I was wantin' to use the Faux Bleach technique and have a couple of favorite sets for that particular technique. Here's what came out of the showdown between me and that onery critter Lack of Time:

First off, got myself a Very Vanilla base goin'. Then cut and used my CB Swiss Dots on the Close to Cocoa strip and added that purdy scallop border usin' my Scallop punch. Usin' my favorite tool, the stampamajig, I decided the placement of my tulips and stamped them usin' Versamark ink then clear embossed and blasted it with my heat gun. Grabbed my trusty extra large stipple brushes and worked some Antique Linen and Vintage Photo distress inks around the image. I then got out the hot iron and placed my image on my Craft sheet. Topped 'er with a scrap piece of paper and ironed until the embossin' powder melted onto the paper. Matted the image over some vanilla and chocolate chip cardstock and added the ribbon to the side strip. I decided against a sentiment on the front (wellllll......to be honest, I just plum ran out of time to add that little detail!! But I shur put a HANDWRITTEN thought on the inside!!) All in all, I figure it took less than 20 min from start to finish (which, for me, is SOMETHIN' worth braggin' about!!) Supplies: Stamps: SU's Terrific Tulips (retired). Paper: SU's Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip. Inks: Ranger's Distress inks in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Ribbon from Target, stipple brush, Clear Embossing powder, heat gun, SU scallop punch and my trusty ol' iron.

Wellll, thanks for stoppin' by. I shur do appreciate it!! (and I promise no accents on the next post!! hehe)

To Teach is to Touch Lives....

..........and come in contact with lots of kiddo germs!! BWHAHAAA!! So, for the teacher valentine gift, may I present, HAND SANITIZER with a lovely altered bottle?!!

Once again, I wish I could take credit for this project, but alas!! NOPE!! I "borrowed" it from here:

http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/2009/01/teacher-gifts.html

(DH keeps telling me that there are no "original" ideas, just adaptations of the ideas already born....going to keep telling myself that since I haven't had an original idea in a while!!(snort)

Once I figured out what I wanted to do this was easypeasy (yeah...I first had thought of doing smaller scalloped circles in two different shades....then it just seemed like too much work. But, of course, I didn't decide that until after cutting out several small scalloped circles first (insert major eye rolling here_________). I used a Spellbinder large scalloped circle in my Big Shot, then did direct to paper with my ink pad to give it some "leaves". Tree trunk is hand drawn with some DTP (direct to paper) and squiggle lines. Used my cuttlebug/apple/book die for the apples and leaves (yeah~those little, tiny, ittybitty leaves were put on there by hand!! Can we say "fine motor skills required?!"). The sentiment was found online and printed out on my computer (and I just cracked myself up with the irony of it!!). The "grass" was just hand squiggled (the word for the day) and cut out. Everything was adhered with red liner. Added a little twine and WAH-LAH!! A cheap (and now quick) teacher gift!!

Supplies used: Paper: SU Gable Green, Close to Cocoa, Real Red. Inks: SU's Gable green classic ink and Chocolate chip marker. Accessories: Spellbinders large scalloped die, Sizzix Big Shot, Cuttlebug (machine and apple die), red liner tape. sponge daubers

Another Cupcake

Just sneeking in to post another cupcake card that I did yesterday while all the supplies where still on my desk (I'm suppose to be cleaning the kitchen from the pancake mess that was made!!). I think I like this one better!
Supplies: Paper: SU Whisper white, real read, chocolate chip. Stamps: SU It's your Birthday, Accessories: Quikutz cupcake die, Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder, liquid applique.
Quick, CAS (clean and simple) and one that I think I will use again (notice how I did the "frosting" the same way? Yeah~~~liked that "AH-Ha"!!)
Have a great weekend....Hoping to work on some family valentines tomorrow (yeah, I know. Nothing like procrastination to get you creating!!)