Two thanks and a tree or two.

Hi there!
I have a few cards today, so let's get down to business!

First:

A pal of mine at work who knows I'm a crafty girl was super-thoughtful. While walking the streets of Paris(!), she found herself outside a scrapbook store(!), dashed in, and picked up a little souvenir for me -- a sweet patterned-paper pad. So thoughtful! Of course, I had to use the paper on the thank you card -- two of the patterns are here, along with a little (French) word of thanks, some chartreuse ribbon, and Peach Parfait cs. There's score lines along the edges -- they're easier to see if you click on the photo, I think.

Next:

All right, this might not be my favorite card ever, but I think it's ok...I got the tree stamp from Memory Box awhile ago (at Mega Meet in May, I think) and hadn't used it successfully yet. I think if I tried this again, I'd measure and cut way more carefully. Anyway. Oh, the German? This is a thank you for my aunt and uncle, who sent us a German phrasebook -- Andrew's got a choir event there next spring, so it's time to brush up! I used a Studio G dollar alphabet for the Deutsch.  By the way, Aqua Mist and Spring Moss make a lovely duo, but it's super-tough to photograph! I think I need a different color in the background -- the green looks khaki to me.

Finally:

While the German card almost works, this card here definitely fits the bill for Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenge this week -- trees!  I broke out a fairly new tree here -- I picked it up at Gwen Frostic in Beulah. Wait, you've never heard of Beulah? Shocker. It's a tiny town up near the pinkie of Michigan...and it's home to Gwen Frostic. Feel free to check it out next time you're in town :) Gwen was a lovely lady and is a Michigan treasure. Just a way-out-of-the-way one.

Anyway, the tree is stamped on Rustic White in Soft Suede, then watercolored with more Suede and Old Olive. I also painted over the tree with this stuff called Ritzy Ditzy Glitz. Man, that's a goofy name. It's like Glimmer Mist, but with just the glimmer, not the color. It's very subtle. So subtle, the camera couldn't see it!  The bottom is sponged with some River Rock, and the sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Basics. This card will go to an old pal of ours who digs camping -- his birthday is later this week.

Today is back-to-school day in MI (for K-12, anyway -- I'm on week 3!). Andrew went back to work, my mom went back to work, all my friends' kids are back in school...I guess it's officially fall!!  Hooray! Any fall stuff you're looking forward to? For me, it's our local cider mill -- yum!

OLW15 -- Unexpected Colors

Hey there!

Ok, so I was going to show off my DT kit goodies in this post...but I'm holding off another day, because I managed to get Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenge card done instead.  She asked participants to, in her words, "violate the stereotypes" of color (if you click the link, you'll see her super-cute pink and lime Christmas card!).

Here's mine:

So...I know. "Congrats" doesn't lend itself to any particular colors, so what's the big deal with a purple and orange card? Oh, but it's a BABY congrats card. Nary a pastel, a pink, or a blue in sight. Not even the so-called "neutral" yellow or green! This will go to the next one of bunches of friends who seem to be getting preggo these days. Must be something in the water.

Technique stuff: This was inspired by a card I saw in the new issue of Papercrafts -- the artist used the same A to Z background stamp, but with a masked apple instead of this little butterfly. Speaking of which, the butterfly is plain by nature (SU's Butterfly Accent), but I kissed it on a Hero Arts Doily stamp  and then stamped the doily bit instead. Nifty! Some razzleberry marker dots mark the border a bit better. I wanted the Tangerine Tango sentiment (from Papertrey's Say it with Style) to look like it was part of the block, so I used a stamp positioner -- with a clear stamp, yes -- to make sure it was just right. A little bling on the butterfly body, and I called it good!

Well, I'm off to a roller derby fundraiser tonight, and a high school reunion tomorrow (Gasp! 15 years already?).  I've also been working on some CAS ditties -- I'm the guest designer for this week's CAS challenge on Splitcoast. My fave so far is a Halloween card -- too early? Hope not! Wish me luck!!

OLW14 - Square/Outline

Hi y'all -
First, a Marty update: she was scheduled for a second transfusion today, but her numbers went up and she didn't need one - hooray! She'll still undergo some bone marrow testing tomorrow, though. I'm beginning to think I'm nuts - she's fine, no - she's sick, no - she's fine. Big roller coaster for a tiny cat.

Speaking of tiny cat, I used one for Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge -- make a square card using an outline stamp with little or no coloring. Here's what I came up with:

Yep, it's a girl holding a tiny cat. I used some very limited blender-pen watercoloring to make the kitty look a little like Marty, and to give the girl (who looks nothing like me!) a little detail as well.  That stamp was designed by Suzi Blu to benefit A Place to Bark in TN, a really great-sounding no-kill shelter (for cats, too!) I first heard about from Lydia Fiedler (UnderstandBlue on SCS) -- she designed a stamp too, as did Claudine Hellmuth. I have all three -- you can check them out and/or get them here.

I really like the way this turned out -- minimal coloring and all!  Here's a close-up:

Rustic Cream cardstock and the sentiment are from PTI, colors are early espresso, pear pizazz, blushing bride, and river rock from SU. I think I'll see if I can somehow send it to the cat who was the donor for Marty's first transfusion.

Thanks for taking a peek! Have a lovely day, and wish us luck tomorrow!

More Dirt. Oh, and OLW13

Hi there -
It's late, I've been roller skating, and I've had a beer. This post is gonna be quick!

I've got 4 cards for you -- all for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges, and one bonus: Susan's One-Layer Wednesday, which just happened to work with some of the DTGD stuff. Nifty.

First, a non-card:

So, I've never really gotten over my college-era Audrey Hepburn fascination. I may have mentioned this before. I have a whole set of Audrey images from Stampsmith, and this one in particular was perfect to make movie-themed treat packaging featuring a girl and some gingham.

Next:

Next, a delightfully bright color combo in a die-cut-employing sketch that uses a set from PTI - Chair-ished - that hasn't seen ink yet, though I've had it for months. 

Third: 

Another sketch featuring more die cuts and a winged woman. That color combo came from a bit of serendipity (ooh, does that word give anyone else another Audrey Hepburn reference, or am I the only one who has seen Paris when it Sizzles?).

Anywho, there were bits of Hawaiian Shores, Berry Sorbet, and Kraft in a pile. I dug them together.

Finally:

My fave of the bunch, even though the photo sucks and I was too lazy to retake and re-edit. This is the card for Susan's challenge (sorry for making you wade through, Susan!), as well as a similarly-themed DTGD challenge and another which involved cas and color, and another avoiding the A2. 

When I got this PTI set, I struggled with making cards I liked. I might not have made any at all that actually made it out of the house. This time, it works! I even like the sentiment, though I wish the font size on all the sentiments in the set was a titch larger. Odd scale if you ask me. 

Enough for one day! If you see something here that I didn't explain fully, or you want to know more supply-wise, just ask. You are welcome to take a peek at these cards in my SCS gallery -- there's a link somewhere over on the right, and I do a much better job of listing supplies over yonder.

Please, have a delightful evening. I think I'll have a G&T. Delightful.

OLW11 -- laugh-inducing

Hey there, dudes and dudettes.

This week, Susan has issued a fun One-Layer Wednesday challenge: be funny. So...this card is maybe funny:

Now, before any needlework aficionados get all het up, I know doily-making involves tatting, not knitting. However, doilies make cuter backgrounds than afghans.  ;)
This doily is Hero Arts, and the image and sentiment are from A Muse. Other stuff: Signo gel pen, basic black ink, Fresh Snow ink, Daffodil Delight cs.

If it makes the card any funnier, knit actually doesn't happen, in my house anyway. I know how, but it bores me. Paper's much more fun, no?

Have a (daffodil) delightful day, ok? It finally rained here a little; maybe the heat is finally lifting? The clouds make for wonderfully dark and grainy photos, anyway....

Any big weekend plans? I'll be cropping with Liz (who has some blog candy to give away, btw) on Sunday at Scrappy Chic, and I'll have a little quality family-girl time tomorrow. But tonight: roller skating! Yee-haw!

OLW and a new kit!

Hello, people.
It's ridiculously hot here! It was already 85 when I left the house this morning. At 9:30. Sheesh. Now it's over 90, where it will stay for the next several days. What is that in Celsius, O Canadians - 30-something? I'm a heat wimp. Give me snow any day.

But that's not what you're here for, now, is it?

I finally got back to Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenges this week. This time around, the challenge was to make a patriotic card. Here's what I came up with:

Super-duper simple! I actually find patriotic cards very hard to make. I don't have a lot of specifically patriotic stamps or other goodies, so I decided to kind of wing it here. The label stamp is Unity, from their Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety set. The "USA" is Stampin' Up's Rough Type alphabet, the star is from Starstruck, and the colors are Pacific Point (one of my fave blues ever) and Real Red. CS is PTI's rustic cream. Hooray for patriotism, even if it's one day late for the 4th!

And, in case you like checking out other people's goodies (and who doesn't?), here's my July kit from Scrappy Chic:

From left to right, sort of, we have some animal/safari-ish kid stuff from Reminisce (Since I put the kits together for the design team, I kind of feel obligated to give myself the lines I don't think anyone could use -- none of us have small children, you see). Then there's the fun Oliver from Basic Grey and some So Sophie from My Mind's Eye (lovely texture on all their stuff). Journalling cards from Making Memories Panorama, Ruby Rock It (they have fun stuff; I think they're new to the States), and My Mind's Eye Meadowlark.  Yippee! Maybe with all those journalling cards I'll actually write more on my layouts. Novel idea.

Well, since it's so stinkin' hot, I guess I'll go make something! Hope it's cool(er) where you are!

A Short Stack and a Hooray!

Good morning!

Got a bunch of cards to post, so let's get rolling!

First up, for Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenge -- this week, it's to incorporate repetition:

Seriously, someone needs to stop me -- I can't stop using Say it with Style! Here, I used a pile of SU ink colors to make a smiley rainbow :)  This would be fun to repeat using a bunch of sentiments as a nice little set, I think.

Next, for Scrappy Chic:

A quick pair of matching cards, using Little Yellow Bicycle's Snugglebug line -- great for welcoming a new little one! Those alpha stickers are from Sassafras, and they're sparkly irl.

Finally, also for Scrappy Chic:

Aw, ain't he cute? The stamps are from October Afternoon, and I pieced the images and hills using the same paper line as above. I also broke out the Copics to color in the skin and hair. Scrappy Chic will be carrying Copic Ciao markers now -- very cool! I'm glad Chris went with the Ciaos -- they're less expensive (tee hee). I'm by no means a pro with these things, but they do blend very nicely and, since they're alcohol-based, they lay down very smoothly, without lines. That's good for me, because I've always been a bad colorer -- one day, maybe I'll tell my kindergarten coloring story....

Anyway, now for the Hooray!  I made the final round of the Clean and Simple Summer design team search. Whew! I spent some really fun time on the forum last night, stalking and chatting with the other semi-finalists (all of whom are totally talented!). One more challenge to go...time to get the inspiration flowing again! Wish me luck.

Later, folks -- enjoy your day!

OLW6: Overlapping

Yo!
It's been a crazy-busy week around here as well as being super-hot for May. Blergh.
However, I have snuck in a little creating here and there. Here's one:

Another One-Layer Wednesday challenge from Susan! This time, our task was to overlap our image and sentiment. I went a little nuts, admittedly. Everything does overlap, however, so I think it counts! :)

By the way, this was not my first attempt. It's my third: my first two attempts involved a tree and were just too sad-looking to stick with. I went all girly and pink and it worked for me!

The chandelier (from SU's Grand Soiree) is stamped in silver on Papertrey's raspberry fizz cs, and then I laid out all the words right on top (From Papertrey's Top Ten and additions). Once they were where I wanted them, I just plopped my block down on top and then inked and stamped them all at once, using Staz-On. I figured solvent ink would stick to the silver a little better -- it isn't perfect, but it kinda looks mercury glass-like, which isn't a bad thing in my book.

Hope you dig it!  Off to brainstorm a little -- I made the semi-finals for the summer CAS design team at Splitcoast, so now I gotta figure out what to make next.  Hooray!

OLW5: Faux Embellishments

Howdy!
Today's One-Layer Wednesday challenge at Susan's Simplicity blog is to use faux embellishments -- stamps that imitate dimensional embellishments. No layers, no actual dimension - just one layer and ink!
I looked in vain to find a little Technique Tuesday set full of cute little stitch images, but once I gave up, I thought, "Fabric"!
So, I grabbed my good old Bella Toile background stamp from SU, plus Say it with Style from Papertrey (again!). Here's the result:

Both of these babies are 3.5x5 -- that way, I don't have to stamp the background quite as carefully :)
The one on the left came first - black and riding hood red (my favorite red ink by far!). Then I cleaned off my stamp and went at it again with Lemon Tart from Papertrey and Not Quite Navy from SU. I got a surprise after stamping -- the yellow turned out peach! Kind of a gradation of peach, actually. Apparently my stamp scrubber itself needs a cleaning -- it didn't quite get the red out :)
So, peach it is. Probably my least favorite color. Can't win every time! It's still kinda pretty, though.

Thanks for stopping by! You should play along, too -- good times abound.

OLW4: Add a Ribbon!

Hi there!
Susan/Lateblossom's One-Layer Wednesday challenge this week is to add a ribbon...so I did!  Here's my card:

Turquoise and orange together make me happy. This, more specifically, is Hawaiian Shores (ink) and Orange Zest (ink and ribbon). The sentiment is from Say it with Style (PTI), the star is from SU's Starstruck (which rarely gets to see ink), and the little notebook paper-looking stamp in the background is from a new Basic Grey Basics set. Fun, quick, and a layout I turn to over and over again.
Feel free to play along! Susan posts a new challenge every Wednesday here on her blog.