Offbeat Bday Card

My 4yo has had quite the social life lately and I haven't managed to get pics of all the cards I've made since many of them have been last minute. I did manage to get this one which is not one of my faves but dd loved it a lot :-)

The cardbase is Baja Breeze and the patterned paper comes from my BasicGrey Offbeat 6X6 pad. In hindsight, even though the papers all coordinate, I'm not sure if I like these two patterns together on this card. Then again, it was glued down and we had to get out the door so that's all she wrote!

I stamped my little buckaroo from The Cat's Pajamas Havin' a Pow Wow with Memento Tuxedo Black on Neenah Solar White and colored him in with Copics.
I highlighted him with a couple Copic Spica glitter pens and cut him out with my new Nesties Labels One. This is mounted on a piece of Tangerine Tango that is also cut out with a Nestie Label and then attached to the card front. The sentiment is from the same TCP set and is stamped with Tangerine Tango on a scrap of Neenah Solar White and punced with my Key Tag Punch. I attached it to a slightly bigger Baja Breeze scrap and rounded the edges then cut one end off. I added a couple Really Rust eyelets and then tied some black hemp through the eyelets and mounted this on the cardfront with dimensionals. Like I said, I like it but don't love it but my 4yo had the biggest smile on her face when she saw it and was happy to give it to her friend.

Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Card #3

This card is completely CASED from Beate. I fell in love with her version as soon as I saw it and knew that I had to make one myself. Dh saw me looking at hers when I was putting mine today and was a little surprised that I CASED it. My secret is out--he really thought I came up with all of my ideas on my own :-)

Here's the deets on my version of the card. I used Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, and Kraft for the card. I cut a rectangle out of a piece of acetate with a rectangle Nestability and used that as my mask when I sponged Whisper White craft ink onto the Kraft cardstock. I stamped the row of trees from Lovely as a Tree onto the sponged portion and then removed the mask. I inked up the tree in Kiwi Kiss and then colored the trunk with a Chocolate Chip marker and stamped it over the sponged portion. Then I paper pierced around the rectangle and stamped the sentiment from So Many Sayings in Riding Hood Red. I attached a jumbo Antique Brass eyelet to the card over a punched Riding Hood Red circle and then tied some Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon through the eyelet. The Kraft piece is mounted to the card on dimensionals.

I must say, this is my absolute favorite Christmas card that I made this year. Even though it wasn't my original idea, it blows me away that I made a card that looks like this :-)

Thanks for visiting! Come back soon because I'll have more to share with you!

Christmas Card #2

This card started out when I saw LSC197 over at SCS. After I finished it, I realized that I didn't follow the challenge rules completely since my sentiment is more than one word. Oh well, at least I stamped!

The card base is Regal Rose and I'm sad to say that I used up the last of my Regal Rose making these. Regal Rose is my favorite of the pinks that SU has available and I don't like being without it. Now, if I still were a demo, I'd have put a few things together and just went and ordered it but not that I'm not a demo any longer, I'm really thinking about my SU purchases and I've decided to wait until the new catty comes out before placing an order. Then again, I may just *need* some Regal Rose cardstock and will have to give my friendly demo a call :-) I randomly stamped the snowflakes from Snow Burst on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White with the Cotton Candy Spectrum pad. The sentiment is from Heard from the Heart and is stamped with Rose Red. The snowflakes are highlighted with Cotton Candy Stickles and White Opal Liquid Pearls. I tied some wide Rose Grosgrain around this piece and then mounted it to the card front. . .but then I looked at it and it seemed to be missing a little something so I pulled it off and added the thin Basic Black mat for a little pop. Tah Dah!!! All done. Another Christmas card that makes me smile even if dh isn't really into a non-traditional card like this one.

Thanks for visiting. Check back tomorrow for my last Christmas card.

First of the Christmas Cards

A few years ago, I decided to make my own Christmas cards--little did I know that was just the start to this wonderful hobby/obsession :-)

The first couple years, I made all of my cards the same and did it assembly style.  I got really tired of making the same card over and over again so 3 years ago, I had one design but did it in 3 different color combos.  I did the same thing last year as well.  This year, I changed it up a little more and just made 3 different designs for my cards.

Here's card #1!  I was inspired by a card that I had recently seen in a Papercrafts magazine and I can't remember which one exactly right now.  The cardbase is Certainly Celery and I stamped the Canvas background stamp on it in Versamark Dazzle Frost--this pic doesn't capture the subtle sheen but it's so pretty!!!!!!  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon and is stamped with Brilliance Rocket Red.  I stamped my Hero Arts birds on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them in with a blender pen and the following ink pads:  Real Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa,  and Baja Breeze.  I also used a few Copic Spica pens for some shimmer on the ornament and leaves. The middle bird is on a cut out square which is edged in Going Grey and then mounted on dimensionals.  This piece is layered on top of Basic Gray and then a scalloped piece of Real Red. 

I really like how this one turned out.  I love these birds and only used them on one card last year so I was glad that they got inked up this year.  I made 20 of these so it was a fair bit of coloring that I did but it didn't have to be "perfect" and time consuming since I was going for a more watercolored type feel on this one.

Thanks for visiting and check back since I've got 2 more Christmas designs to share in the next couple of days.

Slowly but surely

I'm getting back into it. My 4 yo has been invited to several birthday parties and making the birthday cards is getting me back into the swing of things. I didn't get a good pic of the one from last weekend and while I'm not thrilled with these pics, I decided to share with you all anyway so you don't think I've vanished.

Today's card is for one of her classmates who celebrated his 5th birthday at Chuck E Cheese's. Man, it was crazy there today but all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and dd and my 6 yo have decided they want their next party at Chuck E Cheese's--we'll see :-)

Here's the deets! The card base is River Rock which is a retired SU In Color. I had it put to the side since I'm deciding if I want to sell off my retired In Colors right now or not but had to use it since it goes so great with the BasicGrey Archaic paper which is a perfect match for the SU Prehistoric Pals set. I rounded the corners of the patterned paper and the cardbase with the SU small corner rounded. The dino is inked up in Versamagic Sahara Sand and then I went around him a little with Versamagic Gingerbread for a little more depth. He's stamped on Very Vanilla and cut and embossed with a circle Nestability and mounted on a Close to Cocoa circle. I lightly sponged some Memento New Sprout and Summer Sky over him and then mounted the whole piece to the front of the card on dimensionals. The sentiment uses the same cardstocks and is from PTI's Mixed Messages which is stamped with Brilliance Coffee Bean and then lightly sponged with Memento New Sprout. I added a few dew drops and tied some Taupe Grosgrain ribbon on the side.

Since I've been seeing how people are also doing the inside of the cards, I decided I'd have to give it a try as well. I added some Very Vanilla cardstock with another strip of the BasicGrey Archaic paper to the inside. The dino is stamped with Memento Desert Sand. I actually think it turned out cute and plan to do this more often since it really doesn't take much more time to do it.

Thanks for visiting! I think I'm going to go play a little more tonight since dh decided to go to the gym and play basketball for most of the day and is now paying for it "resting" on the couch. I think he's realizing his body can't do the same things he was able to have it do when he was younger without having to give it some recovery time.

Tagged

My blogging buddy, Marie, just tagged me. This is actually a pretty fun tag. In this tag, you post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of your picture files and then tag 4 others. Since I haven't been stamping much, I can do this one :-) Last month, we went to see the Blue Angels when they were in San Francisco for Fleet Week. Here's a pic of the kids eating their lunch in the back of the car while we're waiting on the planes.

How is everyone? This weekend, we took the kids and my nephew out to the beach for a photo shoot. My SIL and I want to give my parents a nice pic of the grandkids for Christmas. The photographer got some great shots and if you want to see the sneak peek, you can check out her blog here: Angela Chandler. If you're in the Bay Area and looking for a reasonably priced good photographer, check her out!

So, for this one, I'm going to tag the following peeps:

Colleen

Simone

Malieta

Brooke

Thanks for visiting!

Get out and Vote!!!!!

If you haven't already done so, please go out and vote! Every vote counts so make sure that your voice is heard. As a woman of color, the right to vote is extremely important to me. Voting is a privilege that many people in this world don't have the right to take part in. Do your part--get out and vote!

It feels strange. . .

to not stamp and blog regularly. . .I'm having withdrawals and waiting for life to slow down so I can find the time to stamp or workout or do something for myself again. . .but I don't think it's going to happen unless I make it happen.

Right now, I'm in the final days of my SU demoship. I've been in pending and I just don't have enough that I want to buy from SU to get myself out of pending, nor do I have a couple hundred dollars to spend on SU stuff that I don't absolutely love when there's a world of other stamping goodies out there. I posted a goodbye at the demo threads at SCS and took myself off the demo groups--it's weird to go to the SCS forums and not see the demo threads. I'll survive though.

Until then, I want to thank those of you who are still following along. I will be back as soon as I can squeeze out a few precious moments in my stamping area.

I know, I know. . .

I said I was going to post more regularly but I still haven't gotten a ton of crafting done lately. I started a project that I'm hoping to get to later this evening.

However, I am working with one of my teachers to do some art on a grander scheme. We have the opportunity to work with an organization to create a large wall mural with a group of students. This whole project is fully funded and an artist will work with some of our students for 16 weeks in all aspects of the design and creation of the project. This is all happening rather quickly since they had a school they were set to work with fall through. Now, I'm scrambling to put everything together and get board approval for this project.

I think this is going to be an amazing experience for a group of kids here at my school!!!!! This is set to be a service learning project which will take what they're doing in the classroom and enhance it while giving them the opportunity to create a work of art that will enhance the community. Can you imagine the chance to do something like this at the age of 8? What an incredible way to boost achievement--they'll learn a subject, do artwork that is linked to the curricular unit they are studying, design a mosaic, and then finally create the mosaic which will be here for years to come!!!!!!!

I am beyond excited about this opportunity and hope that I can dot all my i's and cross all of my t's correctly so that this project can be approved.

Have you missed me?

I'm still waiting for things to slow down and it's just not happening. I generally do my stamping late at night when the kids are asleep or settling down but I'm beat most nights and falling asleep early. I know it will balance itself out eventually. At least I love my job and the kids are doing well.

Here's a card I made for a friend of Miles from camp. He recently went to her birthday party and I whipped this out pretty quickly.

The cardbase is PTI Stamper's Select White and the patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Eva Collection. It made this card come together quickly!!!!! I spotted some Elzybells at my LSS recently and finally got them. They're cute and I've wanted them for awhile and when I saw them in person, I couldn't resist much longer. So, Princess is stamped on Neenah Solar White with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in with Copics. I glittered her up with a Quickie Glue pen and Doodlebug Sugar Coating Glitter--I got the assortment pack and these little jars hold a lot of glitter! She's punched out with my key tag punch and popped up on the card front with dimensionals. The ribbon is PTI's Double Stitched Sweet Blush which is such a great color! Finally, I stamped the sentiment for SU's Upsy Daisy with Brilliance Moonlight White on the dp. It showed up better in rl and I just couldn't get it to show up any better in the pic. Eazy peazy lemon squeezey!

Thanks for visiting and bearing with me during my stamping drought :-) I'm thinking it's time to change my blog since summer is over but may hold out a few more weeks since we generally have our nice weather right now.