It all started with a scrap...

I needed to make a thank you card for my sweet sweet sister. She and her husband came over for Ledo's pizza last Saturday. (I grew up in Maryland, home of Ledo's pizza. If you watch Oprah, you may have seen that Oprah's friend Gayle rated Ledo's #1. Of course they are Marylanders too, so maybe a little biased!) Anyway, Angela (my little sister) and James brought some terrific presents for my girls and I wanted to make her a thank you card.
See the top rectangle of dp (mostly white background?) I had this scrap and decided to try to make a card with it. I thought it matched pretty well with a pack of American Crafts papers I received for attending a crop back in May. So I opened up the American Crafts papers and layered the three pieces on black bazzill, mounted my 4 MM brads, and mounted to the white DCWV card. The "Thank you" is an Anna Griffin stamp, and I used the SU! slot punch. I never would have purchased this particular pack of papers, but now I really like them! If I make this card again I think I will use the bottom paper on top and bottom. Of course I used my last 3 black mini brads on this card, and I'm having trouble finding a pack of just black (at Michael's the black is mixed with metallics, which I have plenty of.) Stay cool! It is hot and HUMID here...

Tags

Just playing around with my new QuicKutz revolution tag die. I had a lot of fun making these. I have not made many tags in the past 3 years, so it was fun to play! I made these double thick...e.g. I punched an extra tag to cover up the ivory square & leaves/ gold "happy fall" and the eyelet center of the vellum flower. What do you think?

Happy Birthday cards

More nearly complete cards completed (yea, me!) During the play date I had with friends (Mary, Holly, and Tracy), Tracy brought her "Happy Birthday" embossing plate (cuddlebug), her oval punches (scallop & regular), and her QK cupcake die. I embossed & punched enough to make 6 cards, which I just now assembled. Tracy designed this card on her blog," small smackerels". I love the sweet simple design. But you know, I just love Tracy's style no matter what she creates! My dp doesn't have as many "icing sprinkles" as Tracy's, but hey, I did use up some scraps(KI Memories). Check out Tracy's cards here:

http://smallsmackerels.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-love-ze-scallops.html

Make it a great day!

Gettin' buggy

It's been a little quiet out there...in bloggerland. Not a lot of new posts when I run through my daily blog favorites the past few days. Some ladies were at CHA and shared some wonderful photos of new products! Are the rest all reading Harry Potter? (Lucky gals...I let my husband have first dibs. I'm re-reading book #6 while he reads book #7). I find myself talking to the computer and chanting, "new post, new post..." All these wonderful blogs inspire me. Ahhh, but then I realize I've been a hypocrite and only posted a couple of time myself LOL! On Sunday I woke up with a cold/allergy something. It has knocked me off my feet both Sunday & Monday. I hope today will be better. When I take decongestants, I sleep a little, then I get wired but very fuzzy headed, even the ones without antihistamines. After the "wired" stage passes, I'm totally beat and off my feet again. Ah, so this is why I'm awake at 4am and babbling on my blog. This is wired stage. I hope this blog entry is coherent! My husband poses the following test question to assess exactly how bad I feel,"do you want to lay down while I watch the girls, or do you want to go in your craft room for a little while?" Isn't he a keeper? 16 years of marriage and he still cracks me up :) I don't have any brain power right now to create. So, during the "wired" stage, I've been blogging or going in my craft room and completing all the cards I've started recently. (Like the embossed card and birdie friend card from Sunday posting.) So today's post are cards I started last week, inspired by others, and completed today. The card on the left I CASEd from my friend Vera (see her post here: http://cropsandcards.blogspot.com/2007/07/ladybug-petals.html). I added acetate to the front of mine to protect the daisy ovals, but in the picture you can no longer see the lady bug's flight path. The lady bug is QK. The card on the right is a make-n-take my SU! consultant (Sue) had us do last week at her open house, but I did not finish it until today. I did the stamping and brought her home. Isn't that a super cute card? I love it! I did change two small details. Sue drew the flight path and the antennaes on her card. I used a paper piercer for the flight path and QK for the antennae. (I punched the lady bug body from black cs with QK and cut off the body. The QK head was too small for this body so I glued it under the circle Sue provided for her head. Get it?) So, no new creations for me, but my craft room is looking a bit better! It looked like a bomb went off in there, but now that I've completed a few cards that were in piles on my craft room table and cleaned up the supplies, it is a little neater in there, which makes me feel better :)

All About U card class

Lauren, this entry is for you! Check out Lauren's blog: http://llaurenb.blogspot.com/ (...all the GOOD blog names were taken...) This is the class I designed and taught at Ashburn Family Scrapbook Center in Ashburn, VA. The owner asked me to design the cards around the new Bazzill scalloped paper. Of course I incorporated some Marvy/Uchida scallop punches too (I love those punches!) I also took a pack of the Sandylion alphabet stickers "U" and used all six stickers in the pack; hence, six cards :) The rub-ons and ribbon are American Crafts. Most of the people in the class are beginners, though a couple are intermediate/advanced. I gear the class to learning techniques, without overwhelming them (hopefully). So they learned two ribbon techniques, how to use the crop-a-dile (hole punch & set eyelets), how to use rub-ons, how to create scallops with a slit punch or corner rounder, and fun ways to embellish scallops! No prize winning cards here, but good to have on hand.

Spring cards

Hi, blogger friends! I'll bet you were wondering what happened to me for the past week :) I spent my spare time preparing for a card class I taught yesterday. The prep time took longer than I thought, but well worth my time as it made the class run smoothly. These two sweet cards are not from my class, nor can I take credit for designing them. These cards were ideas shared by stamping friends Holly & Mary, respectively on our last play date (and I finally just completed them!) Holly brought her cuddlebug embossing plate and ink pads and we made the card on the left using our water brushes and my QK revolution die cut for the "happy birthday". The card on the right was an idea Mary brought. All stamps are A*muse. I'm not sure about the ribbon. I used diamond glaze on the little bird and the flowers.

Rockin' Girl Blogger Award

My blogger friend, Ila, nominated me for this. I am a huge Ila fan! I hope you will check out her blog: http://artfullyila.blogspot.com/

I now need to nominate 5 of my favorite Bloggers. I have 34 on my favorites list, so this won't be too difficult! Check these out too for even more eye candy :)

1. Tracy http://smallsmackerels.blogspot.com/ and http://suzyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

2. Jean http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/

3. Sarah http://creationsbysarah.blogspot.com/

4. Laurie http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/

5. Ingrid http://scrapbookmaniaandmore.blogspot.com/

Sympathy Card

I have not been in my craft room since the Caardvarks 10 day challenge ended, but I did manage to make this simple card. I was ready for a little break around day 8 of the challenge, but when it actually ended, I began going through withdrawal! My husband is a little relieved. He was feeling pretty neglected :) I am a relatively new blogger (6 weeks at this), but I am already obsessed! I check my favorite blogs at least twice daily. I admit it, I am a blog addict.

I have been wanting to use the flourish die (QK Revolution), and I wanted to use some bling. I have not used any bling in a while, so that part was fun. The stamp is Anna Griffin and the cs is Bazzill.

{Caardvarks} Day 10 Challenge: Club Scrap Attack

Challenge: Scraplift Jen's Valentine from "Scrap Attack" (pictured left).

I used Basic Grey "Color Me Silly" papers, posickle embellie (BG), chipboard flowers and their centers (K& Co.), and "Follow Your Dreams" rub-on (MM). These were all products I had never opened until today. They have been in my craft room for months! The only scrap used today was the ribbon!

I think this card is fun. Does it look like a "June Houck" card? I'm thinking it may surprise some of you. Let me know what you think :)

{Caardvark} Challenge: Nine Time

Two posts in one day! A record for me. Blogger friends, I appreciate any comments you leave on either or both cards posted today.

The challenge today is to put a clock on the front of the card. All that stuff in my craft room and not a single stamp with a clock, nor sticker. Lucky me, I bought this clock hands punch (Rebecca Sower) a while ago. I created my own clock.

Recipe: "TEA TIME" is Providence font by MM, other stamps are Great Impressions and Art Impressions, all papers and ribbon are CTMH, mini brad is MM.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday early, Tracy

Last night I went back to my craft room and made this card. I had a present to wrap for Tracy, and the card I prepared for her did not match the wrapping paper, so I made this card for her. I was able to complete two tasks at once, because I also wanted to prepare a quick make-n-take for a girlfriend stamping play date scheduled for this morning. I got to play with Tracy, and our friends, Mary and Holly. Great fun! We played with Holly's Cuddlebug, Mary provided a sweet make-n-take by a-muse, and Tracy let us punch away with her giga scallop oval and circle, as well as her QK cupcake die.
Recipe: green card is DCWV, white cs is glossy from XPEDX, pink cs is CTMH, "happy" and birthday" are SU!, the shoe is My Sentiments Exactly, and the flowers are a mix of Queen & Co. and American Crafts. Corner rounder is CM, other two punches are SU!

{Caardvark} Challenge: Eight is Enough

Not feelin' it today...I hope to try again later. The challenge:

2 patterned papers (KI Memories organized dotty o & organizied skinny stripe)
2 ribbons (blue & yellow grossgrain)
2 stamps (circle stamp by SU! & candle by Hero Arts)
2 circles

{Caardvark} Challenge: Lucky

I had to keep it simple today; the district manager for tea shop where I sell my cards locally wants to meet with me this morning to see about expanding to one of there other locations :) Then I got a call yesterday afternoon from a local clothing boutique to ask me if I would consider making tags (like Rebecca Sower) for a specific line of their clothing. They want me to come by this morning too :) Wish me luck! Ironic that today's challenge for day 7 is "Lucky". I hope that is a sign.

Recipe: cs by Magenta, K& Co. k-ology papers and cs sticker, MM mini brad, grossgrain ribbon.

{Caardvarks} 6x6 card & Oldies

Is this a blast from the past? When I first became a stamper (~10 years ago, scrapbooking for 4 years), decorative scissors, corregated paper, and using UTEE was "in". A lot of work for one image! Remember, this was before my girls were born. Since then I have had a more practical approach; less stamping, more dp. I still love to stamp! I just don't seem to get around to it as often. I made it one of my 2007 goals to get back to my stamping roots. Anyway, I've been seeing a lot more corregated paper again, so I guess it is cycling around again?

Recipe: card base is black, inked direct to paper with metallic pigment ink pads, and edged with my gold Pilot pen. Two mats are also blck cs, one metallic blue, and one a mustard corregated paper. Main image: pigment ink, UTEE, and part of a stamp made by Judikins (on a piece of a cardboard box!). I finger painted her with rub'n buff paints. Then I edged the cardboard square with red line tape, and adhered tiny beads to all four sides. The card base matches nicely, but in the picture the blue metallics appear much brighter.

{Caardvarks} 5 star challenge & Let's Do Math

5 different embellishments? It never really occurred to me how many I use normally. I guess my answer is 1-3; I tend to use brads/eyelets, ribbon, primas, an occasional staple, and rub-ons (do they count?) But 5 different embellishments all at once? How to create a card without overloading it...less is more, right? Hmmmm....

This card has MM brads (2 sizes), ribbon, primas (2 sizes), MM buttons, and a MM page pebble. That's 5, right? The cs is DCWV and the dp is BoBunny.

These challenges have been very good for me. I've been in a rut, using my same favorite sketches over & over. Even though I have been trying to do something different, there have been only subtle differences. In other words, I'm still in my box. The past few days my brain has been saying, "Think outside the box." This is reminiscent of my favorite math teacher from high school. Math was always my favorite subject, but Mrs. Trabbic was largely responsible for challenging me to be even better. Even when I became a secondary math teacher myself, I would recall how Mrs. Trabbic would explain how to solve certain problems so that we all understood. Yes, she made even those pesky word problems seem easy, "A train leaves going north...a second train..." You get the idea. But algebra is cookbook to me. You always follow the same recipe to yield the result. See, I love order. I have learned that my cards do not always have to be perfectly symmetrical, nor mounted with perfect right angles everywhere. It is art. (This was really hard for me when I was a beginner. Go ahead, you can laugh at me!) But Mrs. Trabbic often provided brain teasers, like the 9 dots problem. It goes like this: "Without lifting your pencil or retracing over any line segments, connect all nine dots in just 4 line segments. Hint: think outside the 9 dots."
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Once we found that solution, she would say, "Now do it with just 3 segments. Hint: think outside the box." I hope I accomplished thinking outside the box, or outside the 9 dots today. I certainly was challenged. I did use a variation of a sketch I saw at http://gotsketch.blogspot.com/. So my question for you, my blog reader is this, "Do right brain people go through this?"

{Caardvarks} Four Square Challenge

I'm not sure how I feel about this card. I would not normally choose these dp. I was challenging myself to use scraps that I never go to. These are scraps of KI Memories papers from a Baby Milestones mini book class I taught. The cs is MM double-dipped ocean and terracotta. The mini brad is DCWV, and I did the faux stitching with my paper piercer and gel pen.

When I saw the challenge, I was going to do a sketch I use often, four squares on a square card with the image in the middle, or a large prima. These ideas were already posted, so I tried to think outside the box (my box). But now I'm in a rectangle.

{Caardvark} Tri-This! Challenge

Today's challenge was to make a tri-fold card. I have only made gatefold cards prior to today. Today had lots of firsts. First time I used my lady bug die cut, first time using my scalloped frame die cut, first time using my spicy chicken font, first time using my red glitter paper, and first time using this ribbon my friend Dora sent me (for use on another card, but perfect for this one too!) I hope you like it!

{Caardvark} Challenge Double Take

Today's challenge is to make 2 different newly created cards using the same supplies. The "With Love" stamp (by Stamp Francicso) I even used two different ways! I stamped in SU! chocolate chip. The dp and ribbon slide are by MM, and the ribbon is 7gypsies. The cream/ivory cs is from ACMoore. Yes, all still from my scraps. Some pieces of dp I did not have to cut at all; they came right out of the scrap bag and onto the cs :) The cards practically designed themselves depending on the size of the scrap!

{Caardvark} Challenge Uno

{Caardvark} has a 10-Day 10K Challenge. Today's challenge is to make a newly created card using one stamp on your card front.

This is newly created; my own sketch...in the past 30 minutes :) My one stamp is "Thinking of You" by Endless Creations. I stamped with walnut ink. The cs is DCWV, the dp is Basic Grey "Fusion", the brads are MM, and the flowers are primas. I created the scallops with the SU! slot punch, and rounded the corners with the CM corner rounder. Wish me luck!

i{heart}2stamp Challenge

One of my favorite blogs I check regularly has a challenge to have a card with a mostly white background:

http://iheart2stamp.com/2007/06/30/more-hit-the-beach-a-challenge/

My friend Dianne Mathewson designed this card, and I love it so much, I have duplicated dozens of times. My picture came out kind of funky, but the base is white linen cs. The largest mat is silver mirror paper, the blue metallic is hand made paper (I made it using a lunch bag and lumiere paints), and lastly a navy linen cs. The punch and stamp are both from a fellow NCSU Wolfpack graduate, Anna Griffin.