Beautiful Things

I'm so excited to get back into my crafting groove and start participating in challenges again. The layout is from Card Patterns, and the blue/kraft/white combo is from the Colour Create Challenge.

I must admit that I interpreted the "layers" on the sketch pretty liberally. I created a mask with a border punch and some lightweight paper and then misted my card base with glimmer mist as a start. The stamps are from the Ornamental Beauty set (CHF) - I had purchased it quite awhile ago, but it was packed up and I just recently rediscovered it. I unearthed the fibery ribbon, too, and the giant button finished it off.

Here's to finding buried treasure :)

BYO Sunshine

Just a fun little card to share... I love these stamps from Unity (Oct 09 Kit of the Month) but they had yet to be put to paper... and finally took a few minutes to rectify the situation :) I stamped the sun image first with pale yellow, then the sentiment with navy. I accented the sun with a prismacolor pencil and a glitter pen, then added a couple eyelets just for fun. I accented it with a scrap of paper (from BasicGrey 12x12 Lily Kate collection) and we're good to go.

And I just want to add that bringing sunshine is always good advice!

Sweet!

We had a birthday party to attend yesterday, and I wanted to create something fun for the birthday girl. I pulled out the Mix Up of Cuteness set and some Basic Grey (Oh Baby - Girl) papers for this card. I colored the cupcake with prismacolor pencils, and the frosting is accented with Rock Candy stickles - I assure you it's very cute in person! The sentiment is from the same set, and it was perfect for the occasion... I'm already dreaming up some layouts with the other images from that set, so stay tuned :)

Ice in Texas?!

As I'd mentioned a few weeks ago, the smART-word for January is ice. Now this is my first January in South Texas (after 14 years in Pennsylvania!) -- and I must admit that icy inspiration is lacking. Rather than bundling up in a warm sweater and sipping cocoa, I'm playing outside with my kids... but only after taking allergy pills and applying mosquito repellant. Crazy! Anyway, after many false starts, this is what I came up with.

I repeatedly stamped the branch image (everything is from the Botanicals plate) with blue & silver Brilliance inks for a frosty feel. Everything is pretty straightforward - the final touch was a couple "icy" rhinestones.

I do want to share one other card I made a couple years ago, using the Winter Days set. I love the icy look that the Dazzle Dust gives here. And hey, you can win this set for yourself by playing along with the challenge - you have until Tuesday night to post a link.

So in the meantime, stay warm and keep stamping :)

Tag! You're My Friend :)

Can't believe it, but I'm back with a second post today!

I really liked the sketch over at Card Patterns this week, and when I saw that it featured a tag, I immediately started thinking about the 12x12 BasicGrey I have in my stash. I used the Phresh & Phunky pack for this card - no stamps whatsoever, and a minor dip into my embellishments for the twine & buttons. I chose the tag first, and lightened it up a bit with some white ink. I picked which papers I wanted to use for each element, and then started cutting. (I love that the paper is sturdy enough to be used as a card base, and I still have a white "innard") I used the coordinating letter stickers to spell out friend, and trimmed a piece of dotted paper to accent the bottom of the tag. Quick, and ready to pass along to a dear friend for Valentine's Day!

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! :)

Catching Up

Holy schnikees, it's 2010! We had a wonderful Christmas and are now trying to return to "normal." There are several matters that require my attention, but I promise to get back to crafting soon. I was able to visit Mystic Paper when we were out in AZ - creative bliss!! Amazing displays, plus drooling over product lines that I'd never seen in person. I could have spent an entire day wandering the shop (not to mention an awful lot of hubby's paycheck), but exercised a bit of self-restraint and walked out with only 1 small paper bag. Which still cost plenty, but I digress ;) Anyway, I do have a bunch of ideas swirling around in my head, plus some completed projects that I haven't managed to post. Here's hoping our computer cooperates with that plan we'll be ordering a new one this week - we've been having some very strange issues with this one, including turning itself on randomnly, and have come to the conclusion that our motherboard is deteriorating rapidly...

Anyway, I did want to say that the January Challenge is up - bring on the ice! Lots of room for interpretation on that one, and hopefully you can play along.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce