A song in the air...

I picked up this Tim Holtz stamp when we were out in Arizona for Christmas. Let me tell you, it was hard to pick only one! ;) I inked it up with a variety of brilliance and versamagic petal points, and then added the sentiment (Studio G). I layered it with 7Gypsies paper, a dictionary page, and the cool printed flower. Love how quickly this came together!

Owls and some smARTworks news

First off, a card to share. These cute owlies are from the Feathered Friends set - and don't you just love that sentiment?! I stamped the owls first, masked off their feet & then stamped the branch. I colored it all with prismacolor pencils, and then trimmed the panel, leaving a bit of the branches sticking out. I layered it with some old BasicGrey paper to finish it off.

And have you been over to the smARTworks site lately? BIG changes! Rather than individual sets, the images will now be sold in standard sheet increments (with an online shopping cart - hooray!). In the meantime,though, you can score some serious deals as the remaining "singles" are 50% off. You can check them out here.

Also, this month's smART-word has been posted - and we're going monochromatic. Make a card and link up here for a chance to win!

Bird-Day Wishes

I sat down this morning with the Mojo Monday sketch and the Feathered Friends set. I then proceeded to waste a good amount of time - and materials - trying to come up with a card... just not feelin' it today, I guess. Anyway, I was finally able to come up with this cutie. Don't you love that scalloped circle piece? I love that it's only 1 layer! Yep, that circle is also part of the stamp set, and it's a great building block. I punched it with the Marvy scalloped circle Marvy (pink one - can never remember whether it's mego or jumbo), and broke up the sentiment with the help of my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig. The bird portion was colored with prismacolor pencils, and the hat is topped with a bit of purple stickles just for fun. The card base is a printed card base (DCWV).

A bit of enabling: this stamp set is one of the full sheets o' rubber available from smARTworks, which means that it's 25% off this month. You're welcome ;)

Sing!

I had such grand plans for the past 2 weeks... but nothing went the way I had envisioned. Anyway, I am now stealing a few moments to share a card I made back in December with the Happy Silhouettes set. I wanted to do something fun with the bird, and decided to pull out a pad of softly colored vintage paper (K&Co) and play around. I stamped the bird onto one that had script all over it, then embossed and went over it with black ink. I layered it with some other papers, added a few punched flowers, and created a small tag for the sentiment (Alpha-02). Nothing fancy-schmancy, but I like the overall effect.

Here's hoping I can find some additional "fun crafty time" soon! :)

Bless You

Just a quick card to share today, made for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch. The oval die with the sweet birds was from a Making Memories pack, and the only stamping on the entire card is the small sentiment (Wordsworth). Everything else, from the card base (4" square) to the embellishments, was just piled on my desk. I think that's a sign it's time to do some cleaning up!

Imagination

"The world of imagination is boundless" - so why can't we have pink, shimmery birds? :)

This is a pretty simple card - I stamped the bird (Shelley) onto a scrap of white and painted it with twinkling H2Os, added the sentiment (Opportunity Trio), then cut it down into a rectangle, trimming around the bird's wing and tail. I love that effect - simple to do, but really catches your eye (particularly when you mat it with a darker color). I glued a strip of BasicGrey paper onto a white card base, then mounted the main panel with foam pop dots.

So have you checked out the smARTworks site lately? Susan has just introduced some new setss (starting on pg 166) that are gorgeous! I have my order in, now I just need to find time to give the glorios rubbah the love that it deserves ;)

Tea Party!

Giovana was our hostess for this party, and the theme was stitches and ribbon. Yep, I can definitely do that!

This is a very quick card - I love this patterned paper (Making Memories), and just accented the design with this wonderful sentiment from Friends Trio. I would have loved to do some real stitching on it, but my sewing machine is buried so I settled for the faux variety with a paper piercer and a marker. Still a nice effect, though! I distressed all the edges and then tied on some cute ribbon (Prima) as the final touch.

Hop over to Susan, Dina, Giovana & Donelda to see what loveliness they have to share today!

Glitterin' Good Tea Party

Our first Tea Party of '09, and Donelda challenged us to bring on the bling - specifically of the glittery variety.

I really love the sentiment and the bird in the Shelley set, and thought it would work well for this challenge. I pulled out the granola BasicGrey pad, and selected this simple blue print as well as several coordinating "solids." I stamped the bird and the sentiment onto the lightest one, then trimmed away. I traced the bird with stardust stickles - my favorite way to add sparkle while still allowing color to come through (plus I always seem to make a big mess with loose glitter!). I cut the bottom of the printed paper with decorative scissors to add a bit more interest, and then layered a narrow strip of paper under the sentiment (which is a better option than ribbon if you're planning to mail something out).

Be sure to go visit Susan, Dina, Giovana & Donelda to see what sparkly goodness they have to share! :)

The thing with feathers

I've always liked this poem by Emily Dickinson, and now that birds are so popular it seems I've been seeing it more and more. I thought the bird and branch (Technique Tuesday) went nicely with the words (The Stampin' Place), and I threw in a bit of BasicGrey paper (Sugared collection) just to pull it all together. I added a couple dew drops on the right, but they're barely noticeable in the photo.

I'm keeping it short today as I have quite a bit to get done, including packing up for a 12 hour crop I'm heading to on Saturday. You can be sure I'll have lots to share next week!! :)

Spread Your Wings!

Denise is having a week-long Spring Fever challenge, and I thought I'd play along. Today's challenge was to incorporate a bird. OK, I can do that! I pulled out a Technique Tuesday set with branches, leaves, and a few little birds to set the stage, and then finished it off with a Studio G sentiment. I know my colors aren't exactly spring like (all the papers are from a 6x6 BasicGrey Stella Ruby pad) but they still seem cheerful to me. And I promise the ribbon coordinates better in real life - it picks up the pink tones from that base layer very nicely. The final touch was a bit of bling, and I'm ready to fly!

Lovebirds

I'm still trying working my way through the ChatterBox scrap kit, plus when I was cleaning off my workspace I found this one, lonely shipping tag. So yesterday's "Ways to Use it" challenge of a tag was perfect. I stamped the cute little lovebirds (Inkadinkado), clear embossed, spritzed the tag with denim blue glimmer mist, and scalloped the edge with decorative scissors. It still needed more, though, so I added the word (Stampington), a flower, and some ribbon. I layered it onto a burgundy card base, accented with some paper and lace. I'm really happy with the final result, and it will be perfect to give some friends who are celebrating their anniversary soon.


Tomorrow I'll be sharing two simple thank you cards that I made using this same kit. Hopefully you're not getting too sick of it yet :)

Being Still

I usually keep things pretty much stamp-related on this blog and save my personal ponderings for my other blog. I'm making an exception today, though.

Our family is currently in a state of shock, as my FIL passed away unexpectedly on Monday night. The kids and I have been/are sick, so we're staying here while hubby is now out in Arizona with his family.

There has been a lot of other stuff happening, too, and rather than me writing a novel right now I'll just say that I'm feeling rather overwhelmed.

So I made this card for myself this morning. A reminder to be quiet and find strength and comfort in my Savior. "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 What a blessing to know that whatever may happen, He is still in control and will work the circumstances to fulfill His purpose (Romans 8:28).

So if you notice I seem quieter than normal - no, you're not imagining it. Just taking care of other things as necessary. But I guarantee I'll still be making time for my personal ink therapy :)

Card details: stamps - Inkadinkado Birds Galore, SU Words of Wisdom, paper - SU, embellishments - prima flowers, dew drops.

Birds!!

While out running errands earlier this week, I stopped by AC Moore to pick up a box of glue dots - and noticed that the Inkadinkado Birds Galore had landed! There was one left, and I quickly snagged it (the glue dots can wait another week :) I've been doing much better about purchasing stamps, but this was definitely coming home with me!

This is the first card I made - unusual colors for me, but I'm liking it. Still not quite sure about this layout (it seems a bit bottom-heavy because of the ribbon and tiny rhinestones). Thoughts?

BasicGrey Stella Ruby Paper, "JOY" by Fancy Pants

This second card is super simple - I started by stamping the line of birds onto the card base (DCWV). It's textured, which definitely shows up on the solid images, but I kind of like the effect. I debated about what sentiment to add, and I finally settled on this Dr. Seuss quote (Skipping Stones design). I think this would be a really nice graduation card... you know, the idea of taking flight and all. This is a small card - just 4 1/4" square.

Continuing on the bird theme - here's a shot I took this morning of a bird feeder we have in our backyard. Yep, there's snow in Philly suburbia!

In other news, yesterday was supposed to be my "shut out the world and create day." Didn't exactly turn out the way I'd planned. While I did stay away from the computer and avoided answering the phone, I didn't get much creative time. Just too much other stuff going on! I think I'm going to give it another try next week, though. If nothing else, we may declare Thursdays "unplugged day" around here.

Rockin' Robin

I definitely seem to be stuck on the bird theme, don't I? This robin is actually made from a bluebird (smARTworks), but it's amazing what you can do with a little color!

After I colored the bird, I started sifting through my patterned papers. I was planning to use softer colors, but nothing looked quite right. I finally settled on these prints from DCWV (for my dislike of orange, I sure am using it a lot!). I matted the bird with some hot pink, but left very little showing. The final touch was some orange rick rack between the two patterns, and the robin is definitely rockin'!

Bird Friend

A friend of mine came over last night so we could stamp together, and she brought along a 6" pad of Periphery paper. I've been drooling over this stuff, but thus far have resisted actually purchasing any. But at least I got to play with it last night! When I saw the beautiful bird design, this quote (Sweet Grass) immediately came to mind. The hard part was using the quote without covering too much of the paper. My friend also had this beautiful vellum, but the words were hard to read once it was layered onto the print. I was debating what to do when I saw a piece of the backing from my glue dot roll laying on the table. Hmmm... what if I layered a bit of that under the vellum? It worked perfectly - the white color helped the words pop, yet didn't completely cover the design. I finished off the card with the striped paper (also from the Periphery pad), some swirly black ribbon, and a few Primas.

I *LOVE* this card, and honestly don't think I'll be able to part with it. In fact, I'm even toying with the idea of framing it. How cool would it look in a shadowbox?!? Might just have to take a stroll down that aisle next time I'm at the store...

smARTworks Bluebird

I'm really liking this sketch idea - stretches me and helps me look at patterns and images in a new way. Well, I saw this week's sketch on SCS, and my new bluebird set from smARTworks immediately came to mind simply because of the orientation of this sentiment. Sounds like a great reason to make a card, right?!

I started by stamping the bird - and then I stared at it. Off to google "bluebird" to see how it should look (please tell me I'm not the only one who does crazy stuff like that...) OK, now I can color! Pulled out the prismacolors, then trimmed around the bird so that some parts were coming out of the square. Debated about what to use for the background, and ended up dry embossing some mustard cardstock with the Fiskars woodgrain plate (using my Big Shot). Nice texture and still keeps with the nature theme! Finally, I stamped the sentiment, layered it on not quite navy cardstock, then tied on a bit of that brown mesh ribbon that I seem to be using on everything lately. Not all that much left of it, so I promise to give it a rest soon!