Changes to the Blog

Well, I am in the midst of reading "Blogging for Dummies" and decided that I needed to do something about the blinkies not working on the left hand side... so I tried a new template, Watermark, and voila!  the blinkies were fixed.... and quite frankly,  I'm much happier with this new layout.  If you like it, or hate it, I'd love to hear your comments on it.

Now that I've messed around, maybe I'll get back to reading.

October Christmas Card Challenge!

Wow, this month has flown by so fast.. it's hard to believe that it's the last day of September already.  And this Saturday, will mark the 4th Saturday that my baby left the nest.  I'm doing well... it helps that we can chat on IM and the occasional Skype call.  It makes life much easier.. that, and I read my kid's blog... all on school life :)

On to this month's Christmas Card Challenge.  This month's theme is BIRDS.... you can use any bird, any number of birds, as long as there is at least one bird on your Christmas card.  For this card, I used a technique called Faux Linen.  I took glossy white cardstock, cut it to 3 3/4 inches square, and ran a piece of sandpaper vertically and horizontally on the glossy cardstock.  I made sure that there were a lot of grooves.  I then sponged Bashful Blue (SU) Ink over the textured cardstock, and got a nice result... kind of mixed shades of blue.  I then took two Inkadinakado stamps, one form Winter Birds, the other from..... Can't remember, but I set them up on the cardstock.  I then pressed my Fiskars stamp press on the stamps, so that I could stamp them at the same time.  I then used SU's Night of Navy ink, and inked the stamps, and pressed onto the Faux Linen cardstock.  I added a silver brad to the middle of the words, and mounted the card onto a 4 1/4 inch square card base, which is navy with silver specks in it.  You just can't see the specks in the photo.

Have a wonderful day, and don't forget World Card Making Day on October 2!!!

The Cards I Hate to Make.......Hero Arts Pairing Challenge Week 3

This week's pairing challenge was to make a sympathy card... ironically, I needed to make four.  This card is an Cuttlebug embossed bird and swirls on pale yellow cardstock, then run through the SU Top Note die.  I went over the top with SU Close to Cocoa ink.  I added some pale green twill across the embossed paper, and stamped "Sorry for your loss" form Hero Arts in Close to Cocoa. I layered this onto green wax paper resist (rounded the corners), then layered that onto cream base cardstock.

The second card I did, I took SU Bashful Blue ink, and stamped an Antique Engravings Flower three times on pale blue patterned paper.  I rounded the corners.  I then added so black ribbon, and stamped " Sorry for your loss" from HA on cream cardstock, and foam mounted it to the ribbon.  I then layered the blue paper to more patterned paper, rounded the corners, and mounted that layer to cream cardstock, where I rounded the corners again.
On the third card, on gold textured paper, I stamped a Crafty Individuals Dragonfly collage in Close to Cocoa, and let dry.  I layered it onto cream cardstock, then onto dark brown cardstock.  I rounded the corners on the cream cardstock, and the bottom of the brown cardstock.  I stamped "Sorry for your loss" form HA on cream cardstock, and foam mounted that to  bottom of the card.
 
The fourth sympathy card.  This time, I took white cardstock, and randomly stamped the leaf from Antique Engravings ( Flower), and the fern and leaf from Watercolour Petals. I used SU Mellow Moss, Nick Bantock Van Dyke brown and Vermilion Lacquer.  I then crumpled the cardstock, ran Close to Cocoa over the mountain areas, then flattened the card stock again.  I rounded the bottom two corners, and mounted this to Close to Cocoa card stock, rounding the corners on the bottom as well.  I then added some peach lace punch cardstock to the middle of the leaves.  Over that, I added a peach circle, edged in Close to Cocoa, and a white scalloped circle, with the "With Prayers and Deepest Sympathy" on it, stamped in Close to Cocoa.


I still have another one to make, so I'd best be off doing that.  I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

A Giveaway!!

Barbara Hache is giving away some cool Penny Black stuff.... check out her blog HERE to get more details.


I hope to get more creating done soon, but right now, it's all about cleaning up my stamping area, now that I have more shelving :)  My husband is THE BEST :)  He's even helping me with organizing stuff.. but he's the type that could make a living being a professional organizer.

Hero Arts Pairing Challenge Week 2!

Well, it's almost Friday... time for another Hero Arts Pairing Challenge card!! This week, Mary Dawn and I are doing Emboss Resist.  Now, on an earlier post, I did an Emboss and Resist card, above.   Well, this was Versamark stamping on white cardstock, then clear embossed, then distressed.  Well, for Friday's challenge, I wanted to do something a bit different... so I did. Here is my card for the Emboss Resist Challenge:  

 For this card, I started with a piece of Barely Banana cardstock.. Why do white when you can be different?  I used the Dandelion Frame from Hero Arts and stamped it in Versamark.  I then clear embossed and heat set.  I took my Cappuccino Delight rainbow pad, inked up my brayer, and brayered the colour on, making sure I got over all of the Banana cardstock.  I took my Chocolate Chip ink from SU, and stamped Hello (Everyday Sayings) three times in the middle of the frame.  I then mounted the Barely Banana cardstock on to dark brown cardstock.  Voila! You have a nice autumn card.

More Hero Arts OWHBash cards!!

OK, I have more cards to share.. I know, I think I burnt myself out doing that for a bit.. I've only done 1 ATC and 1 card since then, but, I have also been trying to organize my craft area.. it got bigger!!! So now it's a matter of trying to make it look neat and tidy, instead of looking like a tornado went through it.

These were my Use Your Stash entries... the snowman image was again coloured by kids.

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 This was my Blue and Silver entry.  I used a Stampin Place stamp to do the snowflake in Baby Blue Staz On on matte silver paper.  I then mounted it to navy cardstock, and silver embossed the Merry Christmas.

This was my Emboss and Resist entry.  I had done more of the Antique Letter Writing pieces, but only had time to do this one card. 

The shell card was my Encouragement card, and the Lighthouse on the rock was my Masculine challenge card.   Both can be used for men.  All the stamps but the lighthouse are Hero Arts stamps.

These cards were my Quick One Layer 1.5 hour challenge cards.  The only stamps that weren't Hero Arts are the Friend stamps, those are Kaiser Crafts.

These two cards are my entries for the Floral Birthday 1.5 Hour Challenge.  All the stamps are Hero Arts, except the Happy Birthday stamp.

Well, that's it for all the unique cards I did.  It was a really fun weekend, and I look forward to another time of mass challenges.

Hero Arts OWHBash!!

Well, September 10- 12 was Hero Arts Flickr Group's  Operation Write Home Bash.  There were challenges to be had, cards to be made, and a lot of fun.  There were even prizes to be given out :)  Well, I was on a tear on the weekend, and made 31 cards from Friday night to Sunday night.  There were duplicates, but I didn't make 31 of all the same card.  That would have been a bit much, even for me.   The first two cards I did were for the Black, White and One Colour One Hour challenge.  And yes, I did both cards, and just squeaked them in. :)

This was my 3 of a Kind and Tag card.   By the time I made this card, I was getting tired..  

This was my Hearts Challenge card.  I was pretty pleased with the result, as I don't have a lot of heart stamps..... and none that suited me on the weekend.

These were my Die Cut / Punches entries.  I used leftover coloured images that kids had done for a school fundraiser. These also qualified for the Use My Stash Challenge.

These two cards were for the Simple Sketch Challenge... I used shaving cream backgrounds  instead of patterned paper.

More on the next post.

Hero Arts Pairing Challenge - week one

Good morning!! Mary Dawn  from Hero Arts and I are paired up to do some Hero Art stamp challenges.  Mary Dawn's blog is MyPinkMexico .  This week, the challenge was to use the Friendship Definition  background stamp on a project.  Now I have two projects, but you'll have to excuse the ATC photo.. it's horribly blurry. I did an ATC in the same manner. For the card, I took the Friendship Background stamp and stamped it on white cardstock, cut to size, in Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  I then punch the border.  I took the larger flower in the Delicate Blossoms set, and stamped over top of the Friendship Definition in Onyx Black Versafine ink.  I then used dye markers to colour in the flowers.  The card looked too simple, so I punched two more borders, one in red, and one in green, and layered them behind the white. I mounted that piece on to a Apricot Appeal base cardstock.  The card still needed something, so I added three small gems to the card.  With this card, it can be anything from friendship to birthday to sympathy.
The ATC was done in the same manner.  I took Cool Caribbean cardstock, and cut it to 3 1/4 x 2 1/4.  I stamped the Friendship Definition stamp in Dried Marigold on the Cool Caribbean.  I stamped the smaller flowers from Delicate Blossoms on the ATC, and coloured them in with dye markers.  I mounted the Cool Caribbean layer on to some polka dot orange card stock, cut to ATC size.  Again, I added three small gems for the final touch.


Don't forget, this weekend is the HERO ARTS Flickr Group OWHBash.. making cards for the American troops.  I know Canada had Postcards for the Troops, but I've lost contact with anyone who was organizing it.  So, I thought I'd so some for the American troops.  Check out all the challenges and such HERE.  The nice thing is, you can use any stamps, for this weekends card making party, you can use any company's stamps, and still have a chance to win some Hero Arts stuff!!  Way Cool!

More Hero Arts ( Blog Hop)

These are two more cards I did this week in honour of the blog hop ( I mean, why do one card, when you can do 5!?) :)  The first card I did, I used the Dandelion Frame Cling stamp in Hero Arts Chalk ink Cerulean and stamped the dandelions.  I then took some Purely Pomegranate ink (SU, retired) and stamped "Be Kind be You" from Anytime Messages.  A nice one layer card, which always challenges me, because I want to add some layering on a card ALL THE TIME.


The second card, is also a one layer card.  I took the Antique Brocade stamp, and inked it in Seascape Palette ink, and stamped it all over the kraft  base cardstock.  I took the fern from Watercolour Petals, and repeat stamped it all across the bottom.  Using Purely Pomegranate ink again, I stamped the butterfly ( Watercolour Petals) then I stamped Hello ( Essential Messages) in the top left corner. 


Since I don't have a ton of money for gifts, card sets are probably what I'm going to give my non stamping family and friends for Christmas this year. 

Hero Arts Blog Hop!!

These are some cards that I did this week.  The top two cards  use the Hero Arts Antique Letter Writing stamp.  The first card, I inked the stamp in Versamark, then clear embossed it.  I then sponged Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold and Broken China distress inks all over it. I mounted the piece onto pale pink cardstock.


The second card is using the same stamp (Antique Letter Writing) that I stamped on white cardstock in Lovely Lilac ink (SU).  I then took an X-acto knife and cut around the wings of the biggest butterfly.  To add a little more to the card, on the two butterflies, I did the purple parts of their wings in purple Stickles.

The third card is using a left over piece of cardstock that had some embossing powder on it... I had done the faux batik technique( I think that's the correct name for it), and I used the piece that covered the original embossed piece.  I went and added Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Victorian Velvet distress inks to it., rounded the corners, and mounted it to a piece of pink cardstock.  I took the scrap of the pink cardstock, and stamped a Hero Arts butterfly (Antique Engravings) in Victorian Velvet and cut it out, and foam mounted it to the card.  I stamped 3 tulips (Antique Engravings flowers) over the piece.  I then stamped the sentiment (Essential Messages)  on another piece of scrap pink cardstock in Victorian Velvet and attached it to the side of the card.  The background is the Antique Brocade stamp.

From here, hop on over to Clare's blog  HERE to see some more Hero Arts goodness.

To go to the beginning of the Hero Arts Blog hop, go  HERE.

September Christmas Card Challenge

Well, I finally got a chance to photograph my September Christmas cards.  The theme this month is DEER.. it can be reindeer, or just regular  deer, or Rudolph.... just as long as there is one deer on the card.

For this card, I used some orange cardstock for the base, and patterned paper from Fancypants design (Frosted).  I cut the patterned paper to 1/2 inch smaller than the base in the width and height.  I then used my Hero Arts Cerulean chalk ink and stamped the reindeer and greeting ( The Stampin Place) on the patterned paper.  I then went and stamped the image again on white cardstock, and cut out the reindeer from the image.  I used dimensional foam tape to adhere the cut out reindeer over top of the reindeer that was on the patterned paper.  And Voila! I'm done.  I am very tempted to add some glitter to some snowflakes, but I wonder how much that will detract from the card.

On a side note, you have until 9pm Pacific time to join Deborah's CCC for September.. it's the Card Chain Challenge, and Deborah gives you a choice of a colour palette, sketch, or theme to follow.. you can do more than one element in the challenge, but you only need to do one.. it's quite the fun swap.  You can find Deborah's blog HERE .