It Could Only Happen to Me !

JustRite's Challenge #123  is a very pretty colour challenge.

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I love the colours, but I had the worst time coming up with anything. So, as usual, I left it to the last minute and had to rush to get a photo taken before the rain came. You won't believe what happened, but more about that later.

I used a stamp that I had wanted to get for quite a while now, and I like it just as much as I thought I would ! YAY! It's called Floral Thank You and I like that it is a cling stamp that I can do some fun techniques with. This time I just coloured on the stamp with Faber-Castell Big Brush markers and Distress markers and lightly misted the stamp before applying it to the cardstock. I layered that on pink and then on a white piece cut with Spellbinders A2 Locking Loops, which I layered on pink and then the white card base. It's a simple card so I thought it would benefit by a lot of layers! I haven't used much bling lately, so I got happy with a whole lot of little shiny gems!
So, see how nice and clean this card is? Well, it's not any more! I thought I'd try and get a couple more photos, you know, and pick the best one. Look at closely at the upper left corner of this next photo.

That's a Chickadee, and here's the card right before it fell into a planter full of mud! That little begger is kind of a pet. I call him Chirp, and he usually chirps at me before he flies at me, but this time he didn't give me any warning! I hand feed him and he is so darn cute I guess I can forgive him for wrecking my card. 

FWF : A Beautiful Friendship

Just a quick post to link up with Unity's Friday Friends with Flair.

The stamps are from March 2014 KOM and Tulips and Daisies.
Papers are Simple Stories and Basic Grey.
FWF is found here; http://theunitystampco.blogspot.ca/2014/06/friends-with-flair-time.html
I'm also entering the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge found here: http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-you-gotta-have-friends/

IO Challenge : Masculine

My computer is acting up so much, I don't know if this will even get posted, so sadly I didn't put a lot of effort into it. I used Impression Obsession stamps  CAC Map ( CC063 ), and Schooner (H4355). The die is Seabirds ( DIE078-F).

My card is for the Impression Obsession challenge : http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2014/06/new-impression-obsession-challenge-masculine.html

I think I need to visit the GeekSquad before I drop kick this into next week!
Sorry if I don't get around to visit, I am reaching the end of my tether!

Apple Cores

I thought I'd try to clean off my desk. Tonight that mostly consisted of sweeping everything into a drawer. As usual, I uncovered some buried treasure that I just had to use, stopping the cleaning of course. ;D I got a bag of assorted stamps from Unity, and one of them was three little apples, and another was a cute sentiment that went with them. I decided to punish myself for not cleaning up the craft explosion by doing a very simple card. Arrgg!! Pure torture!

I coloured the apple stamp with Faber-Castell Big Brush markers and stamped it repeatedly to make a background. I heat embossed the sentiment in white. Isn't that sentiment adorable? I found that ribbon on my desk and figured that since I didn't have five or more layers, I should at least have a ribbon!
Every so often I attempt to do a very simple card. I really admire people who do those well. I am not one of them! I do think my old fella will like this though. It's pretty gender neutral. No pretty shiny things on it. :(
I am entering this in Unity's Friday Friends with Flair.

Something Simple

I found out about the Curtain Call Challenge on the Unity blog. The inspiration challenge is called Something Simple, and as soon as I saw the inspiration picture, I knew exactly what I wanted to do! (First time for everything!!)

When Unity put out their April 2014 SMAK stamp set, I just knew I had to have it, or it would haunt me! I usually prefer their KOM kits which are more for cards, but when I looked at that SMAK kit, I saw lots of cards in my mind. This was one of them, and the Curtain Call Challenge inspired me to move that card out of my brain and on to some paper!

I don't have a woodgrain embossing folder, which is what I would have preferred, but I do have an Impression Obsession woodgrain b'ground stamp, so I used that with white embossing powder. I stamped the glorious flowers and leaves from the Unity SMAK set on vellum and embossed them with white also. The flowers have quite wide lines, so I was able to apply Glossy Accents along some of those on the back, so you can't see any glue marks through the vellum. I didn't put any glue near the edges, so I could curl them for more dimension. I layered it on pale grey cardstock and mounted it on a white card base.

 I made this card in a fraction of the time it normally takes me to make a card. Clearing my desk of anything that could possibly make a mark on my white card took longer than making the card! I managed not to lose or spill anything. I didn't run anything over with my chair or set anything on fire. I did glue a couple of sequins to my arm, or maybe they were there from before. ;) But, I haven't photographed it yet, I thought I'd write the post first. I'm just crossing my fingers that when I take it outside to photograph it, I won't set it in squirrel poop!
UPDATE : I took the Lead at the Curtain Call Challenge !! I won a bunch of Unity stamps! YAY!

Saved by Wax Paper !

I firmly believe that we learn by doing. I just wish my "doing and learning" didn't involve so many disasters! One of the things that I have learned is that wax paper is wonderful stuff. You can keep your fancy Silhouettes and Cricuts, they can't swing to my rescue like a roll of wax paper!
I was excited to have time today to finally use Unity's Tulips and Daisies stamp set to make the card idea that's been percolating in my head for a week. Instead of using some form of watercolours again, this time I thought I'd try Prismacolor pencils. I was never good with coloured pencils and my Prismacolors have barely seen the light of day in years, but I felt like trying something different.
I made two cards using the colours in the Unity Be Inspired Challenge.

So, I got my pieces coloured to the best of my (very limited) ability, and I die cut the SSS "hello" so that it stayed attached to the strip. ( Credit for this goes to Jennifer McGuire ). I also die cut an additional "hello" for each piece to glue to the back for extra strength because the whole bottom piece is raised on foam tape.
I added the twine and thought I was done, only to realize that there was NOTHING SHINY on my cards. HORRORS!! How did that happen, and how was I going to repair the problem?
Ahh! Diamond Glaze, that would add shine and even more strength to the diecut words.
Now, here's where my learning by doing comes in. I have learned (don't ask how) that my bottle of Diamond Glaze is completely unpredictable. Occasionally it behaves nicely, but it usually either doesn't work at all or it comes out like Niagara Falls. Often it does all three things on one piece. So I ripped off some wax paper and taped it over my cards behind the sentiment, and sure enough, the glaze was clogged. I cleared the clog with a large needle and it worked nicely on the "H", and then it came pouring out like a river and made a big mess! Ha! The mess was only on the wax paper!
The moral of the story is : Keep a roll of wax paper close by when crafting, especially if you are prone to disasters! It is also great as a paint palette, and stuff doesn't stick to it so it protects your work surface.
If I had wrapped it on my arm, I wouldn't be here picking little bits of blue paper off my skin. ~Sigh~

I'm also entering these in Unity's Friday Friends with Flair.

IO Inspired by a Song

My DH was listening to Stan Rogers music and he played "Barrett's Privateers", which made me think of my schooner stamp for a Father's Day card.

So I stamped Impression Obsession's Schooner ( H4355) . The papers are from Authentique and Fancy Pants. I punched the border and stars and added eyelets and twine. Simple and quick !
I'm entering this in the IO challenge - Inspired by a Song.