Tam's MDC Creations

Three Moos for You...

2010-06-21T19:13:00.001-07:00

I had the opportunity to participate in a really fun little swap making "moos". Moos are very little pieces of art - 1 1/8" x 2 3/4". There were three categories in the swap and I took one spot in each... the fat free moo can have nothing over the edges, the 2% moo is allowed to have things hanging over the edges, and the whole moo is an ATC with a moo on it.

For my fat free moo I created a fun background using stencil pastes. First, I covered chipboard with black stencil paste and let it dry completely, than covered the black stencil paste with crackle stencil paste. Before dry, I stamped into the crackle paste with foam stamps. After it was dried and cracked, I painted it using pastels, then covered the whole thing with glossy medium. I added a little dragonfly brad before adhering it to a background.

For the 2% moo I created a background from stamps and glimmer mist. I used a piece of swirl ribbon for the 'water' and the palm tree is a QuicKutz. I used a little Pebble Beach mud puddles to create the sand, and heat embossed the stamped seagull in black.

The whole moo is pretty much created from papers and tags from Graphic 45. I accented it with gold eyelets. Very simple but there stuff is so pretty it just looks good by itself!

I had a lot of fun with these - fun to try techniques in little bits, very sweet and simple. Hope you enjoy!

Naughty Naughty.....

2010-04-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

A little while back I saw a very intriging new ATC swap hosted by one of my very favorite hostesses at Splitcoast stampers - Joyce always comes up with the most interesting new swap ideas! The swap is called "Nude Windows".... the idea being to have a tasteful nude shown in a window scene. Well, at first I wasn't sure what I thought about that, but then I thought, there are some very cool things you could do with this swap. So I had to get over my prudiness and join in! This was one of those swaps where inspiration automatically hit - I knew exactly what I was going to do! Yippee - that almost never happens for me :)

So, first I found the right kind of image on the internet and downloaded it - that was all kinds of interesting because you can just imagine what you end up with when you search for "vintage nudes" on the Internet! I found one, though, and proceeded to get to work.... and here is my ATC:

The first thing you are probably noticing is that this is not your typical ATC - yes, it is 3.5" tall and 2.5" wide, but it's also about .75" deep. I really wanted to do a balcony, and I decided it had to be 3D... so hopefully no one will mind when they get a really fat ATC!

I started by cutting pieces of foam core for the background and the balcony, then covering them with a stucco patterned paper. I also cut small strips to cover the inside of the windows and the front of the balcony, then inked all the edges. I glued the balcony onto the bottom of the wall piece and let that dry. In the mean time, I cut out my nude ladies and glued them to some Graphic 45 paper that I thought looked a lot like wallpaper. I glued pieces of lace to the back of the window, then tied them back curtain style with gold cord. Then I glued the nudes to the back of the window. I cut tiny strips of paper into small bricks, inked the edges, and used them to frame the window. I cut the balcony trim with a fence pattern I downloaded onto my QuicKutz Silhouette and glued it across the front of the balcony.

Finally, I constructed the vines using long pieces of wire and Vintage Christmas Flower Soft. I poked holes in the top of my windows, glued the top of the wires in, and draped them in a manner which is hopefully "artfully" across the wall, and that was it! This was SUCH a fun card to make - brought me right back to my dollhouse roots and I really love the result! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

VSN Star Baby Card with a mono twist...

2010-04-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend held two great scrappin opportunities at Splitcoast... VSN and VSBN were both on the same weekend! Unfortunately, I was sick sick SICK for most of the weekend, so I only got one card done before deadline, but thankfully they allow more time for the scrapbooking challenges so I'll try to get some done during this week!

The challenge I participated in was A - to make a monochromatic baby card. This was perfect timing since my latest nephew was just born last week - baby number 5 for my littlest brother and the 5th baby to be born while he is deployed somewhere else!! This time he was in Afghanastan while baby was being born, but he was able to get the day off and watch via webcam. I have to write to the military and ask them to stop deploying them so they don't end up like the Duggars! Anyway, here's the card I made:

I chose a star theme in honor of daddy's military service. My latest issue of Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie's Newsletter included this cool technique for monochromatic cards - cutting shapes the same color as the base, embossing them, and then rubbing a little ink over the embossed areas to high light them. The technique is called Mono Dies. Instead of inking mine, I used Core'dinations cardstock, which contains a colored core instead of just a white core, so I sanded the embossed images and got a lighter version of the same color - looks very cool IRL! I glued the shaped down randomly.

The circle is actually a window and the "Baby Boy" (from Cloud 9 stamps) is stamped on the inside of the card in Taken With Teal ink. I used my Nestabilities to cut a slightly smaller circle from the bottom layer than the top to give it a matted appearance, and allowed one of the stars to hang into the peekaboo window - I saw that in my latest issue of Scrapbooks etc. and thought it was sweet.

Across the top of the card is a coordinating piece of patterened paper from Paper Pizzaz, a border punched with a Martha Stewart border punch, a piece of crimped cardstock, and a button sewn onto a slightly darker star which I also embossed and sanded to match the ones below. I decided to tie a bow instead of a knot to go with the baby theme, then attached the button and star with glue dots. Very simple and fun to make - hope they like it!

PAT 14 ATC's

2010-04-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite ATC swaps is the PAT ATC, which stands for "Pick A Theme". Basically you sign up according to groups, everyone in the group picks their favorite theme, and then everyone else in the group makes a card for everyone else. Then, you receive back cards in your favorite theme. It's really fun and inspiring, and causes you to look up things you never knew about, and make cards you might otherwise have made. Very challenging sometimes! Back in February I did these PAT 14 cards and just forgot to upload, so thought I'd share now and talk about my thinking behind them and any techniques.

These cards are for Group 7 in the swap, which was about Holidays.

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise, the themes are Valentine's Day, Christmas, Easter, and Groundhog Day. The Valentine's card is actually embossed metal. I started with a red metal base and then cuttlebugged (cb) it with the flowery background. I sanded the raised portions, then ran it through the cb again with flat plates to deboss it. When that's done, you get a flat piece of metal but the sanded portions add a lot of depth. Then I ran it through the cb again with the owl die, and then rubbed Staz On across the raised portions so that the owl would really stand out. I added small detail with stickles glue and covered the edges of the metal with double sided tape and glitter so there would be no chance of anyone getting cut, then mounted it on cardstock and added the sentiment. Overall it turned out a little busier than I would have liked, but it was really fun experimenting with the cb techniques!

The Christmas ATC uses a simple paper technique called Herringbone that I got from Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie newsletter - in fact, that's where I got the double cuttlebug technique idea as well, so if you're not subscribing to that newsletter you should really consider it! For the Herringbone technique you start with a large piece of double stick tape and then add small strips of paper in the Herringbone pattern. With that done, I added a little fabric word strip and metal snowman embellishment.

The Easter ATC used some of my favorite Imaginsce Peep's Sake paper and a stamp from Serendipity. For a little dimension, I stamped the flower part of the stamp on tissue paper, colored it with Copic's, and then added the petals in thin layers of tissue on a pop dot. IRL it looks very delicate and pretty and I liked the effect.

For the Groundhog Day card I started by creating the background. I used a torn post it to mask off the top from the bottom and then sponged ink on for the sky; then I swapped the post it to the top and sponged the grass in. The tree was cut from a thin layer of cork for some texture, and the cloud was simply hand cut and inked. The ground hog was cut with the cricuit. I handmade a little "winter" and "spring" dartboard and dart, since I'm pretty convinced that's how he decides if we're having more winter or not!

These cards were for group 14, which was a Lot D group, which means any theme goes.

The themes moving clockwise from the top left were Nathan Fillion, Music, Tears, and Shells. OK, so before I had to make this card I was a Castle fan, but I never knew a lot about Nathan Fillion. Now I know at least this - he's quite a hottie!! There are tons of really gorgeous images of this guy on the Internet, so I had a blast with this one. I decided to make my card into a mini wanted poster and captioned it "Heart Thief"...tee hee! I used the burnt edges technique on the image, which involves tearing it out and then ink the edges in layers of mustard, chocolate chip, and black. I mounted it on some distressed wood patterned paper and added mini brads as the nails.

The music card was simple to do and one of my favorites when it was done. I used a printed piece of mulberry paper I've been hoarding as the background, then added some of my favorite Melissa Frances ribbon and a pretty image I got from Ten Two Studios. I punched a hole in the image, added an eyelet, and then hung little jingle bells from the card so that it actually makes it's own music. The treble clef was just some gold cord I glued down in the required shape.

For the "Tears" card I found another beautiful image from Ten Two Studios which you can't see very clearly here, but one of the children does have some beautiful tears in her eyes. The background was Core'dinations cardstock that I cb'd and sanded to reveal the core color. I added some vintage lace from my stash, then finished the card with a little flower and bow.

The final card in this group was "shells". The background is some patterned paper from Zsiage. The shells are dry embossed from one of Martha Stewart's embossing plates. First I did the dry embossing, then I used the template to mask off the background so I could chalk the raised portions. I added little eyelets and some beachy twine to complete the card.

This next grouping is for Group 18:

The themes for this group were different flowers. Moving clockwise from the top left, the themes are Lillies of the Valley, Violets, Lilacs, and Cherry Blossoms. The first two are pretty simple - just stamped and colored with copics, then added to a patterned paper background with some paper lace from Creative Imaginations. The stamp set is an old SU one, Flowers of the Month. The lilacs card was done using a stamp from Serendipity... after it was cut and colored with Copics I masked it and stamped the wording in the background. I added a little purple flower soft for texture, and a butterfly with wings raised by pop dots using a Martha Stewart punch stamp. The white frame is from SU and the "lilac: is computer generated.

For the cherry blossoms card I stamped the image on tissue paper, colored it with copics, and mounted it on a light background to help the colors stand out. The little symbol was cut twice using my cricuit and then glued off center for a little dimension.

The next group is a Vintage group - yippee!! Love to do and receive Vintage work - it's my favorite.

The themes for this one are Vintage Valentines, Vintage Laundry, Vintage purses, and Vintage Mother's Day. The Valentine's card uses digi paper from Ten Two Studios, some old paper lace from my stash, an old image from my stash, and a vintage style button also from stash. Hurray for stash! The vintage laundry piece also used paper from Ten Two Studios. The little image I found on the internet - it's so small on the ATC but it's so cute - here's a close up of just that:

I printed it contact size and then adhered it to a little tag layered with patterned papers. I added a vintage button to the top, and then pop dotted it to the background of the card, also made with Ten Two patterned papers and vintage lace. I added some punched letters from the Ten Two digi paper and a little purple flower from stash, along with some feathery leaves I punched using a Laura Ashley punch. I added the gold photo corner to finish off the card.

For the Vintage Handbag I used more Ten Two Studios digi paper, crochet lace from Jo Ann's. tiny pearls from Michael's, and a stamp from See D's. I cut the image out and added a little cord handle and more tiny pearls to embellish it.

For the Mother's Day card, more of my favorite digi paper from Ten Two Studios and an image from the Internet... I used a border punch from SU with some tiny pearls to embellish it, then just added a flower with a vintage brad center.

Group 20 was another luck of the draw group, and it had some very varied topics!

The themes for this group were Vintage Valentines, Don Knotts, Altered Artwork, and High Heeled Shoes. For the Vintage Valentines I used a Fan Kit from Ten Two Studios. I printed it out and then xeroxed it until I could get it REALLY small... the real kit is much larger. The BINGO card is also from them and pretty much prints exactly the right size for an ATC... they have several themes to choose from in the BINGO cards so I had fun with those. All I needed to add were little pearls, a premade bow, and a little cupid I've had for ages and had no idea what to do with! I think he looks cute there :)

The Don Knotts card was a fun one - I always loved the Andy Griffith show and one of my favorite recurring gags was Barney locking himself in jail! I was able to find an image of that on the Internet, as well as an actual map including Mayberry and Mount Pilot! I used the map as my background and marked the cities with a little stickles. I added the image and hung an old key like the one hanging just out of reach in the jail... too fun!

The next theme is Altered Artwork and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be going for with that one... hopefully I got the right idea! I took a Van Gogh painting and used that as my background image. I "altered" it by using a picture of Mona Lisa in a paper doll kit I got from Ten Two Studios - again I had to really reduce the image to get it down to ATC size, so there was a lot of little cutting going on! Overall the effect is a little strange, so I'm hoping I understood the theme right and that the recipient will like it!

The high heeled shoe uses more digi paper from... yep - Ten Two Studios! Love their stuff - can you tell?? I added some photo corners using my Quickutz and some blue pearl embellishments from Michaels. The brown ribbon is from SU and the little shoe is actually a vintage button I had in stash. Simple, but I was happy with it.

For group 21 the theme was writers/poets.

Themes clockwise from top left are Robert Burns, Edgar Allen Poe, Shel Silverstein, and Ogden Nash. And here are perfect examples of why I love the PATs... I'm not big into poetry, so before joining this group I'd never heard of Robert Burns or Ogden Nash. OK, truth, I didn't get thrills from anything I saw by Robert Burns... he probably has something famous out there that I'm simply not aware of... from what I did find, I didn't really get it, but I hope I made a good card for him anyway! (Lot of brogue in his poetry - kind of hard to read...) I found a little passage I liked and printed it out - it's about a young girl in a field, so I had a great little stamp set from Papeterie. I mounted it on some of my favorite K&Co paper and added some little pearls to embellish.

I am a Poe fan, so I chose The Raven for my card, mainly because I had this cool raven stamp! The background was created using blended Distress Inks from Tim Holtz, then I stamped the image and heat embossed it in black. I added strips of words from the poem and a tiny picture I found of Poe on line.

The Shel Silverstein card focused on his puzzle piece poem. I printed it very tiny on paper that looked a little like an old sidewalk, and kept it simple by printing out a tiny picture of Silverstein and mounting it on a Quickutz of a puzzle piece.

I'd never heard of Ogden Nash before and I have to say, he has some funny little poems out there! Just simple, silly little things with clever rhymes and a keen sense of humor - I had a hard time picking one to use! The background paper is from Memory Box, and the cow is from MFT stamps. I stamped him twice and popped his head up, then added little strips with the poem and a bow to top it off. Because it's short and sweet, here's the poem:

The cow is of the bovine ilk

One end is moo

The other, milk.

Isn't that funny?? I can't imagine a man sitting around and thinking stuff like that up!

The last cards were for group 22 and were the most fun to make - the theme for the group was shaped ATC's! This was pretty cool since they still have to work in the size - 2.5"x3.5".

The themes are just what you see - butterfly, dog, teapot, and mask. All images were created using multiple layers of thick paper and my cricuit. Nothing too special about them besides the shaping, but, trust me, that was challenging enough!

I'm working on PAT 15 cards now, so should have some more of these great multithemed little gems to share shortly!

Some recent ATC's..

2010-04-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've been involved in multiple ATC swaps recently and again just haven't had time to upload, so wanted to take a minute tonight and start... I'll do some now and some in days to come to fit them all in as I still have an altered book to start tonight...

The first two cards are part of a new swap group I joined called Stampin D'Amour... it's been a great swap so far and all the swappers are very talented!! My card for February has a Mardi Gras theme:

This was such a fun card to make! I started with a layer of striped patterned paper (Spring Swirl from Best Creations) and mounted it on glitter black cardstock. I stamped the white swirls with VersaMark and then heat embossed them with white. Then I stamped the black frame (the stamps were Fancy Pants...) and heat embossed that. I printed the sentiment on purple cardstock and cut it to fit the frame. The fiber on the side is one I've had for a while - I think it came in a kit from BJ's. For the mask I used a downloadable pattern on my QuicKutz silhouette along with some hologram paper I got from WalMart (yeah, I'll shop anywhere for scrapbook goodies!). I added the pearls to the eyes and some old jingle bells to the edge of the mask to finish the card.

The card I made for April's swap is an Easter themed ATC using a digi kit I got from Ten Two Studios - LOVE that store! The design makes a foldable ATC - here is the outside:

And then here is the inside:

I LOVE vintage style and I just thought this was so funny! For the outside, I basically printed the card and added my own embellishments.... some blue flower soft to add texture to the flowers, a blue rhinestone in the middle of the bow, and some green fiber to simulate Easter grass. For the inside, I used clip art included with the kit but then some different background paper I had from Bo Bunny... I thought the colors went together better than what was in the digi kit. I inked all the edges in brown and added a row of rhinestones to the top to finish it off. I hope they liked it as much as I liked making it!

The next swap I was in had a supernatural theme - I love all things supernatural so this one was a blast for me! I'll admit it - I'm a big Twilight fan, so I wanted to do a vampire card, but didn't want to actually do Twilight. So, I searched the internet and found an old image of Lugosi at his best - and I came up with this card:

For the background, I used some Coredinations Black Magic paper, which I embossed in a Cuttlebug folder and then sanded to reveal the colored core. I punched the scallop trip from SEI velvet paper and added some gems from Kaiser. The roses were some old ones I had in stash, and the spider web paper is from Making Memories.

I decided to make a mini Ouija board for the second card:

I was able to download the image right from the Internet; I then cut it out and coated it with a sepia tinted glaze to age it. I cut the little planchet out from brown crinkled paper and inked the edge in gold; Then I added the old ghostly photo, which I also downloaded. Very simple but fun card to do.

The final cards I am sharing today were part of a Simon Says swap on Splitcoast; we each signed up for spots in a group, and then were emailed a list of instructions for the cards. Here is the first card I did, which was for Group 2 in the swap...

For this card, the parameters I received were: to use a cool color for the base (mine is light blue), to have the word stormy be the adjective for the card, to use a new technique (I used the "bleach swipe" technique for the first time... first, I took a piece of Not Quite Navy cardstock from SU and swiped it with bleach, dried it with a heat gun, then swiped and dried again two more times. This particular cardstock turned purple when I bleached it, which was unexpected but I thought very cool... Next, I stamped the SU sanded background stamp on it using Navy ink to pick up what was left of the Navy in the background, and then I sprayed the whole thing with Tattered angels Ocean Mist spray... Then I stamped the Tattered Angels compass over that... very cool technique and the first time I'd tried it. I got it from Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie newsletter...) , to use a rectangle (my image), to add red (my photo corner), to add a line (part of the sanded background stamp, to add a quote, to put 2, 4, or 6 embellishments on the card (the black crystals), to add something light (the light house), and to add patterned paper (the photo corner again). This was so fun - I loved the new technique I learned, and it was a challenge pulling all the elements together!

Here is the card I made for Group 3:

The elements for this card were to include: primary colored base (the red), the adjective for the card is "clumsy" (from the image and the quote), to use an old technique (I did double resist, which was a technique I learned from SU...you use glossy paper, heat emboss a stamp (I used the glitter snowflakes), then stamp again in Versamark without embossing and just brayer over it (that's the flourish and the grey ink ), to use a triangle (I arranged my snowflakes in a triangle on all the cards), to use red (the base again), to stitch something (the sequins and beads are stitched on), to add a quote (this was from the actual Bambi movie), to put 1, 3, or 5 of something on the card (the snowflakes, beads, and seqiuns), to add something dark (the gray ink), and to use a magazine picture (I actually used in internet picture instead because the theme I came up with was very specific!).

Hope you're enjoying your weekend... I had fun today swimming with the kiddoes and now I'm off to work on my first altered book - happy crafting!!

A Few Pages in April...

2010-04-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

I know, I know - I'm completely out of the posting habit at this point! I'm trying to get back into it, and I have a lot of great projects to share, so I'll keep trying! I just finished my third semester finals yesterday, so I'm feeling very relieved and ready to play catch up on some of these thing!

Here are some scrapbooking pages I completed as part of an online scrapbooking class I was taking through Big Picture Scrapbooking... the class is over now and I'm just getting to the uploading part... I have a lot of layouts to finish for the class as well, so they'll keep popping up as I work through the material. The class was Design Your Life by Cathy Zielski - I'm a big fan of her work and the class was very useful in teaching actual design elements - yea!

The first layout was based on a particular color palette we were supposed to use... orange, yellow, and black.

I used paper and embellishments from Basic Grey's Ambrosia pack and some black crystals from Zva Creative. The big brad was an old one from my stash. The first part of the title and the journaling were printed directly onto the cardstock, the "flight" is some of the letter stickers included in the Ambrosia pack. The journaling says "Some days I feel just like this butterfly, perched precariously on the edge of the world, waiting for the right time to stretch my wings and fly. This is the time of my rebirth, a time I am turning my life into something new and beautiful and meaningful. Every day I wonder, am I brave enough? Am I strong enough? Am I committed enough? And every day I answer myself by letting my hope take flight." This page was inspired by all the changes I have recently made in my life and my hopes for the future.

The next two pages are the same layout, one for my daughter and one for my son. I loved the idea of encapsulating little daily activities to remember our lives by... here's my daughter's page:

I used paper from Magenta and printed the title directly onto the patterned paper. I accented the page with gems and pearls from Zva Creative bling, and some antique lace I had. The little frame is from SU. The butterfly and bird are cut from the patterned paper. The journaling is:
-Put on only soft, comfy clothes
-Brush your hair as soon as you wake up
-Make your own breakfast
-Take breaks by jumping on the trampoline
-Feed the animals (whether they need it or not!)
-Play with your doll Alex and other stuffed animals
-Watch two or three iCarly episodes
-Run fast and jump on me when I get home
-Wiggle your butt when you want something
-Give me SO many reasons to smile

And my son's page:

The paper and sticker are from Pebbles Inc. - the title I printed right onto the patterned paper from the computer. The journaling is:
-Wake up super early, usually before 6 a.m.
-Turn on the computer first thing
-Smile when Mrs. Laws gets you out of the car
-Jump on the trampoline with sissy
-Spend hours surfing YouTube
-Reenact your favorite videos with beanie babies
-Ask for "chips wiff cheese pweese"
-Take at least two baths or showers
-Ask for tickles just before bedtime
-Remind me how lucky I am to be your mom

Hope you enjoyed these layouts - what I loved about the class was the simple layout designs, which allows you to focus on the pictures and the meaning behind the page - hope you like them as well!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm getting a special treat, having the opportunity to catch up on some scrappin! I have two quick projects to share... the first was a super fun wall canvas that I got through Quick Quotes...

For the layout I followed the kit instructions pretty closely, but I did alter the papers and some of the embellishments so that they would match. The papers with the kit were pretty loud and I wanted something soft and pretty for my daughter's room - I was really happy with the new choices. The kit basically contains three pieces of canvas that you color with ink and then glue together. Then there are a lot of vellum elements from Quick Quotes that you use in various ways, so it's pretty fun. I really enjoyed doing it and my daughter really loved it (her birthday was yesterday... nine... OMG!)

I also completed another layout for my design class at Big Picture Scrapbooking by Cathy Zielske... this lesson was on using white space:

The only thing about this picture is that it is much bluer looking on the computer than it actually is IRL... the paper is actually a very light teal blue, but I was altering the photo so you could see the white flower outlines and this is how it turned out. So I think it's a little prettier IRL than what you can see here.... very classic looking. All papers are from SU... also, the metal label holder and border punch are from SU. The title is a combination of rub ons from Creative Imaginations and the Magenta font from QuicKutz. The flowers are from Prima and the centers are just rhinestone accents from my stash. I'm very happy with the page IRL and really enjoying the class.

Hope where ever you are you are having fun this Valentine's Day!

Whoa! They snuck in a VSN!

2010-01-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

OK. so I admit I've been a little busy lately... or maybe just forgetful... but I almost missed this weekend's virtual stamp night at Splitcoast! Whoops! I did remember late last night and so was able to put a few together this morning, but I had to stop because I still have some ATC's to get done for PAT 14!!! Wow, I'm on a total papercrafting binge!

The first challenge I participated in was #1, which was to use colors from a country flag that is participating in the Olympics. I chose the Bahamas, mostly because I liked the flag colors the best out of the one's offered, but Ialso because I was having a flash back to the old movie Cool Runnings, which was about a Jamaican bobsled team. I imagine Bahamanians are at similar disadvantages competing in winter games!! So, their flag colors are black, teal, and gold. I used papers from Basic Grey's Off Beat collection:

I acented the card with little gems from Kaiser Craft. The stamp set is from Stampin Up.

My next card was for challenge 5 - to feature the letter 'S', to use pink, no neutrals but white, and to use the kissing technique. Here's what I came up with:

The patterned paper is Cloud 9, and the image is from Serendipity Stamps. I used QuicKutz for the letters - the "S" is Blossom and the other letters are Eliza mini. I used a nestabilities to cut out the main image, which was colors with Copics. The heart under the 's' is where the kissing technique is.... I used a QuicKutz to make my own foam stamp and the kissing was done on a background stamp from Glitz designs.

My final card was sort of fun because I don't usually do a lot of masculine cards. It is for challenge 6, to spotlight a sport, use Olympic colors of blue, red, yellow, black, green and also to use the 'spotlight' technique.

Yes, I'm pretty sure there's no ATV racing in the Olympics but this is about as sporty as I get! I used paper from an old Basic Grey collection and the ATV stamp is from Stampin Up... the distress stamp in the corner is from Glitz designs. The brads are from stash.

It's kind of a ho hum day outside today here... perfect for more scrappin, so I'm off! Have a fabulous end to your weekend!

A couple more quickies...

2010-01-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

Just a fast update on two more pages I got done this month... I'm SO excited to have gotten so much scrapbooking done this month. Last year through the whole year I got very few pages done, so I feel like this year I'm starting off the right way:)

I signed up for a few classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking and this first layout is from Design Your Life by Cathy Zielski...

This is my very first "hybrid" page... the journal block was a download for the class. It's great to learn how to do some of this stuff and I hope to keep learning! All the paper and embellishments for this layout were from Bo Bunny's Grease Monkey Line. I love love LOVE these pics, because my little guy is just busy being a little guy. Sometimes with Autism you don't have a lot of normal, everyday moments... with Josh in particular, because he has a lot of sensory needs, he is very often stuck in stimming patterns and has a hard time joining us. So to find him outside just being a boy is a special moment! He even played witha worm... how cool is that??

This next page is a companion to one I made during VSBN... I do favor double page spreads so I usually make a second page to any one I start... I just have a hard time putting two pages that don't match next to each other in an album... a little obsessive, I know:)

All the paper and embellishments on this one were from Cloud 9, and the sketch is from Inspired Blueprints... #20. Gotta run - going bowling tonight with the kiddies and have a bunch of ATC's to finish for PAT 14, which I hope to share with you soon... have a fab weekend!

Imagine... it's almost the end of VSBN!

2010-01-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

One more possible upload day for VSBN... I just barely got my next page in on time! The challenge I chose to work on today was K, which was to incorporate the word "Imagine", scrap about someone who brings peace and goodness to your life, use the color pink, and talk about what your peace color is and why. Whew!! First of all, here's my page:

This was my daughter age three... all the world was her oyster and still is! She loved pink, glitz and bling. I had this paper kit from Fancy Pants I'd been dying to use, and I thought the kraft base would be a cool contrasting background for a very blingy girl. The castle was created with my cricut Happily Ever After cartridge , and the title word using the new 'Songbird' font. The flowers are prima and the bling is all from Zva Creative. This page was a case... I usually don't do a lot of casing, but during the G challenge I found several cute pages and this one particularly stuck out to me, so I just wanted to get it done... the original page is Missing You by Jana Eubank and you can see it here.

The next part of the challenge was to talk about what color peace is to you. For me, it's pink! I'm in the middle of a divorce... in fact, last September would have been 15 years. There were a lot of good and bad things about the marriage, some things I do miss. But one thing that always got on my nerves was that my ex had a lot of opinions about the way things in the house should be - it was a constant source of arguements. One of the things I'm celebrating is my newfound ability to decorate any way I like.. hee hee hee! Therefore, the first thing I did in my new room was paint it PINK! Not a masculine thing about this room, and I love it:) Here's a peak:

I love the peace and serenity of my new room and the way it expresses me and what I like - it's great to come home every day and feel comfort in the things around me. So here's hoping that everyone finds a little piece of their own peace this weekend... have a great one!

Cuddly and Sweet...

2010-01-22T06:27:00.001-08:00

So today is my last final this term - hoozah!! Image production.... not so much fun, but I'm glad afterwards the week will be over! I had two tough ones yesterday and when I got home I decided to take a little nap and woke up at 3:30 this morning! Obviously, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to get another VSBN challenge done... Yes, I will hop on any excuse to get some scrappin done:)

I decided to work on Jan10VSBNE - the challenge was to use three hearts on your layout, each made of different material. Here's my page:

I used Cloud 9's 'Be Mine' collection. There are tiny hearts bordering the background paper, hearts printed on the ribbon, hearts on the second layer of background paper, a jelly heart above the photos, a chipboard heart below the photos, and a cluster of rub-on hearts in the upper right corner. I used a sketch from a new sketch site I found, Inspired Blueprints - very cute sketch, so glad I found the site!

All right, I'm off to study for a few hours... hope everyone has a fabulous Friday night and a great weekend:)

More scrappin pages....

2010-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

OK, finals are on!! I've actually been studying this week but managed to pull out a few more pages for VSBN at Splitcoast Stampers... :)

The first page I did was for challenge G to case a page... I chose a really cute page from Scrapmom205, Hoe Down... and here's my page Feed the Animals:

I used paper and chipboard embellishments from Imaginisce's Wild Thing collection, sticker letters and journaling block from Scenic Route, and a giraffe sticker from my stash. Part of the challenge was also to create a handmade embellishment - I created the vines on the right side of the page using a QuicKutz vine and some stickles.

I also finished this DPS tonight for challenge H, which was to scrap doggie pics with a doggie quote.... here's both pages together:

And then quick views of each page individually so you can see them a little bigger:

I used paper from Basic Grey's Sultry collection, and some stamps for the quote from Cloud 9. The quote is "Happiness is a warm puppy" from Charles Schultz. Seemed to be true for my dd!! I'm gonna run because I have to go memorize super fun facts like radiology governing agencies and protection acts... yummy! Will slide in another page or two before the weekend if I can... have a great day!

VSBN!!

2010-01-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

Hooray hooray, it's time for a VSBN!! I love a good excuse to scrapbook, especially since I have finals this week and so I really SHOULDN'T be scrapbooking... but, after all, how often does a VSBN come along??

I've been able to complete two challenges so far and have ideas for more so this post will be a quickie... the first page completed a lot of requirements... here is I am Autism:

The journaling says: You may think I'm not like you. Sometimes I need to rock or clap or make loud sounds. Things might seem strange when I'm around. But those are just surface things. If you watch me you will see I love to laugh and dance and sing. I learn things in my special way. Most of all I love to play. Open your heart and you will see - underneath it all, you're just like me.

The VSBN challenge was to title the page "My name is _______" and to journal something unusual about a person. As it happened, we are trying to raise money for Autism Speaks (check out our team at www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/palmbeach/teamjoshie2010 ) and our local scrapbook store is supporting our team, so I needed to create a page to advertise it - this challenge kind of prompted to idea for the journaling. Then, I also have been taking an on line class at Big Picture Scrapbooking and haven't had time to complete any of the assignments yet (yikes!), so I encorporated the sketch from my class (called Design Your Life with Cathy Zielske - very cool class!) So, lots of purpose behind this page! I was pretty excited to get the title to print in the picture - my first time playing with pse... the paper is from Creative Imaginations. I chose it because the puzzle piece is sort of the universal symbol for autism support.

The next page was for a challenge to create a page resembling an album cover called Busted Stuff... here's the page:

The placement of the main photo and the cut out photo are cased from the album cover, as well as the torn effect... I also used "Busted" as my title since I have PLENTY of photos of my son getting totally busted! I used paper from Bo Bunny's Grease Monkey line because it comes already looking paint spattered and distress - perfect for this page! OK, off to scrap now - hope to have more to post for tomorrow!!

ATC Technique Swap II

2010-01-05T19:38:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I don't know about where you are, but it's COLD here! Which is strange, considering I live in Florida - it's actually in the 20's tonight! So I'm getting ready to snuggle in, but thought I'd share some technique cards I mailed out today for an ATC swap... I would like to say that I learned all the techniques I used from Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie Newsletter - I got a subscription this year and I've really been enjoying it! You can contact her at phuntoon@optonline.net if you're interested in a subscription...

The first set I made used the mono masking technique - I have previously shared a tutorial on this technique but this was my first opportunity to swap with it. Here's my new mono masking example:

I enjoyed making this one because I've always loved the blue and white color combo and it was fun to be able to make a card using it. I used a SU set, Infinite Goodness with Night of Navy ink and cardstock along with Whisper White cardstock. The eyelets were from my stash.

The next technique is called Herringbone - it basically involves a specific placement of little strips of paper. Here is my example, using patterned paper from Basic Grey's Eva collection:

I made several of these using the paper in different areas and this turned out to be my favorite. When you don't get the colors and patterns right it just kind of looks like a mess, but I thought this one turned out pretty cute. I didn't want to add a lot to the card because ATC's are so small that a lot of embellishing would have covered the technique, so I just added a small flower and a gem.

I thought this next one was a cool idea and something I had never thought to do - emphasizing a stamped object by coloring around it instead of inside it. The technique is called Coloring Outside the Lines. It took me a while to decide on an image to use, but I finally picked this coffee cup from Flourishes...

I found some patterned paper that went pretty good with my copic colors in a 6x6 Basic Grey Marrakesh pack and decided to pop the image by matting in black; I added the black button which I think kind of makes it look like a little door or something... Anyway, it seemed like a good idea at the time:)

The next set I made used the Brick Wall technique - this technique I learned from Splitcoast Stampers. I had already made one ATC using it for the Pat 13 swap and it turned out really cute - this one not so much but it's OK I guess. I think I needed a more defined image on the bricks.

I stamped the background mat with a Glitz background stamp to give it some texture. For the second layer I tried some collage stamping; this is something I'm usually not particularly good at because my nature is very symmetrical and thus everything I stamp tends to look symmetrical rather than having the random effect neccessary for collage stamping; this one wasn't too bad considering past attempts. The sheet music stamp was also from Glitz; the other stamps were all from a cute little Crafty Secrets set that I won from them last World Card Making Day... I love their stuff!! After I stamped all the images I used the Faux burnt paper technique around the edges. The image on the brick wall is actually a face but it doesn't come out very clearly... I added a little flower and lock from my embellishment stash. Overall a lot of work went into this one so I was a little disappointed that I didn't like it very much when it was done, but I learned from it so that's a good thing.

The last technique I tried is called Jenny's Coat... it's a variation of Joseph's Coat using patterned paper instead of a stamped background.

I ended up not being very happy with this one either. I tried really hard to get the ink to cover the patterned paper but it still shows, so the cool effect is kind of lost. Maybe if I had chosen a lighter color of pattern paper it would have worked better; if you cross your eyes you can kind of see it as it was intended, so maybe everyone who receives one will do that! I again used paper from my Basic Grey Marrakesh pack for this card - I love the colors and thought it would be cute, and it probably would have been if the ink would have covered a little better. The cat stamp is from Will n' Way stamps... I bought it at a lss several years ago and have never used it, so I was glad to finally try it out.

Thanks for checking out my ATC's.... hope it's warmer where you are than it is here!!

Julie Bonner Sketches #46 and 48

2009-12-07T05:47:00.001-08:00

I just can't believe it's December already! I realized the other day that the whole year is almost gone and I've hardly scrapbooked at all! My primary focus used to be scrapbooking - that was what I loved. This past year I've learned so much about other forms of papercrafting that it's taken my time away from my true love. So, I decided this weekend that I had to participte in Julie Bonner's last sketches before she leaves her sketch site.

I was so sad to read the other day that Julie has decided she will be taking this year off from her 52 sketches 52 Weeks scrapbooking blog. Of course, I totally understand because there is just so much work involved in these things that it's hard to accomplish anything else. And, as she plans to focus on furthering her design career I can only wish the best for her. I look forward to following her on her personal blog.

I decided to use this week's sketch #48 along with a sketch from two weeks ago, #46, to create a double page spread.

I used some new Christmas paper we got in from the store from Webster's pages - I just love vintage style so these pages just make me happy! I'm working on getting them into the system now, so if you like them check it out over the next couple of days.

For the first page I used a base of Always Artichoke under the Webster's patterned paper "Christmas Sky". The paper is so decorative you really don't have to do a lot else! I found the laser cut frame in some of my mom's old old stash (we decided we think she bought this when we first started scrapbooking, about 14 years ago! Bout time it gets put to good use!) I added gold liquid pearl for the holly berries. The title letters are QuicKutz revolution Blossom - I stamped underneath them with an Autumn leaves flourish stamp in Chocolate Chip ink and added Kaiser Craft blush pearls. I think pearls are so awesome on vintage style! The gorgeous crochet flower was done by my mom - I added the red gem in the center.

This is another background paper from Webster's - Wish Upon a Star. The red border is made from the back of another sheet of Wish Upon A Star - this paper is heavy weight and double sided, so good good stuff. I punched the edge of the paper with a Martha Stewart border punch and added more Kaiser Blush pearls. I printed the photos in sepia tone because the original colors SO did not go with this paper and I really wanted to use the paper! The way I scrapbook I create three layouts of every theme - one for me and one for each of the kids to have one day. So, this will be mine:) I decided to cut the photos out with my nestabilities; then I took craft paper, embossed it with the cuttlebug, rubbed chocolate ink over the raised portions and used that as my photo mat. It gives a lot of texture and looks cool IRL! And, it matches the little deer on the patterned paper, who is a craft color stamped with words in chocolate chip ink. I stole another crochet flower from my mom (thanks mom!) and added it on top of more stamped flourishes accented with more Kaiser Blush pearls. The last step was just the journaling. I SO enjoyed getting back into my scrapbooking groove - hopefully I can wing a few more sketches before the end of the year. Have a great day!

Mono Masking, A Tutorial

2009-10-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

For the Pat 13 ATC swap I signed up under a technique, Mono Masking, thinking in my head it is something I would like to try. Of course, once the fog cleared I realized that I wouldn't be the one doing the Mono Masking... only the other people in my group. SO, I decided to go ahead and try it and post a mini tutorial for the people in my group... I did get the idea from Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkie newsletter, so I hope I'm not infringing on any rights... These are all my own pictures and my own wording, but for the original idea you should check out her newsletter or think of becoming a member... they're awesome resources!! OK, with all the appropriate disclaimers aside, here we go:

1. To begin using this technique on an ATC, you need to use a 2.5x3.5 piece of background cardstock. Or, a little smaller if you plan to mount on additional cardstock, as I did. Stamp your image in the center of the cardstock piece. Mine happens to have a rectangular outline around it, which is helpful, but not necessary. The technique is called "mono" masking, part of this meaning your going to be working in one color group, so make sure your ink and cardstock are from the same color family.

2. Next, cut the sticky end of a post-it note to the approximate size of your central image and cover it. Again, my image had the border around it, so it was really easy to cut to the right size, but don't worry if you don't have a border around your image - it will be added later. Fold the post-it in half lengthwise, unfold it, and then fold it cross-wise and unfold it again. Then stick it down over your stamped image.

3. The folded lines will be your guides for the next steps. Take two new post-it notes and line them up in the center boxes so that they cover two corners of the cardstock and leave two corners exposed. Stamp a background stamp or a small stamp repeatedly to cover the open areas of cardstock.

4. Pick up the two top post-its and move them to the opposite corners, so the corners you just stamped are covered and the unstamped corners are exposed. Stamp a different background on the exposed corners.

5. When you remove the two top post-its, you should see all the background now. Use a stipple brush loaded with ink to lightly colored the exposed background, coloring a little heavier around your center post-it note.

6. Now, using the lines on your center post-it as a guide, use a marker in your color family to draw lines around the center image and in between the backgrounds where they meet. When you remove the center post-it, you'll see the stippling makes your border a little darker and it looks like a layered piece, even though you're working only on a single sheet of cardstock.

7. Finish your piece as desired. I did add a little pop of color to mine, because it was very brown, but I've seen the technique in blues and other colors where you don't need it.

Hope this helps you guys - enjoy your mono masking!!

World Card Making Day Post 2!

2009-10-04T21:00:00.001-07:00

OK, I got a few more quick challenges done today, and almost finished a third but HAD to get these up by the deadline of midnight, so I'll have to finish the fifth and upload tomorrow...

So, I participated in the challenge hosted by My Favorite Things stamps... they provided a free digital stamp to work with. I'd never tried that before because I assumed the ink would smear, but I colored with my copics and had NO problems.... very exciting! The challenge requirements were to use black, pink, and white and to add some bling.... here's my sample:

The base is Pink Passion SU cardstock, followed by a layer of black. The top and bottom fourish lines on the card are from a roll of ribbon I got at Micheals for $1 - woo hoo! The center panal is a retired background stamp from SU, Houndstooth. I mounted the stamped image on a Label nestabilities, and added three circles down the side of the image to showcase some Kaiser flower gems. The big flower is a sneak peak of some new product we got from Glitz - the stickers are a good weight and have bling already on them - super cute and can't wait to use some more!! You'll be able to find them in the store this week... The sentiment is from an old TAC set.

The next challenge I did was for Hannah stamps... perfect opportunity to use one of my new Riley stamps! The challenge was a sketch and I followed it pretty closely...

The base is Always Artichoke SU cardstock, followed by a layer of Pink Passion. All patterned papers are from Imaginisce, and the flowers are from Bazzil and Prima. The brad says 'Go Wild' and is also from Imaginisce. It's a pretty basic card - just colored the image with Copics and put everything together according to the sketch....

I had a lot of fun this weekend getting some cards done!! Hope everyone else got some done too - will share my final project when I get it done... thanks for stopping by!

World Card Making Day 1

2009-10-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Belated Happy World Card Making Day! Happily, I had time to make two cards yesterday and am trying to pull off a few more today, so maybe I'll have another post to share later this evening.

I participated in two challenges at Splitcoast Stampers - the first one I chose was the Splitcoast teams challenge to use Chocolate, to followe Beate's sketch, and to give the card a thankful theme. We just got in some stamps from a brand new company in the store, and I immediately thought of one of a new set that fits this challenge, so here's a little sneak peak of one of the new sets from Darcy's that will be revealed tomorrow:

Aren't the pumpkins scrumptious??? The stamps come "prekissed" with the patterns and I think they're just beautiful... Be sure to check the store tomorrow to see this set and the other new sets we got in from Darcy's!! The paper I used was from two stacks from Memory Box, Butterfield and Embrace. The cardstock is SU Dusty Durange and Vanilla, the ink is SU Dusty Durango, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive and Always Artichoke, with Chocolate Chip for the sentiment and leaf, and the button is actually from Basic Grey's Archaic collection. I faux stitched around the image because despite my best attempts I can not figure out how to use the mini sewing machine!! I followed Beate's sketch pretty closely, although I did have to move my sentiment up a little to balance the weight of the card with those pumpkins on the left.

The next challenge I participated in was from Crafty Secrets.... love, love, love their stuff!! I have their French Mail stamp set and thought it would work great with my favorite K & Co paper...

The challenge was to add dimension to your card. I tried to accomplish that by using lots of layers and pop dots, along with some 3-D embellishments. The card base is SU's Bravo Burgandy and then a layer of Vanilla; all the patterned papers are from K & Co's BW Madeline mat pack; I find that if you pick up the mat packs the patterns are generally reduced and perfect for card making. I stamped the sentiment and the eiffel tower from the set directly onto the patterned papers. The postage stamp at the top is actually a Madeline rub-on over some of the patterned paper accented with the tiniest amount of platinum stickles - you can't actually see that in the pic. Over the eiffel tower stamp I used some bird rub-ons, and the patterned paper had the flowers at the bottom of the image piece, so my little cupid mail delivery man looks like he's walking along a flowered path. I stamped the cupid several times to get the shades; his body is stamped on Blush Blossom, his hat, wings, and letters are stamped on scraps of patterned paper from the Madeline pack so they match the card. He's raised on pop dots, so he's dimensional. Then for the heart accent in the lower corner, I cut it out of the patterned paper, cut some of the flowers out and popped them up at three different levels so it is very dimensional, plus added some Kaiser pearl accents. All the pink gem accents are from Zva. I then accented the flower centers, the mail, and the heart the birds are carrying with stickles. I love, love, love this card!! I think because it just uses so many of my favorite things - hope you enjoy it too!

Ok, gotta run - off to try to get a few more challenges done - happy crafting!

Disney PAT 2 Swap...

2009-10-02T00:30:00.001-07:00

I participated in a Disney ATC swap a few months ago and didn't have time to post about it, so thought I'd take a minute and do it now. I joined three groups, which means I made 12 cards based on the Disney character that each person in my group selected. Most of these are pretty simple because the Disney themes rely a lot on the images, but I tried to throw a few things in here and there.

I had a dimensional Alice in Wonderland Jolee's to use, and I was picturing the Card Army in the garden in the movie, so I decided to make my ATC into a playing card. Pretty self explanatory - I just cuttlebugged the background with hearts and added the appropriate stickers.

For the Donald Duck card, I really wanted to try to do something different, so I found some Disney patterned paper that had some "antique" images to pull from. I cuttlebugged the background, and added the mounted image. The letters were stamped and then punched out with a 1/4" square punch. I used a scalloped circle as a guide to place my star eyelets on the side.

This one was fun to do... I used the SU cloud template and some brown ink to make dust clouds, then just added the stickers.

For The Nightmare Before Christmas, I used some halloween patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle. I found the image on the internet and did a cut and paste. I added a little dimension with Crystal Effects, some bling, and some letter beads.

For Hercules, I used some Best Creations beach paper, which has it's own glitter and had a large expanse of clouds, which I used for the background here. The image was downloaded from the Internet and then I added some letter stickers for the name. The strips around the edge are just paper, for some interest.

For Daisy Duck, the background paper is Bo Bunny dotted cardstock. I cut out the scallop with my Nestabilities, added a Daisy sticker and a little Sweetheart embellishment I had in my stash.

I love Heffalumps! This image was downloaded from the Internet as well. All the patterned papers are from Paper Salon, with a prima flower and some Kaiser flower bling. The scallop behind his head is a nestabilities as well.

For Toy Story, I found this cool Buzz Lightyear sticker set. I used spacy paper from Prima and then just added the stickers.

This one was just patterned paper, some ribbon, a flower, and a picture downloaded from the Internet. It's cute, but it was getting close to mailing time :)

The actual subject on this was Ursula, which is difficult to come up with! I used the bottom of the beach paper from Best Creations for the background, printed the poem directly on it, then added a sticker "U" and an image downloaded from the Internet.

This was another super simple one, because I couldn't find ANYTHING for James and the Giant Peach and I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea what to go for! I found the image on the Internet and enhanced it with glitter paper from Best Creations and some flocked halloween spider paper from Little Yellow Bicycle.

This one ended up being one of my favorites. I used the dragged Madras technique to make the background, then added the sentiment, which I just typed up in word and printed out. I had this file folder Tigger sticker, so I just added some orange plastic flowers from my stash and stuck a little bling in the centers.

I really love Disney, so this was a great swap... have another one coming up soon that I'll be able to share. Have a great evening!

A Quick Share...

2009-10-02T00:27:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to share this pic of my daughter.... we went to a dolphin research center in the Keys a few weeks ago and Alyssa got picked as a 'volunteer' to get a dolphin kiss... totally awesome! She was psyched and I was super excited for her:)

ATC's are Fun!

2009-10-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I've been involved in a few more ATC swaps... I think I'm addicted! I just really enjoy developing a whole theme and expressing it in miniature. Maybe it has to do with my background in miniatures; that was the first craft I ever got in to as a teenager. I used to build dollhouses and dollhouse furniture - loved that, but it requires a lot of space! Scrapbooking kind of took over, but I imagine I'll get back to it one day.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of the ATC's I've swapped. One really fun swap I joined was an ATC Fairy swap... I love all things mystical, so I was excited to get a couple of spots, and they were worth it, because I received some really beautiful and fun cards back in return. Here are the cards I made:

My photos on these two cards really don't do them justice; there's a lot of glittery stuff going on that you really can't see in the pics. On the stamped image above I outlined all the light lines and the fairy dust in her hands with my stardust jelly roll pen, so it looks very magical IRL; I colored the image with my copics. For the green scalloped edge I just used a very large scallop punch to take off the one edge, then I inked it and added the gemstones. The flowers are prima, and the center is a glitter brad.

This card definitely didn't photograph well; the base and the black layer are both glitter cardstock. The top layer is actually amethyst and the fairy stamp is embossed with a shimmery purple embossing powder. I also outlined the image with the stardust jelly roll pen. The moon was colored with a metallic sharpie paint pen. I used an edge punch to punch the stars so you can see the glittery black underneath. I added a few gems to the wing, but they show up dark in the pic.

I joined an Asian ATC swap and came up with these cards:

For this one I used specialty metallic gold paper and washi paper from Hanko. Hanko makes all kinds of beautiful Asian inspired papers with metallic accents - they look awesome on just about everything I've used them on. I added some QuicKutz photo corners. The image was stamped in red ink and then I did the crackle technique with three layers of UTE; I don't know, I guess I was going for the ancient pottery look - anyway, it looks OK IRL but is another thing that isn't showing up real well in the photo.

More washi and metallic gold paper here; I stamped the image right on the washi paper and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. I used my spellbinders to cut it out and added a prima flower with a gem center - very simple one here (I was running a little close to deadline!). The red cardstock is also from Hanko - it has a great ridged texture.

My next one is sort of funny because it was for a Jewish Holiday ATC swap. No, I'm not Jewish... I was invited to join by the hostess and decided it might be fun to learn a little about some Jewish holidays because I actually have quite a few friends who are Jewish; anyway, I DID learn a lot about different Jewish holidays - I didn't have any idea there were so many, with minor and major holidays. It was pretty cool to research and I received some awesome cards back in return... here's mine:

The holiday my card is based on is called Tu B'Shevat. It appealed to me because it celebrates trees and harvesting; everyone can appreciate the significance of that. It is referred to as the New Year for trees, and typical customs celebrating the holiday these days include planting trees and eating new fruits. Tu B'Shevat starts at sundown, so I brayered a sunset on my glossy cardstock background using three ink colors. The tree stamp is from Daisy Bucket and I accented the branch ends with pearl paint to represent little fruits.

The final group of cards to share was for a techniques based ATC swap.

The technique for this card is called "glitter stripe". It is illustrated in the background. What you do is tear strips and curl down the top edge. You glue them down, then rub Versamark down the card so that it hits all the rolled edges. Then you sprinkle on some glitter embossing powder and emboss. The seahorse was created with a metal embossing plate and black embossing powder - as it was drying I coated it with blue Pearl-Ex and added a stickles eye.

The technique for this card is called "Newsprint Reveal". I was glad to practice it here because I can see a lot of cool uses for this technique. Basically what you do is use a solid stamp with Versamark and stamp the image directly onto newsprint, then emboss it with clear embossing powder. Then you brayer over the newsprint with black (or dark) ink. Rub the ink off of the stamped image and the newsprint is revealed. Pretty cool for vintage inspired work!

The final technique I demonstrated was "Dragged Madras". You create your own plaid background by dragging ink over a straight edge onto your background in both directions. My horizontal stripes are in a very light purple, so they're a little difficult to see in the pic. I enhanced my background by adding some stamped flowers. To keep the focus on the background, I used a quote stamp in the center and enhanced it with a little punched butterfly.

That's it for now - I have two more big swaps to share with you so I'll try to get those up soon - one Disney and one for PAT-12... have a great day!

Recipe Cards - Finally!

2009-09-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

OK, as promised months ago, (eek!) I wanted to share some recipe cards I have made as part of a few swaps I joined. As I shared in earlier post, I'm sort of new to the whole swapping thing, but I quickly got addicted! I have a lot of things to share, but wanted to start here. I LOVE recipes... I have a huge collection of cookbooks (over 200!) and recipes I've collected from various sources. I'm not sure why I love them so much.... I like to cook OK, but I hate cleaning up so I hardly ever do actually cook. Plus, my kids are pretty basic in what they'll eat, so I don't get much chance to experiment. But, I still collect... I've found some great recipes from those that I have tried!

The first recipe swap I joined was a Campfire recipes swap - I shared my recipe for Marinated Flank steak.... I tried to make it look kind of rugged since it was an outdoor theme...

The "smoke" is part of a swirl stamp set from Fancy Pants; the little grill is a Quickutz die. I just printed the recipe right on the patterned background paper. It was easy and I was really excited because the hostess chose me to win an award - how exciting since it was my first recipe swap on line!

I also joined an A-Z Cupcake Recipe swap. The idea behind this swap was that everyone shared a cupcake recipe based on a letter of the alphabet, so at the end of the swap you get to make a book of cupcakes... cute idea! I actually mainly joined this swap because I wanted to get an extra book as a gag gift for my mom... it's kind of a personal joke, but she really HATES cupcakes and so I thought it would be fun to poke a little fun at her on her birthday... she's a scrapper too, so she'll respect the work even if she doesn't care for the theme. Plus, I actually DO like cupcakes, and the recipe titles sounded yummy and so I signed up for two spots... here are my cards:

This was a pretty basic little card. The background paper was from Imaginisce; the border punch was from SU and the recipes I just printed on GP cardstock and matted. The frosting is in a pocket behind the recipe. The letter "L" is a Quickutz glued over a stamped cupcake.

For the letter P, the recipe I shared was for Pineapple Banana Smoothie Cupcakes, so I did a tropical theme. The paper is from Bo Bunny; I printed the recipe on SU Naturals cardstock and stamped a faint palm tree behind the recipe portion using Always Artichoke ink and a stamp from Rusty Pickle. The pineapple, letter P, and decorative flower were all QuicKutz, and the flower gem center is from Kaiser Craft. I love the Quickutz pineapple - super cute! Glad to have a chance to finally use it!

The next swap I joined was a Trifle Bowl recipe swap; I joined this one because I have a trifle bowl and they can be difficult to come up with ideas for! I love the idea of them, though; so pretty to serve in and fun.... I took two spots in this swap too, since the recipes already listed in the swap sounded awesome and I wanted all of them!! The ladies in this swap did a great job, too... it was really a fun one; here are the one's I did:

I used Bo Bunny dotted cardstock as a based, and created the card to kind of look like the trifle recipe I used.... the Ladyfinger trifle uses Ladyfinger cookies around the base, a fluffy mixture of cream cheese, 10x sugar, and whipped cream topped with cherries, so you can see how the card came about! I cheated and used my pineapple Quickutz again to make my "Ladyfingers"; the cherry is also a QuicKutz, and the rest is pretty self explanatory! Fun fun fun to do and in my favorite retro kitcheny colors!

The stamped peas and patterned paper all come from Basic Grey; I added a little stickles to the peas in the pea pod to make them pop, and the rcipe is cut out using SU's top notch die. Quick and easy, and I got to use the BG paper that I loved but didn't have a lot of use for!

My last swap was just for fun.... yes, I enjoy the Twilight series! I'm not a die hard fan sort of person, but I saw a recipe card swap for Twilight fans and thought it just sounded fun trying to come up with recipes inspired by the books; and it was! I wish I could fin more swaps based on book/movie ideas... it was fun seeing what different people came up with and finding out where their inspiration was from... Here are my cards:

This card uses paper from Marks Paper Company and an SU set for the pretty stamps behind the printed recipe portions. The Edward picture was downloaded from the Internet and cut out using my tag maker tool; I chose "Butterscotch Sauce" because the book refers to the color of Edward's eyes as "butterscotch"... I included the quoted passage on the card.

Bella actually makes Chicken Enchiladas for her father at one point, so I included a recipe for them... I just tried to go with kind of a southwestern theme since Bella is from Arizona. I used the back of some paper from Best Creations; In a clip art website under southwestern themes I found the wolf image and knew it was perfect! I again included the quoted paragraph on the card, this time on a little tag tucked behind the recipe.

You could also choose to do a drink recipe, and since I don't drink I needed to find a recipe; I actually found one called the Bella, so I picked it... I stamped the flowers on the black cardstock with white craft ink, and the patterned paper is from Prima. It was just a quicky fun one and I used blacks and reds for the romance and slightly goth undertones; the swap ended up being kind of a dud because I guess a lot of people didn't come through with their cards, and the hostess ended up having to do a bunch on short notice that for obvious reasons didn't have a lot put into them, and I still got some of my own back, so that was kind of a disappointment, but I did enjoy many of them; like I said before, it was really fun coming up with recipe cards that were based on a theme that really didn't have anything to do with cooking - great twist!

So, yea! Months later I finally have at least this much for you... Now I have a bazillion (OK, not really a Bazillion, but quite a few!) ATC's to share.. will have to do that in smaller bunches so keep an eye out! Have a great day and think about joining a swap - fun stuff!

More Big Changes...

2009-09-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hi to all - I've been so SO lax at updating my blog... sorry! The reason is that once again I have gone through some MAJOR life changes.... I know, I know, after last year everyone is probably thinking enough is enough! But, not so, apparently :) So here's the scoop... I decided the time was finally right to quit my job and go back to school. Unfortunately, at the time I decided this and investigated the program I wanted to go in to, the program was starting and I had to get in ASAP... which meant getting my transcripts together and going through a bunch of financial aid stuff... yada yada yada. So, anyway, I am now just completing my first semester to become a Radiological Technologist, which means I'll be taking x-rays. The classes take about two years, after which I'll be able to take a registery test and then continue on if I want to become an ultrasound or MRI tech... which, I DO want, so I'll be doing that, but after the registry test I'll be a registered technologist and able to start working in the field, and the salary is good and I'll be able to support my family, so that's really good. In addition, I decided to start a home school program for my daughter because she was having some social difficulties in school and we're going to work on those in more intimate settings where there is better supervision. Luckily, our state has a virtual school program that is fully accredited, so she is on track with the work the other kids in the county are doing and just does it all on computer - I am there in the mornings to help guide her lessons and when I go to school in the afternoons my mom takes over if there is any left. Of course, all these changes have taken a lot of time and even though I've gotten some crafting done I haven't had blog post time, so I'll be working on getting those posts caught up... just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't dropped off the face of the planet and now that things are smoothed over you should be seeing my posts a lot more regularly!! Hope everyone is having a fabulous day!

PAT 11 ATC Swap...

2009-05-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been very quiet lately! I was feeling industrious a couple of months ago and signed up for several swaps at Splitcoast... I've never done internet swaps before so I was thinking it would be something fun and different. Well, it has been both fun and different, but I've also been hopping to keep up with them! I did two recipe swaps in April, and then four groups of ATC swaps for May, and next I have two more recipe cards and 8 more ATC's due mid June! I'm going to reveal the recipe cards all together in an upcoming post, but I wanted to share my ATC's.

I've only made a couple of ATC's previously and so I hadn't really gotten fully emersed in it, but I have to say I had a lot of fun with these little cards!! Participants in this particular ATC swap joined groups of different themes, and each person picked their favorite subject within the theme. So, everyone will make one card for everyone else's theme, and then you receive back the cards that are your favorite subject within the theme. Silly me, I was so excited I joined 4 groups... not a good idea for your first ATC swap! These cards require quite a bit of research and thought... mine are still probably very simple compared to what other swappers will come up with - I hope they're OK!

Anyway, enough jibber jabber - here's what I came up with!

Color Group #21

The four color mixes in the group were: white on white; monochromatic yellow; silver, robin's egg blue, and black; and black, turquoise, and terra cotta. I picked fuschia, celery, and basic grey, so I will receive four cards in those colors. Here are the four I did:

The white on white card was the first one I attempted. Normal monochromatic color schemes utilize different shades of color, but there really aren't a lot of shades of white to work with, so I decided to work with texture. I matted the different layers with mulberry paper and used a cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the background. The ribbon slide behind the frame is a Quickutz, and the corner piece is a spellbinders. I found the little frame in my white embellishment box - I think it's from Melissa Frances. I stamped and heat embossed flowers inside the frame, but they were hard to see, so I added Quickutz blossoms and white pearl paint for the centers. It was extremely difficult to photograph, but it was pretty cute IRL!

For the monochromatic yellow card I automatically thought of my new little bee stamp set from SU, so the whole card was created around that. I basically stamped the different pieces on different shadesof yellow and paper pieced. The dark yellow is mustard, and even through it kind of looks brown in the picture it is actually yellow. I paper pierced the edges as for a little added punch.

I think this was probably my favorite. I did the polished stone technique on glossy white paper, stamped the image on clear acetate, and then painted the back of the blossoms with silver alcohol ink. The black frame was created with a corner punch. The little silver frame was another find from my embellishments, and the butterfly sticker is actually a Jolee's sticker... hope that's not cheating, but I thought it looked great on the card!

This one didn't come easily for me. The colors naturally drew me to a western theme, but I didn't have anything to really go with it. In the end I heat embossed the horses on some Daisy Bucket patterned paper and added Quickutz hinges and stars to incorporate the western theme a little more. It still feels like it needed a little something else, but I never could settle on anything, so off it went! Still lots of other cards to make!

Designer Group #18

For this group each person chose a favorite designer or artist. I chose Laura Ashley, so those should be some pretty cards! Two members of the group chose Mary Engelbreit, one chose Susan Branch, and one chose Laurel Burch. Here are the cards I made for those subjects:

This is the first of the Mary Engelbreit cards I made. I didn't have any stamps or product from her, but I did find some cool dimensional stickers in the dollar section at Michael's, so I designed my cards around those. The patterned paper is from SU. I added the little red heart button and put QuicKutz leaves behind it.

This is the second Mary Engelbreit card. I used another of the dimensional stickers I found, mounted on a black scallop. I added some little white dots around the scallop with my white signo pen. The patterned papers are from SU; the felt flowers are from Zva Creative, and the pearl bling from Kaiser. I added some QuicKutz flowers and leaves to fill in.

This was the Susan Branch card. I have a lot of stuff from her, but unfortunately it is still in storage, since I don't have a full craft room at the moment. I found this stamp and colored it with markers. I stamped it again and cut the pie out and mounted it on a pop dot for a little dimension. The edging around the stamp is a SU rub-on. The red gingham ribbon is from SU, and the patterned paper and buttons are from my stash.

This is the Laurel Burch card and I have to say, it was fun to do! I actually didn't know who she was, so I googled her and found this painting on her website. I printed it out several times and cut out the little cat heads. I traced their wings on heavy glitter paper and cut them out and replaced the original wings, which printed out a little dull. I mounted them on different thicknesses of pop dots so it really looks like kitty heads flying through space. I added the bling across the bottom for fun. I was watching an old Star Trek when I was doing this one, so it was all in all a very cosmic experience. I wonder what Captain Kirk would do if he saw these things floating around through space!

Historical Figures Group #20

The cards coming to me will be about Albert Einstein; the other members chose Johnny Carson, Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and 'signers of the Declaration of Independence'. For that one I chose Benjamin Franklin. Here are the cards I made:

For my Johnny Carson card, I wanted to have a sort of retro look. I found the little TV clip art with the picture of Johnny in it on line, along with the quote. The patterned paper is from an SU paper pack, and I rounded the corners and added the QuicKutz splat flowers to enhance the retro feel. It was pretty simple, but I really thought this one was fun!

This was another one that used a lot of computer help but was fun to do. I found this painting of Harriet Tubman on line and printed it in color and in black and white. I emplyed the spotlight technique to highlight Tubman, and used papers from Basic Grey to compliment the rich colors in the painting.

For the Louisa May Alcott card, I printed a copy of the original illustration for 'Little Women', which was actually drawn by Alcott's sister. My mother remembered the artwork and said the copy of the book she had was blue, so I made the card blue. I added some gold glitter paper under the illustration to mimic book foiling, and found some pretty laser cuts to add to the corners. The button was from my stash. This one was one of the last one's I made, on the DAY it had to be posted, so it was a very quick job, but I thought it turned out kind of cute.

OK, so I'm not at all sure how this one will be received! One of those things that looked a lot cooler in my head than it came out, so we'll see.... the subject was 'signers of the Declaration of Independence", so I printed a very small copy of the Declaration out on blue granite paper; the idea was for Ben to be flying his kite with a storm behind him. I found this cool Cricut die cut that was a town cryer, so I just cut the bell out of his hand and made a QuicKutz kite. The kite is mounted on pop dots and they are attached with a piece of string. My friend gave me the key, which, although way out of proportion, added a little fun to the piece. Again, in my head it was all much more exciting, so I hope the recipient likes it!!

Art Deco Group 5

The last group I joined was a group about different examples of Art Deco work and to be honest, I only joined it because no one else did and they needed a final group member. When it came to making the cards, I suddenly realized that I had NO idea what Art Deco was all about, and no supplies that fit the period, so I'm not at all sure how the cards are, but I gave it a go!

So for these cards I really didn't know what to do! The theme for this one was Art Deco ladies, and I loved this painting, with the square shoulders and angular features.... lovely. But what to do to it? In the end, the only thing I could think of to do was to use a corner slot punch so that I could add a thin gold frame around it and added a red flower to her hair. I mean, really, the painting speaks for itself.

The next subject was Art Deco architexture. I googled it and got a lot of pictures, and I really loved this picture of an elevator. I decided to make it come to life by making it dimensional. I printed it a couple of times and cut the 'walls' out. I made angular cuts in the corner so that I could bend the inner walls down toward the 'doors'. I added gemstones to the lighter panals on the door for a little fun.

This one looks really cool IRL. I found this example of an Art Deco building and printed it out about 5 times, then cut out the different layers of the building and popped them up. I added some thin lines of Glossly Glaze over the lines in the artwork, so it really has a lot of pop and dimension you can't see in the pic.

This is the final ATC for this swap, and it's a doozy! It might be too thick, so I hope the recipient is flexible bout that, but it was fun. The subject was Art Deco furniture, and I found this cool picture of an Art Deco screen, so I thought I would duplicate it. All the colors are little strips of paper 1/8 to 3/8" wide. I sponged them to mimic the heavy varnish of the original piece, and then I decided to add the title on the side so the recipient would know what the heck it was! The dragonfly brad was added from my stash just for fun...

Well, that's it for now!! Whew! I'll show you some of the recipes in my next swap... hope you enjoy!!

Scrapping with ATC's - Day 6 of the MDC Mothers and Daughters Traditions Blog Roll

2009-05-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome! Our Mothers and Daughters Traditions blog roll continues today with a celebration of ATC's. ATC's are Artist Trading Cards - little samples of wonders that papercrafters trade with one another to showcase their talents.

Cathy is our resident ATC expert on the MDC Design team. She did two awesome tutorials on her blog here and here if you'd like to learn how to make them. Leah also posted a wonderful new example today on her blog.

My part of the challenge is to illustrate how ATC's can be used on scrapbook pages. I had so many ideas for this, you have no idea! Wouldn't an ATC without a strong central image be great as a monogram title block, with the first letter being on the ATC and the rest of the title extending from it? Or you could use an ATC to create a journaling pocket, or several together to create a border. I think their are so many things one could do with ATC's and scrapbooking!

On my sample below I chose to use one simply as an embellishment, as you would a tag.

The ATC I used is one I received in a swap amongst our designers a little while back, and it was created by Leah. Isn't it awesome? There is inking, stamping, and heat embossing all contained in a 2.5x3.5" canvas. I loved receiving it, and am so happy to put it to good use! Here's a close up:

My page uses papers, stickers, and rub-ons from Basic Grey's Wisteria collection. Leah's ATC uses papers from Melissa Frances and this Basic Grey stamp set.

The picture is of my x's grandmother, so my kids' great-grandmother. She's a pip! Her name is Virgie, but none of the kids could ever pronounce it, so she became Birdie, which fits because she loves birds, flowers, and butterflies. I have a lot more pictures to scrap of her 85th, but since I had such a good one of her alone with the cake I wanted at least one page to just really focus on her.

I hope you enjoyed this sample - I wish I could have shown samples of all my ideas, but life rolls on! Don't forget to pop over to Leah's blog to check out her sample, and the main MDC Challenge board if you want to play along!

Vintage Elements - Day 5 of the MDC Blog Roll!

2009-05-04T01:12:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day is a time for us to reflect back on the special women in our lives - mother, grandmother, daughter, mother-in-law, aunt, cousin, mentor, and friend. In honor of the special women in our lives, today our blog roll will feature two awesome challenges and I am the host of one of them!

I have always been interested in vintage styles from different eras. It my teenage years I was building and refurbishing dollhouses, which naturally lends itself to a lot of hisotorical periods . I especially love Victorian influences - floral patterns, intricately carved wood moldings and cornices, rich colors, and classic time pieces and framed photos. When I am trying to create a vintage feel to a project, I tend to pull a lot of these loves into my modern day scrapbooking and card making. It's interesting to think about a favorite period in history and see how the influences carry over into shapes, colors, textures, and embellishments.

Here's the page I created for my part of today's challenge (to create a project using vintage style...)

I used a lot of different elements to create a vintage feel to my page. First, you can see some Victorian influence in the nature elements on my page - flowers, butterflies, and leafy vines. I added some embellishments straight from my grandmothers sewing box and finished the page by adding a decorative corner piece and an antique looking bookplate to highlight the year of the photo.

I have to say, I loved the Best Creations paper that I used as my page base... it already included a lot of the key elements I needed to make my page vintage style and saved me a lot of time and work. First of all, the bottom layer of the pattern has a slightly worn and distressed look, and the edges are darkened so they appear inked. Distressing is an important feature of vintage style.

In addition to the flowers and vines I already mentioned, the paper also has a preembossed frame for your photo - it is very intricate and accented with a light glitter, all of which is very vintage. It's very hard to photograph this paper so you can see all the elements, but here is a little bit better of a close up on the frame:

You can see that I allowed my picture to hang down outside of the frames boundries. Here's another aspect of vintage work - it doesn't all have to be perfectly symmetrical or follow boundry rules... the vintage look usually incorporates a lot of building on layers that splay out from each other. Notice the cornice in the upper left corner - that's from my stash and adds a small bit of texture and depth to the border. Make sure you check out Leah's blog today - she's going to illustrate vintage style with some border work and layering on a card!

See those super cute buttons on either side of the picture? Those are real buttons from my grandmother's sewing box - they used to be on one of her coats and are probably from the 40's or 50's. Cool. Check out the scalloped circle under the left button, and here under the felt flower (from Zva Creative):

I punched them from newsprint and inked them to match my colors. My scalloped edged ribbon is from Prima and the pearl brads are from Imaginisce. Pearls are a form of bling sadly under used - they have a very vintage feel! I added the year from some old rub-ons I had. The felt butterflies are also from my embellishment box. I love this little cluster of embellishments - to see more of this technique check out Robin's blog today - she has a sneak peek of a vintage page she created using clustered embellishments to add to the vintage feel of her page.

Office elements often create a vintage feel - here the file tab and bookplate are from a tag sheet made to match my patterned paper, which again made it very easy to create my page since everything went together nicely.

So I definitely want to see some of your vintage style... To win some fabulous vintage-style blog candy from me, all you need to do is leave me a comment with a link to your project! Don't forget to check out Leah and Robin's blogs for more vintage inspiration.

By the way, are you wondering at all about the picture on my page? It's me and my mom - my favorite baby picture. Thanks for sharing it with me, mom!

For our second challenge today be sure to visit Melita's blog -she's hosting a very special challenge honoring the mother figures in our lives. Laurie, Mia, and Maria have all made samples for Melita's challenge, so make sure you visit them all!

Thanks for stopping in and have a scraptastic day!!

A Little More...

2009-04-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

One last Autism page for the month of April... this week at the MDC Challenge blog the challenge is to scrapbook a cause near and dear to your heart. Being Autism Awareness month, I knew for sure I would be scrapping another page about Autism, but I also got all kinds of ideas for other pages, so they'll be on my task list! I would love to do a page honoring my aunt, whom we lost last year to breast cancer, and of course a page honoring my brother whom we lost due to an incorrectly diagnosed heart attack. I don't want to do depressing pages, though, so it may be better to wait a bit on those. I think it's important to scrapbook the bad things along with the good things in your life, because that's the only way someone looking back will get a real picture of your life. But, I don't want all of those pages to be morbid or angry - I think it's more important to tell the story.

Scrapbooking about Josh is the perfect example. When my kids were born I was heavy into scrapbooking and made pages on EVERY little event :) But then, since Josh has regressive Autism, the pages were kind of invalidated. After all, he lost the first words he spoke, he lost his ability to eat with fork and spoon, he lost, he lost, he lost. So for a long time I just stopped scrapbooking about Josh. I still took lots of pictures, but I was just grieving so much and I didn't know how to put what was happening in to words. Now that I am (mostly) past the grieving stage I think it's really important to just give a picture of what our lives are like. Hopefully, one day he will be able to look back at these pages and see just how far he has come! Even in this past year he has progressed leaps and bounds. I would guesstimate that he has jumped from cognitive abilities around those of a 17-24 month old up to about the 3 year old phase now.

Yikes - I'm going on and on again! Let me just show you the page:

This was a very easy page to do because the Bo Bunny background paper actually has a lot of character all by itself, so I just added matted photos and journaling strips along with my title, which I created with Quickutz lettering and a 7 printed off my computer. I used Sally's sketch from this week's sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. The page is just about Josh's accomplishments at this point - here is the journaling:

-You can say short sentences, mostly for things you want. You've started doing a lot of echoing, and you like to use the word 'No!' Still no conversational speech, though.
-You've started changing the language selectors on your videos, so now you spell all your favorite words not only in English, but in Spanish and French as well. You like me to write the words down, and when I can't recognize them (because they are not in English) you spell them out for me!
-Still not potty trained, but you seem to understand what's supposed to happen and you clean up after yourself. It's just getting you to recognize when you need to go and getting you to stop what you're doing.
-You're ALL boy and you're a happy boy. You find beauty in unusual things. You love to be tickled, take baths and showers, and play in the dirt. You put yourself to bed if we don't do it on time. You still do a lot of stimming, toe walking, and jumping. We're working on that!
-You're a really awesome little guy!

OK, thanks for hanging and sorry about going on and on (and on!) I hope you all enjoy or are at least interested in learning about Joshie - he's such a great kid!! (I'm not biased at all... he really is great!)

Make sure you come back and visit - today starts the BIG BLOG ROLL at the MDC Challenge blog - lots of prizes and fun to be had!!! Have a great day!

Little Big Girl...

2009-04-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge at the MDC Challenge Blog is a sketch challenge using either sketch 15 or 16 from Julie Bonner's 52 Weeks 52 Sketches - love her stuff!! I iused sketch 15, here:

And here is my page:

My layout was created using the new Alissa patterned paper, chipbaord, and brads we got in at the store from Bo Bunny. My title was created using the mini Blossom and Revolution Blossom fonts from QuicKutz. The pink flowers are also from QuicKutz.

I love this picture of my little daughter, who just turned 8 this year. Look at her trying to be a big girl and help with the dishes, standing on tippy toes with her too-big blue jeans. She LOVES to help out and thinks she's a grown up now! Of course she also thinks she deserves all the benefits associated with adulthood, so we're already butting heads... she's gonna be a heck of a teenager :)

That's it for today - hope you all enjoy your day!

Another Silly Seal page...

2009-04-14T09:07:00.001-07:00

Hi - I have just a few quick projects to share today - life has been a little crazier than normal lately! Last weekend we had to drive all the way up to Virginia to take care of some legal issues - three days in the car, one day of rest, one morning of court.... aaggh! Then when we got back I had to work four 11 hour shifts to make up the time, so it's really been crazy!

I did want to share a story from our trip. Those of you who have known me any length of time know that my little boy has Autism. I want to talk about that this month because April is Autism Awareness month. In years past I have always hosted a crop to raise funds to benefit Autism research and I'm a little sad that I won't be able to pull one together this year, at least not in the month of April. However, I do want to talk a little about our life and what it is like and the challenges we face.

You see so much about Autism in the news these days, but I think most people still don't get it. When you hear the figures - 1 in 150 children will be diagnosed with Autism this year - what does that mean? That means that more children will be diagnosed with Autism this year than they will be with AIDS, cancer, and juvenile diabetes COMBINED. I'll say it again - COMBINED. Yet, as a disorder it receives less than 5% off the research funding that those same diseases receive. Let's face it, with a child being diagnosed with Autism in this country every 20 minutes, if your life is not already significantly impacted by knowing someone with Autism, it soon will be. There is no known cure, and the treatments that do are help are so expensive that even Jenny McCarthy has to write extra books and take on extra work to pay for it. Where does that leave the rest of us? I have been meeting with some mom's in our school and we are going to try to form an organization to get some services brought to our area - I'll share more on that as it develops. The bottom line is, in order for our kids to get the services they need, we have to basically create centers for it! OK, OK, off my soapbox, I promise!

So on to the trip. Joshie actually did very well during the driving part - we worry about how he will handle 18 hours in the car. During the day he typically requires a lot of sensory stimulation and expression - it's called 'stimming'. It causes him to jump a lot, walk on his toes, and make repetative and odd hand gestures (he looks like a miniature air traffic controller!) So confinement is not his friend. But he did great - he watched some videos on a portable DVD and played his favorite video games. We accidentally passed our exit and missed our original planned stop, and since exits in South Carolina are far apart it took us a while to find a hotel, so it was about 1am before we got settled in.

So here is another wonder of Autism - sometimes, quite frequently actually, children with Autism have difficulty with SLEEP. This means they may have trouble falling asleep and be awake until 11 or 12 or in bad cases even 1 or 2 in the morning. Or, it may mean that they sleep for an hour and then wake up, ready to go. Naturally, this can be exhausting for the family. After all, if your kid is only getting two hours of sleep a night, then that's all you're getting. Children with Autism can not be left unattended. And it's made more difficult because of the duration. We all remember what it's like to have a newborn with a sleep schedule that doesn't match our own. We suffer through it for 5-10 months and then hopefully they start to learn to go to bed timely and sleep through. Imagine 7 years of newborn sleeplessness! It's tough, really tough sometimes. I'm lucky, actually, because normally this isn't a big problem for Josh. It happened a lot when he was younger, maybe 3-4 times a week, and as he's gotten older the episodes have decreased to about 2-3x per month. I've always kept a bedtime schedule, so luckily Josh always goes down OK - he just sometimes wakes up at 3 or 4 in the morning and that's it - he's done with sleep.

So I'm sure you guessed by now, that morning after we drove ALL day and couldn't get settled into our hotel until 1am, Josh woke up ready to go at 4!! Aaaggh! We had to barricade the door with the suitcases and the hotel table. We received an unfortunate room placement of being right on the ground level in front of the pool, so he kept whipping the drapes open so he could look into the pool. Good thing there aren't many people wandering around at that time! We tried to at least lay down, so I gave him a little bath to relax him and in return he got all the toilet paper wet and made lines of little wet clumps of it across the sink He kept running back and forth in the room squeeling with happiness and jumping on us to try to get tickled. He just would not be quieted! We finally just got up and left with only a few hours of sleep under our belt because we couldn't take it anymore! Trust me, it's a good thing this kid is so darn cute!

So we were worried about what to do on the way home - we were turning around to go home again only 2 days later, so we were already pretty tired. We weren't sure we'd be ABLE to drive if that happened again. We were happily surprised, then, when we got into our hotel room, ate dinner, gave Josh a shower, and he just climbed into bed. Look at this beautiful boy - I mean, who sleeps like this? An angel, that's who. Thank goodness bad nights are followed up by sweet times like this! Happily, we all got some sleep and the next day of travel went much better!

OK, so were you looking for a little actual paper crafting here?? lol - I did have Easter off and so of course I made it a point to get a little scrapping done. These are very simple projects - thankfully there is such a thing as "clean and simple" style, since that's all I have time for lately! I have SO many ideas floating around, it's very frustrating not having the time to execute them. Anyway, the first project is an ATC card - we're having an ATC challenge with prizes this week over at the challenge blog, so make sure you give it a go!

These are supposed to be Easter or spring themed ATC's. Mine uses my favorite new paper line that we got in - sei's Bridgeport. I LOVE the colors in the line, and it's got some beautiful floral patterns mixed with classic patterns. Also a lot of fun detail - lined/textured cardstock, embossed designs, and foiled patters - really pretty. I made the card base in the sei purple textured cardstock, then did a base with the green texture. At the top you see a small bit of one of the floral patterns, and they are separated with a little fence post Martha Stewart border punch that I just picked up in Virginia. The stamped calendar is from Imaginisce - it has a little birthday cupcake in the corner, so I covered that with a designer brad. The date I circled with my Copic glitter markers was the first day of spring this year. Very quick and easy and a fun celebration of spring!

Our scrapbooking challenge over at the challenge blog was to get inspiration from a magazine ad. I still had all the pictures sitting on my desk from the last page I did (it's a post or two back I think...) so I wanted to make a companion page (I'm a double page scrapper.)

I pulled my Basic Grey Marrakech paper pack out and tried to pick some patterns and colors that complimented the previous page. You can check out the ad I used on the challenge blog, but as you can see it was based on a series of blocks. I added the horizontal line to compliment a similar line on the opposite page. I had already journaled about the event, so I added an additional subtitle block and accented the page with chipboard embellishments. I also stuck a little Quickutz shell on for fun and to add to the water theme. It was a fun page to do because the pictures remind me of the seal show, which was really funny, and which my kids really enjoyed.

So that's pretty much it for now - I'm going to try very hard this month to increase my posting and give you some more little glimpses of life with Autism, so I hope you'll check in for that. Also, a new BIG announcement - at the end of the month the MDC designers are all doing a blog roll - it will be a 10 day event packed full of fun and heartwarming activities, so I hope to see everyone participating! Have a happy day and work some papercrafting into it!

An Eggstra Special Easter Hut!

2009-03-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

This week at the MDC Challenge Blog we were challenged to make an Easter or spring altered item. I've been wanting to decorate one of these folding chipboard house kits from Crafty Secrets forever, so I thought it would make an adorable bunny house!

I used our new Beacon's 3-in-1 glue to attach all my papers to the chipboard - I LOVE this stuff because it grabs quick and dries clear and without wrinkling your project! I decorated the house with our super cute glitter accented Easter papers from Best Creations and the polka dot trim is dot to dot cardstock from Bo Bunny. The little bunnies in the window are cut out from the Best Creations paper. Check out my pictures:

I used my Nestabilities to cut some frames for around the photos that are housed inside the hut - all the windows are 'faux' with pictures glued to the back of the frame. To see inside, you simply remove the roof and untie the ribbon closure at the front of the house. It was very fun and easy to put together - to take the pictures I set it on some pretty Easter patterned paper for a little fun... and that's pretty much it! Very late and I still have to pull some orders so I'll hopefully be back soon with some more fun projects - so many ideas, so little time!!

On a personal note, I'm very excited today after finally getting a chance to meet some of the other mothers of Autistic children at my son's school... we are forming a nonprofit organization to get some services brought into my county, so I'm really excited!! Will keep you all posted, but we already have some fundraising ideas and it really feels like it's going to be a good thing for all of us!!

A Very Quickie Bookmark...

2009-03-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today over at the MDC Challenge blog we thought it would be fun to take a little break from full cards and challenged everyone to make a bookmark instead. I think bookmarks have great potential for creativity because they can be all kinds of shapes, sizes, and even types.

I decided to make a bookmark I had seen a tutorial for a while back - it's such a fun and easy bookmark and to be honest it took me much longer to find the old instructions than it did to make the bookmark!! I keep going back to my new Marrakech paper pack from Basic Grey - love that line!! I picked it mostly because of this blue elephant paper and the stamp that goes with the set, because I love elephants (as did my great grandmother) and also because it reminded me very much of a Vera Bradley purse that I had last year and loved, except it had the pink elephants. Anyway, here's my bookmark:

The top picture shows the front of the bookmark, and the bottom picture shows a view of the back. The bookmark is very simple to make - there is a full tutorial here, but the basic instructions are to cut a strip of paper 1.75" x 8". You take the two sides and fold them in and down at the middle of the strip. In the end you should have a triangle on one side, which is the front of the bookmark, and a house shape that is the back. You will need to reinforce the seam to give it some strength - I used a border sticker from the Basic Grey pack. I love the paper so much that I just added a border to the bottom of the front and called it done, but of course you could embellish it as much as you like. I've seen nice examples where flowers or stamped images or monograms were added to the front triangle.

That's it for today - very very easy but a fun and satisfying project to make - I know I'll enjoy using my new bookmark - those darn elephants just make me happy! Thanks so much for visiting today - hope you have a fabulous evening!

A Bulk Posting!

2009-03-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

Holy guacamole, Batman, we've got a lot to get through today!! I had some time to scrap yesterday and I spent the day getting as much done as I could! There are SO many challenges out there that I would love to take part in, and I just never seem to find the time! Speaking of, did you see the cool lists on the side of my blog? They're all categorized by days of the week and have live feed updates, so you can tell if something has been updated recently and go check it out with one click - hurrah blogger for that useful tool! Now instead of trying to remember a million different blogs and challenges I can just go click on my list!

So, first and foremost it's scrapbook challenge day at the MDC Challenge blog. This week we're working with a sketch from Julie Bonner's site - here's the sketch:

And here's my page:

I kept it pretty true to the sketch, although I did allow the fourth picture to be a little larger since my journaling focuses on my son's reaction to seeing the seal show. All the papers and embellishments are from Basic Grey's Marrakech line except the lined journaling paper, which is from Scenic Route. The title stickers are also Scenic Route, and the stamp in the medallion at the top is Daisy Bucket. It's SO fast working with sketches - the hardest part is deciding what pictures to use! I thought the colors and little squares were kind of pool-like, so I settled on some pictures from the Miami Seaquarium seal show a few years ago. The journaling reads:

You're watching them; I'm watching you. I wonder what could possibly be going through your mind seeing seals and humans splashing around and playing together. I'm SURE you would love to jump right in the pool with them and have some fun!

Saturday is inspiration day at Splitcoast Stampers, and this week's inspiration challenge came from Fitz and Floyd - I didn't even have to check out the catalog link because as soon as I saw this sample pick:

I got the idea to do a topper card using a bunny head as a topper, so here's what I came up with:

Originally I just wanted to do the head but it just wasn't coming together for me, so I ended up just using some different Best Creations papers as the background because they are glittery and pastel-ly and super cute, and then used punches and nesties to create my 'bunny'. The ears, arms, and feet are created using SU oval punches. The sign was stamped from a Serendipity stamp onto more Best Creations paper and then mounted on orange cardstock, the corners cut with an SU ticket punch. I drew the face, which is why it's lopsided, but you get the general idea! I had a fun time creating him and know just who I want to send him to!

Last Tuesday's challenge at Caardvarks was to make a critter card - we just got in this awesme Butterfield paper from Memory Box and ever since I saw it I knew I wanted to put a cow on it, so this was my chance! Here's What's Moo...

The cow was stamped on BG white background paper using an old MFT stamp that I've NEVER had the opportunity to use, even though I love it, so that was cool! I stamped an extra head and pop dotted it to add a little dimension. The sign is stamped from SU's Finest Flourishes set, and then I just wrote the sentiment since I didn't have any good cow pun sets... wonder why??? This was super fast and easy to put together and really was just all inspired by the Memory Box paper!!

OK, my last addition for the day was actually for two challenges several weeks ago that are now WAy too late to enter - part of it was a Splitcoast color challenge to use Chocolate Chip, Pink Passion, and Kiwi Kiss, and the other was Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch from that week... I hate that I missed them, but the first time I colored the image it looked crappy and then I worked like crazy and didn't have time to fix it, so here is the newly colored card:

I don't know if Caardvarks will let you enter twice - I guess if they do this could now also fall under the critter challenge! I'll have to check on that; anyway, I used all the colors listed above for cardstock, plus some BG paper from the Sultry collection that matched perfectly and some dotted paper from SU's Bella Rosa pack. The image is from Stampavie (and still isn't colored great, but TRUST me, it's an improvement! I wish I could take that Copic class!!) Again, I didn't have any toad inspired puns, so I just hand wrote the sentiment. I did also use my copic glitter pens to add some shine here and there, but it's difficult to see in the pic. The felt flower and button are old ones I had in my embellishment box - not sure where they're from.

OK, that's it for today! Sorry it's all lumped together, but I get so few days to craft and want to hit as many challenge deadlines as I can! I LOVE challenges and get so much inspiration... hope you make it over to the MDC challenge blog this week today and Thursday to participate and win some goodies!!! Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!!

Caardvarks Kraft Challenge

2009-03-03T01:26:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge at the Caardvarks blog was to create a card using Kraft cardstock - I've always loved the contrast of Kraft cardstock with bright colors, so I really wanted to play along!

My card uses Kraft cardstock as the base and decorative papers from Basic Grey's new Marrakech line. I used black cardstock to accent the layers and help pop the bright colors. The greeting stamp is 'Elegant Thank You' from SU. The orange swirls across the bottom are rub-ons from the Marrakech line, and the accent flower is from the matching chipboard stickers. I added a little bling to the flower center from Zva creative and then accented the center square and the rub on with some paper piecing. That's pretty much it! Thanks for stopping in - will have some more to share tomorrow...

Monday's MDC Sketch Challenge and a Joy Fold Card

2009-02-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

Hello:) Today at the MDC Challenge blog we had a scrapbooking sketch challenge - love those! We used sketch #7 from Julie Bonner's 52 Sketches 52 Weeks blog - Julie has such awesome sketches!

I liked this sketch a lot - mostly because it's definitely different than anything I would have come up with, but it's still kind of organized and symmetrical; I like symmetry and balance when I work! Normally I feel the need to fill up the whole page, but when I think of this particular layout, the simplicity gives greater weight to the photo, so that's really cool.

The paper I used was from this new company we got in at the store, Mark's Paper Company. The bling is from Zva Creative, and the felt butterfly and the little plastic swirl are from American Crafts. The snaps are just some generic brown ones I had. Pretty simple all in all.

This is another page that evolved kind of backwards. I started with the sketch and the paper I wanted to use and then developed that page. I originally thought it was going to be a heritage layout, but midway through it I realized I had a title in mind and that it was a page about my brother. The 15th marked a year since he passed away; it feels so unreal. In some ways I still can't believe it, except for the fact that he's really not here.

So the page is called "I Miss Your Face" and the journaling is very simple: " It's just one of many memories I hold on to. It's been a long damn year. Love you."

I also took time today to complete a card I had started for VSN but couldn't get done in time. The challenge was to use the Joy fold technique, and oddly enough when I printed the tutorial and started cutting I accidentally used the "alternate" directions, so mine is a little different shape than most of the Joy fold technique cards! Only me... lol! Here's my card:

I was happy to use this paper from Imaginisce that I really love, and it's the first time I got to use their new snag 'em stamps from their Twitterpated line. Those little guys are super cute! I chose to paper piece the birdy to make sure he would stand out against the cloud paper background. For the medallion closure, I punched the flower circle from another Imaginisce patterned paper, then added dimension by handcutting another flower and mounting it over the first with pop dots. The little music notes are just hand drawn (not very well - sorry!) Here's a view of the card open:

You can download the Joy fold technique in the resource section at Splitcoast stampers - it was a fun card to make and good for something a little different.

Thanks for stopping in - hope you have a wonderful day!

Feb09VSN and a Scrapbooking Challenge

2009-02-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, the Feb09 VSN at Splitcoast Stampers is over and I'm SO bummed! I had to work this whole weekend so I only had time to make one card, and I barely got that uploaded on time... I hate work! It seriously interferes with my stamping and scrapping and blogging time... lol... I Do wish they would give you a few extra days to upload since I'm sure I'm not the only poor sap who gets stuck working weekends, but they always cut it off on Sundays. Anyway, they had a lot of challenge ideas I really liked and that actually inspired some ideas, so I may still do some as I have time just for fun.

Anyway, the challenge I was able to complete was based on the Sound of Music - specifically that one song... these are a few of my favorite things.... I'm not sure what the actual song title is. I've always loved that song and the movie, so it was easy for me to get some inspiration on this one. Anyway, you had to pull from colors in the song, use ribbon, and use some kind of image from the song, like whiskers or snowflakes, etc. I chose white and blue for my colors and the line "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes...." - so here's my card:

That patterned paper I used is from Melissa Frances - the Girly Girl kit. I also used a Stampavie stamp, ribbon from SU and from May Arts, pearl bling from Kaiser, stickles from Ranger, and cardstock from SU: Whisper White, Mellow Moss, and Brocade Blue.

I want to thank the ladies over at Splitcoast for how take their own personal time to come up with the ideas and moderate these challenges - I always have so much fun and get a lot of great ideas, even if I don't get to play along as often as I'd like!

Last week at the MDC Challenge blog we challenged our designers to use the new lace cardstock we got in from sei. I'm just in love with this product - it is die cut and white and very versatile! You have to check out the challenge blog to see all the different ways our designers used lace cardstock - I made this page:

The lace cardstock and the background paper are both from sei; I printed the title on my computer and cut it out with a Marvy Uchida scallop punch; the pearl bling is from Kaiser, the butterfly is from this May Arts ribbon, and the pink gingham ribbon is from SU.

I cut the lace cardstock into a frame for my photo, and also wove ribbon through it. It's so funny, this page, because I used the picture only because it matched the paper I wanted to use, which is the opposite of the way I normally work, but since I needed to use the lace cardstock everything was kind of built around that.

Anyway, my dd had a hard time from about 4 weeks old until she was almost a year old - she had acid reflux so she cried a lot, and she also always HATED it when we left the house, so any time we were out in public she would either shut down and sleep the whole time, or fuss the whole time. Then the instant we arrived home she was an entirely different kid! She's still that way - she's super sensitive to noise so she really hates leaving the house and argues about it a lot.

Anyway, this particular day, she was just fussing and fussing and fussing and I was so h*** bent on getting the perfect picture because back then I thought everything was supposed to be perfect and I had to have professional photos of all the milestone ages.... I know - all you mothers of one are saying 'of course you do!' and all you mothers of two or more are laughing! Now I go entire years and forget to get any professional pictures taken! So, the photographer kept putting dd's binkie in and then pulling it out and trying to snap the picture before she started wailing, and we ended up with this odd 'kissy' face look which is really the beginning of a good old fashioned scream. So, everytime I see this picture that's all I can see is how silly her lips look, and I remember how awful that day was! So, I was pleasantly surprised that after I scrapbooked it, I actually liked it better than I did before! It changed it for me... looking at how the pink ribbon and lace cardstock echo the trim on her dress... and, IRL the back of the sei paper that I used has a slight pearl finish and the whole thing just looks very soft and feminine and pretty.... so now I am thinking of all the thoughts I had BEFORE the actual picture was taken, how I picked the dress because I thought the color would compliment her skin and eyes, and how excited I was when I found the little shoes. I guess there is still a little of that 'perfect' mom syndrome buried down in there somewhere, under the hectic, crazy life that we actually lead! Hope you guys all have a wonderful day and remember some long lost part of yourself too:)

Sometimes The Best Things...

2009-02-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

Come in small packages! Today's challenge at the MDC Challenge blog was to create a Valentine themed ATC. ATC's are pint sized "trading cards" that are designed to share your art among friends and fellow artists. ATC's are 2.5" x 3.5". One of our designers, Cathy, wrote up an awesome tutorial and instructions on her blog as she creates and trades ATC's frequently. If you want to play along with our challenge you should definitely check out her blog; she has also put together two prize packages to give away!

Here's the front of my Valentine ATC:

I used patterned papers from Prima, a sentiment stamp from Daisy Bucket, a flower from Zva Creative, and a pearl accent from Kaiser. I used a Marvy heart scallop punch, stamped the sentiment inside it, then adhered it to the right side of the card, trimming away the excess heart shape. The black lacy border was created with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Another special aspect of ATC's is that typically the backs are signed and dated by the creator, so here's a look at what I did for the back side:

The paper is the reverse side of the same Prima paper I used on the front of the card, and the stamp is from Prima as well. Pretty simple! This was my first ATC and I really enjoyed it - can't wait to make some more! Keep your ears tuned... we're thinking of arranging an ATC swap that will allow our MDC designers to trade with our customers! More info on that in future posts; in the mean time, head on over to our challenge blog and see if you can win one of Cathy's great prize boxes!!

MDCC30 - Paper Piercing

2009-02-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

Hello! It's here, my second post! I seem to have tons of ideas and very little time these days. I have a big test to take tomorrow to get a promotion at my job, and then hopefully my posts will be a little more regular again!

I just had a moment today to make a quickie card for today's challenge at the MDC Challenge blog - the challenge is paper piercing. Here is my card:

Sorry for the really poor picture - it's actually cold in Florida today so I didn't want to be out very long!!

My card used paper and rub-ons from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection, and a sentiment stamp from Daisy Bucket. I did my paper piercing as flower stems and the butterfly trail. I pierced in for the stems and out for the trail for added texture. The Martha Stewart border punch I used for the black border had some holes in it that went along great with the piercing theme. Hope you enjoy and keep checking back - I have a lot to share coming up!

Welcome - and the first VSN at my new blog!

2009-01-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I wanted to do a whole 'formal' welcome thing on my new blog address, but I'm kind of in a rush tonight and want to get my cards for this weekend's VSN posted in case anyone has any questions! My internet was down tonight, so everything got posted a little late, but, hey, that's pretty much the way things go for me :)

The first card I made was for Friday's challenge to make a 'scrapling' - a card 1.25" x 4.25", or as close as we could get. My card ended up being 1.5" x 5.5" so I could use a cuttlebug embossing folder for the main image. Here's the card:

The base of the card and the "brown" layer are core'dinations cardstock. Core'dinations is awesome because it has one color on the top layer and a coordinating color inside, so when you tear it or sand it you see the other color. This caramel piece has a cream core, so when I embossed the paper using my cuttlebug border image and sanded it, it revealed the 'cream' core for the flowers - it looks really pretty IRL! I added pink snaps in the centers of the flowers and embellished with some SU gingham ribbon. The sentiment piece was cut with an SU oval punch, and then I used an old See D's stamp for the sentiment. I hand pen-stitched around the sentiment. At first I wasn't sure about this challenge because it seemed SO small, but I actually really enjoyed it and will be making some more!

The next challenge I did was Julie's challenge to create a 'tender love' card - a Valentine card with something 'soft' on it. I made a card with a quilted heart on it as my soft element - here's the card:

The card is made with a wonderful textured cardstock from Hanko, along with Washi paper. The quilted element is made by cutting a heart out of chipboard, adding a layer of quilting foam (also available from Hanko), and then covered with Washi paper. The Washi paper is cut slightly larger than the chipboard piece, and then wrapped around and glued to the back of the chipboard, creating the quilted look. It's pretty easy and fun. I inked the edges of the heart to help it stand out a little better for the picture, but I think it actually looked better before I did that.

Thanks so much for stopping in at my new blog: I'll keep my old address up for the rest of this month, but I'll be posting here from now on. Hope some of you were able to play a little with VSN as well - happy creating!!