Getting Krafty Again !

I stopped my search for the pressure washer long enough, or so I thought, to get a coffee. The next thing I know, I'm at my desk, frantically digging through the mess for a brown paper bag that I thought I saw yesterday. Found it!

The bag is the perfect size to attach a gift card to the tag! I rubbed VersaMark ink along the edges of the bag and added white embossing powder. The coffee cup and the beans are from JR's Coffee Cup cling set. I painted the gold on with Perfect Pearls. Oooh, Shiny!! The doily is cut using Spellbinders Vintage Lace Motifs The b'ground is JR's Sweet Lace background stamp, heat embossed in white.

I cut the card base with a Spellbinders Edgeabilities die. It's the perfect fit for one of the pretty border stamps in JustRite's Doilies and Lace set. I liked the border so much, I stamped and heat embossed it on the inside and on the back.

Here's the tag, I cut it out of patterned paper and stamped it with the sentiment from JustRite's Coffee Cup set. I actually used for the first time ever, a TH stamp that I thought I would never have a use for. I don't even know where I got it, I sure as heck didn't buy it! The darn thing is perfect for the JR Coffee Cup set, so I added it to my tag.
In case you are wondering, the Brittany on the back of my card is there because I put it on the back of all my cards. I have owned and loved Brittanys for over 25 years, so it's my signature stamp.
So now, my card is done, my coffee is cold, and I still have to find the pressure washer!
You can see how everyone is getting krafty with JustRite here:
http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/2014/04/justrite-friday-challenge-119-get-krafty.html

Update : This little card was chosen as a winner at JustRite! Happy Dance!

JR Make it Krafty

Hi all ! We are actually having a nice day, but, of course, more rain is on the way. I'm running around like a crazy woman, trying to get stuff done outside while the sun is shining. It would help a lot, if I could find the things DH put away last Fall, but no. So I'm running around pretending I'm on a fun scavenger hunt, so I don't resort to cursing, muttering and angry ranting and scare the dogs!
I see JustRite has new doily stamps in their May release, and they are beautiful!. I love doilies and lace, and I had just recently purchased the gorgeous Sweet Lace b'ground stamp. I don't know why it took me so long to decide to get this one. I love it!
I used it, and JustRite's Doilies and Lace on this card. The sentiment is from JR's Hydrangea Vintage Labels Seven. The card base and sentiment are kraft card stock.

The doily and the lace border are stamped on vellum for a see-through effect.The flower is made of lace, and is from Recollections.
The JustRite challenge is here: http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/2014/04/justrite-friday-challenge-119-get-krafty.html

IO Challenge Out of the box

Just a quick post for the Impression Obsession challenge, Out of the Box. I decided to do a round card, I don't usually do shaped cards. I kept this simple, using CAC Greenery ( CC018 ) to stamp a border. The sentiment cracks me up, because there is nothing warm about this Spring! It's an IO stamp (E8605), and all the flowers and leaves were cut with IO dies. Die047-J for the little flowers and leaves, and Die071-I for the Spiral daisy.

Hope that everyone is having a better Spring than the wet, cold mess we are having !
You can find the IO challenge here:
http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2014/04/new-impression-obsession-challenge-outside-of-the-box.html

" A Celebration of Moms" My Sheri Crafts Challenge #132

When Sheri from My Sheri Crafts asked me if I would mind filling in as Guest Designer for her "Celebration of Moms" challenge. I looked around in my head, discovered nothing there, and said, 'Sure, no problem'.
Now when I said there was nothing in my head, I meant NO THING, nothing at all. Not a glimmer of an idea. Mo and Jo packed a bag and done left the building! YIKES!
I had cleaned my desk. Now for some people a good clean surface helps with the creative process. Not me! All my inspiration comes from bits and pieces, a bit of designer paper, a die cut, a piece of leftover ribbon.
Time started ticking by, the deadline was looming and nothing was happening. I was close to panicking!
I called my sister and said 'What am I going to do? What style should it be?' She suggested I do what I like to do best. I call it the Pile Up ! It shows my total lack of self control, and also the reason why I think CAS cards are torture! I started frantically pulling potential stuff for this card out, and made a huge mess! Bits and pieces everywhere, not a speck of desk to be found! Result : 3 cards, two I'll share here.

I used Prima Marketing's gorgeous Delight papers, which I layered and sewed.
Then I went nuts! I painted a chipboard frame with TH crackle paint and Luminere paint, and smeared paint along the edges of the card base. The Floral Lace Heart is a die from Impression Obsession , flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts. Pearls are Recollections. The seam binding is vintage (from my Grandmother), as is the white lace. Somewhere in there is a piece of Webster Pages fabric ribbon. The stamps are from Simon Says Stamp, Justrite (the 'Love', upper right) and (I think) Inkadinkado 'I love you'. Buttons are from the mess in my desk drawer. LOL

The second card was inspired by my spilling a whole envelope of die cuts from my friend Carmen (Papercraft Goddess), she sent me the lovely Impression Obsession Hollyhocks, which are always out of stock when I want to order them. She also sent me the IO fence. Love it!

 So since Spring isn't all that interested in joining us this year, I thought I'd make my own!
The patterned paper is Simple Stories Vintage Bliss, the leaf die is from Cheery Lynn, white flowers are a MS punch. The Stamp I used on the acetate window is from Unity, and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.
Thanks Sheri for inviting me to be your guest designer ! I'm very flattered and honoured, and I got my Mother's Day cards done early! SCORE !
Now I'm sure that most of the people who read my blog know Sheri, but if you don't, she is an awesomely talented card designer, (is on the amazing JustRite DT) and runs a great challenge blog. Be sure to check it out and play along!! You know you need to make a Mother's or Grandmother's Day card, so share it at My Sheri Crafts Challenge.

Relax

I was playing with little scraps of paper again. I have SO MUCH patterned paper, and a heck of a lot of it is 12x12. Considering I mostly make cards using little scraps, I'll have to live forever to make a dent in this stuff !! I just discovered that I have more Unity stamps than I thought. I found this cute Itty Bitty bathing suit stamp called "It Suits You", and I found a bag of Unity sentiments called "Sentiments O'Simple". So I made a card for Unity's Friends With Flair !

The papers are all from my ridiculously large collection of older Echo Park. I know that all the CC girls have the same lifetime supply ! LOL!

JR Behind the Mask

Very quick, last minute post with terrible picture quality!
This is based on the same idea I used for JR Challenge #112, which was also a bottle of flowers. I just really like this bottle!

Used a lot of masking. All JustRite stamps used are :
Sweet Lace B'ground
Baking Antique Tags
Chicken Soup Labels
Hydrangea Vintage Labels Seven
The Challenge is here : http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/2014/04/justrite-friday-challenge-118-behind-the-mask.html

Masking Easter Eggs

JustRite's challenge was to use masking. I use masking with my stamping a lot, mostly I just do it without really thinking about it, so of course, when I tried thinking about it, I came up with nothing ! I did see that Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge was an Easter card, so I decided to do eggs and also try something new to me, water-colouring.

I made three masks after I figured out how I wanted the eggs placed.

I taped down the one that would be on top, first. I used VersaMark ink and the largest stamp from JustRite's
Doilies and Lace set to stamp my design and then while the mask was still in place, I traced the outline with an embossing pen. I removed the mask, applied white embossing powder and heat set it.
Then I taped the second mask in place and this time used JR's Rose Garden Background stamp. I outlined like before except where the outline of the first egg overlapped. This time I used yellow embossing powder, spilling a good portion of it in my cup of tea !
The third mask had JR's Garden Gate Background stamp stamped through it, and the outline just drawn around the top curve. I used pink embossing powder for that one.
The blue paint is a Twinkling H20, and the pink and yellow are from a cheap set of Recollections water colours. I used lots of water on the b'ground, and made the bottom slightly darker. To keep the colours super soft, I kept mopping them up with a baby-wipe, until I got what I wanted. The H20 gave the whole thing a slight shimmer, that doesn't show in the photo.
The sentiment is from the JR Buntings and Banners stamp set.
Once again I an astounded at how what looks to be a very simple card took AGES to do. What's up with that anyway?
I have done this card pretty much the same, but the background is plain and the eggs are done individually. Which do you prefer?

I'm entering the JR challenge here: http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/2014/04/justrite-friday-challenge-118-behind-the-mask.html
The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge here: http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-happy-easter-andor-sweet-treats/
Loves Rubberstamps challenge here: http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/2014/04/challenge-99-easter-or-spring-theme.html

IO- You Are My Sunhine

The Impression Obsession challenge is " You are my Sunshine". I didn't have a clue what to do with this, but I finally decided on a beach theme using IO's Beachcomber stamp ( D13015 ). Most of the papers are Webster's Pages, as are the chipboard buttons.
IO hosts challenges every two weeks and you can find this one here : http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2014/04/new-io-challenge-you-are-my-sunshine.html

Who said it was easy?

Why is it that the simpler my card looks, the more difficult it was for me to make it? I have a wonderful talented blogger friend whose work I always find to be uplifting. Her name is Shirley and her blog is Paper Creations by Shirley. Now Shirley is fond of ink and ink sprays, and she uses them to great effect. As a HUGE admirer of her brilliant colourful backgrounds, I got inspired to purchase some of the beautiful Dylusions sprays to attempt to this for myself. Shirley has been very encouraging, BUT neither Shirley nor the Ranger company thought to mention that people with the motor skills of a two-year old should NOT use these sprays. I won't go into all the details, but things didn't go well !

I masked off a border with painter's tape, managed to get some ink on the watercolour paper, took the tape off and got multi-coloured fingerprints on my nice border. I must have missed a spot when I was cleaning up the mess I made, so naturally I stuck my hand in it. Round four commenced!
Finally, a pretty b'ground ! ( If you don't agree, I suggest you don't say anything where I can hear you. ) Now to use a pretty butterfly stamp from the Unity Stamp Company's Life Becoming set. This is one of the sets available at their Garage Sale this weekend.
I stamped it with VersaMark ink and proceeded to spill black embossing powder all over myself and the carpet. Happily, this accident did not affect the card ! That would not have been good. I did manage to get the sentiment (from the same set) heat embossed with what little powder I had left. Then, because things hadn't gone bad enough already, I thought I would try using sequins. How bad could they be?
 BAD, they can be BAD !
I thought Glossy Accents would be good to get them to stick, and I was right. They stuck to everything but the card, which apparently they wanted no part of. ( I still have one stuck in my hair, and two on my sweater!)
I managed to get this card from hell mounted on red mirror card, and then naturally, I cut the card base the wrong size, not once, but twice !
I'm going back to bed... well after I scrub my hands a few more times, and try to figure out how to cover the purple on my face. *sigh*
Heck! Maybe I should crawl under the bed and wait for tomorrow to come!

Friends with Flair and Cedar Waxwings

I thought it would be fun to make a card using my other new Unity stamp " Wishing you Joy". The poppies are so pretty. I used all Basic Grey papers, Webster's Pages lace and some velvet trim. I coloured the poppies with Copics and heat embossed the sentiment with copper embossing powder on vellum.

I'm entering this in Unity's Friends with Flair.

We had some very special visitors to our backyard this afternoon. We love birds and keep our feeders filled all year round. Today about a dozen beautiful Cedar Waxwings dropped in and hung out long enough for me to get some great pictures. I was and am very excited as I haven't seen these beauties in years. So I couldn't resist sharing!

Happy Birthday Rose Bouquet

Simon Says Stamp is celebrating their 5th year of challenges, so the challenge was to do a Birthday card. I only discovered SSS last summer, but I am a fan of their products, so I thought I use some things I bought from there and some of their signature stamps.

I was in an orange mood when I made this. ( Don't worry Cheryl, I'll not send it to you!) I used the SSS Best Mom Ever stamp set for the roses and leaves, and the sentiment is from the SSS Sketchy Banner Greetings. The kraft card stock is Neenah Desert Storm and I used a Prima stencil with molding paste. I coloured the roses with TH Distress inks in Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry mixed with Shimmer spritz. The leaves I coloured with TH Mowed Lawn and Dylusions Dirty Martini. This is a simple card that shouldn't cost me extra to mail. :D
The SSS Wednesday challenge is found here:
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-happy-birthday/

A bit of Distress Ink Fun

I am terrible with sketches. TERRIBLE !! I usually avoid them like the plague, but I just recently used some Unity stamps for a challenge and discovered that they also have a monthly challenge. The challenge actually didn't require that you use the sketch, you could use their colour inspiration instead and/or as well.
 I had been playing with  a stamp from the Quiet Essence set, which I repeatedly stamped on watercolour paper and heat embossed in white. I used painters tape to mask off part of the paper and applied TH Distress Inks and sprayed them with Shimmer Spritz. So sad that I couldn't get all that shimmer to show up in the photo :( So, since I had this piece that seemed to be going a similar way as the sketch, I decided to keep going and try to follow the sketch.
The flower is from the same set, it only has leaves on one side, but I used a stamp positioner to add them to each side. I fussy cut three copies of the flower and layered them up. I put Wink of Stella on the flower and leaves and used Stickles in the flower centre. The washi tape is by MME, and the soft blue side of the card is coloured with Gelato mixed with a lot of water and applied with a brush.

It's amazing that this poor card turned out at all, considering that I dropped the watercoloured piece on the floor and ran over it TWICE with my chair while searching for it. D'OH !!
You can find the Unity challenge here : http://www.theunitystampco-challenge.blogspot.ca/2014/03/feel-better-soon.html
If you like challenges, it looks like they run quite a few. I'm still very new to their site, so I need to investigate further, but I do know a lot of people who seem rather addicted! LOL!

A Bit of Everything

I was lucky to win a couple of Unity Itty-Bitty stamps recently. Thanks Corrie! One of the stamps I picked was this very sweet bicycle. I used Sakura Glaze pens to colour it, and I love the effect. The silver pen was perfect for all the metallic areas on the bike. I used a hodge-podge of papers because I was supposed to be cleaning my desk! So there is Prima, Fancy Pants, MME, Authentique, Basic Grey and a b'ground of Core'dinations Whitewash on a base of Bazzill card stock. Crazy ! The adorable "hello" die is from Simon Says Stamp. I cut it twice, there is a blue-green piece in behind as a shadow. The top "hello", I covered in clear embossing powder. The arrow is a TH grunge piece, I painted red and also covered with embossing powder. I also used SB Labels Eight. I don't know who the twine is from, but I'd be willing to bet that it is a different company than all the others on this card! LOL!

I am entering the Unity Friends with Flair challenge ( for the first time!). I know a lot of ladies that play there, so I thought I'd join in!
I'm also entering Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge : http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=1230

In Memory of Decker

My friend and her husband are heart-broken over the loss of their beautiful Black Lab. They said good-bye to their boy January 2nd, and they miss him everyday. I still remember the day I first met him, he was seven weeks old and was the most gorgeous puppy. They were fortunate to have him for almost fourteen years, but it is never long enough. This loss has hit them very hard, and I want them to know that it's okay to grieve for as long as they need.
I wanted to do a card with a natural look to it and for it to be gender neutral. I used a hodge-podge of papers. Fancy Pants, MME, DCWV, and K&Co.

My friend is a bird lover like me, and because she adores chickadees, I had to use them on this card. All the stamps and dies on the front of this card are by Impression Obsession.Here's what they are:
Chickadees (C8589)                                     Sm Flowers (DIE047-J)
Cover-A-Card Greenery (CC018)                Sm Bow (DIE057-AA) Cut and layered three together
All Occasion II ( CL307)                               Vine Wreath (DIE023-X)
Sympathy Sentiments (CL114) Used on inside.  Bare Branch (DIE022-U)  Used the leaf from this on vine

Added two colours of twine, some Liquid Pearls and a button.
Here's the inside:

I love this sentiment!

I'm entering this card in the following:
Impression Obsession's Green Challenge : http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2014/03/new-impression-obsession-challenge-green.html
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes with Buttons : http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes-with-buttons/
Loves RubberStamps Anything Goes : http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/2014/04/challenge-97-anything-goes.html

My Favourite Roses !

Here's another card using the pretty IO stamp called Beauty Rose (F8842). I love this stamp! This time I heat embossed it with my favourite EP, Embossing Pearl in Pale Gold, and coloured the roses with water colour pencils. The image was cut with SB Labels Twenty-Eight, and mounted on SB Decorative Labels Twenty -Eight. Part of the b'ground was stamped with IO's Cover-A-Card Toile (CC127) and the top half was embossed with a C'bug Damask folder. I folded part of a doily for an embellishment and added seam binding, ric-rac, and buttons. I mounted the whole thing on a base of top-folded 110lb Neenah Solar white CS. So glad I decided to try this CS, it's so perfect for card bases.

 I'm entering this in Impression Obsessions "Green" challenge and
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes with Buttons'