Next Tea Party

Peggy is our hostess this time, and has challenged us to go YELLOW

Ah, yes, the color of sunshine and daffodils... time to celebrate spring and create something with a yellow focal image. Sound fun? Well, join us for the party next Wednesday!

By the way, those tulips are from my front flower bed!

Seeing Stars

When Giovana issued the "shape" challenge, my mind immediately went to the Stars & Stripes set. I bravely sketched out a primitive star shape onto a plain white notecard... and well, it went into the trash shortly thereafter. My second attempt fared better, though :) I stamped the adorable patriotic kitty with versafine ink and colored with prismacolor pencils, adding just a bit of light blue around the edges. I also went over the heart with a spica glitter pen - it's very subtle, but I had to add just a bit of sparkle somewhere! I stamped the word, and also accented that with a red pc pencil, then finished off the card by stippling some mustard ink around the edges. Fun, simple, and it still fits in a standard A2 envelope!

The whole team "got in shape" today, so be sure to check out their creations: Dina, Giovana, Donelda, Donna, & Sarah (at Susan's blog)

smARTworks news

Have you checked out the latest images from smARTworks? You can go here to browse (newest release starts on page 171) There are inchies, dance images, verses... all sorts of goodies! And know what's even better than new rubber? How about free shipping?! Yep, all U.S. orders of $15 or more will receive free shipping through this Friday 4/24 (read all the details here).

Be back tomorrow with a shaped card for the Tea Party...

Using those craft supplies...

We're in the process of selling our house, which means sprucing everything up. We have a little addition on the back of the house, and I decided to give it a sunroom sort of makeover with aqua paint and wicker furniture off of craigslist. I needed a little something for the wall, but didn't want to spend any more money... well, craft supplies to the rescue!

I started by rifling through my ridiculously large paper stash, and pulled a pack of Memory Box poppyfinch - a perfect match! I had a few of these frames stashed away; they're about 5x15 inches, and I've used them to make name frames for baby gifts. Well, I can now say I've used them to make something for US! I simply picked six patterns from the paper collection, cut down 4" squares, and slapped 'em on the white base.

A super-simple decor element, and no worries about making it "fit in" at our new house - there's plenty more paper where that came from ;)

Challenges...

It's April 15 - I know that date has some sort of significance (don't want to tax my brain any further, though, by thinking too hard) - but I happen to be excited because it's the day of the latest smART Cookie Challenge Reveal!

Susan sent us each the "Grow On" set, and I thought the mother sentiment was just lovely, particularly since Mother's Day is rapidly approaching. I chose to stamp the flower image onto watercolor paper, then color it with twinkling H2Os. The color is so rich IRL, but I had a hard time photographing it - you can get a slightly better view of it in the detail shot. After coloring the flowers, I added a bit more color just to soften all that white space, then finished off the card with some gold ribbon and a bit of decorative edging (Martha Stewart punch). You can see what the other cookies created here, and be sure to head over to Susan's blog for a chance to win a set of your very own!

It's also time to share the next Tea Party theme. Giovana has challenged us to create a shaped card... you can keep it simple (hey, rectangle is a shape, right! :) or if you're feeling more adventurous, then check out some templates here. We'd love to have you play along; we'll be sharing our cards next Wednesday. If you have "smart" images, then by all means use 'em, but any and all stamps are welcome...

Scrapling time...

Donna was our hostess this time, and she challenged us to make a scrapling. How fun! I didn't have a lot of time, but I pulled out the Frames set and dove into my scrap box to create this little number.

It's pretty straightforward - I started with a piece of robin's egg blue cardstock, and stamped the image and sentiment with Brilliance Starlite Black (love that color - rich tone with an elegant shimmer), then inked the edges and dabbed on just a bit more ink with a stipple brush. All done!

It's really small, but I can't help but think how perfect it would be to include with a little gift - a book, a candy bar, whatever! Definitely a great way to tuck in some encouragement...

Would you like to see what everyone else made? Well, click over to Susan, Giovana, Donelda & Donna!

A "Timely" Post

Taking a few minutes to post today... I have these two card made with the In Hand set - I just love the style of that hand image! As much as I adore flowers, I do need to make more "guy" cards, and I think these work well (cuz let's be honest, not everyone is into golf or hunting ;)

For this first card, I added a bit of color with Prismacolor pencils, and layered it with BasicGrey paper. And I even dug into my embellishment stash and added a few of those metal things (photo turns?).

Playing off the time idea, I paired the image up with Ps 90:12. The hand is stamped in brilliance pearlescent olive ink, so it has a rich shimmer to it (but not over-the-top sparkley), and I just paired it up with some scraps of 7gypsies paper.

Speaking of scraps, our next smARTworks' Tea Party will feature "scraplings." So what are those? Well, basically it's a little card made from scraps - most frequently it's 1 1/4" x 4 1/4" (the little strip that's left if you chop a standard 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" card down into a square). So why don't you dig through the paper piled up on your desk - come on, we all have those, right?! - and join in the fun this coming Wednesday (4/8). If you have images from smARTworks please use them, but any and all stamps are welcome!