Bloom Where You're Planted

First of all, thanks for all of the recent comments and new followers (and of course my loyal fans who've been with me since the beginning)!  Can't wait to check out some new blogs...my google reader is loving the fresh faces!  My card today is for this week's Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.

Question: How adorable is that row of flowers!?!?  Answer: On a scale of one to corgi, easily a 8.3.  I started by cutting the boxes out of a 1.75 x 5.5 strip of Riding Hood Red using an exacto knife and ruler.  The first box is 1.25x1.25, the second and third boxes are really just one box with a .25 border all around.  I used the squares that I had cut out to punch the tulips using Martha Stewart's tulip border punch, then trimmed the bottom to .25 inch under the flowers, and adhered it to the back of my window.  In the first square, one of the flowers was cut off, so I cut that whole flower out of the picture and used one of the skinnier flowers instead.    I cut the squares of October Afternoon patterned paper and adhered behind the flowers and window.

The sentiment is from Verve Floral Symphony, stamped in Versafine Smokey Gray and clear embossed onto SU Blush Blossom (after much frustration trying to emboss with black powder...it just did not play well with this stamp or cardstock!).  I added another strip of flowers, the swirls (from Autumn Leaves maybe?  I got it back when Walmart had a craft section!) in Memento Rhubarb, some pearls, and matted it with Nestabilities Big Scallops.  I stamped another flourish from the same set in black onto the dp and added some more pearls.Extreme closeup:
ETA: For some reason, I thought this card was missing something after I posted it.  So I cut out another big scallop rectangle and used the regular rectangle die to trace a window.  I cut it out, leaving a little more border at the bottom to cover the bottom of the flower strip.  Some careful gluing and I think it made it look really finished.  Isn't it nice when you try to add one final touch and it doesn't ruin the whole card?  

So does anyone else use Pandora? If you haven't tried it yet, be prepared to have your mind blown.  Put in a few favorite songs and/or artists and it makes a radio station based on the "music genome" of the songs you chose. It totally freaked me out while making this card by playing an obscure track that is one of my favorite songs of all time, from one of my favorite shows of all time.^[1]  Get out of my head Pandora!

Oh, and one more thing to completely blow your mind: did you know if you middle-click a link (on Windows/Linux, since I don't think there's a middle button on a Mac mouse), it automatically opens it in a new tab?  Go on, try it.  (maybe that link to one of the best shows ever in the above paragraph). You're welcome.
^[1] Yes, after finding this clip and watching it for about 20 seconds, I will now be watching the entire series again starting immediately if not sooner.

Two for the Price of One!

This week's Res-Q-Challenge was to use emboss resist. I was playing around with different ideas and ended up with two panels that I liked, so I went ahead and made two cards.

This first card is also for the Taylored Expression Sketch Challenge. (Hey, did you notice that badge over there --> on my sidebar? I was chosen as top crop for my Medallion Anniversary Card. Yippee!) I stamped the Wplus9 flowers with versamark onto SU Baja Breeze and clear embossed, then rubbed some PTI Fresh Snow ink around the flowers, then rubbed it off the embossed flowers. The tag is punched from PTI Melon Berry, stamped with PTI Mega Mixed Messages sentiment. The SU Baja Breeze button is tied onto some generic kraft-colored ribbon with some linen twine. I punched the PTI Kraft & SU Baja Breeze scalloped strips using Fiskar's Threading Water punch, then placed some self-adhesive Hobby Lobby pearls on the punched holes. The background layer is Cosmo Cricket Core'dinations paper, sanded.

I went with a cleaner-and-simpler layout for my second card, using the CAS25 sketch from last summer that I think is my favorite sketch of all time. After clear embossing the flowers on Baja Breeze again, I brayered Not Quite Navy over it. Since I liked the look of the white halo in the first card so much, I added it to this card too. The sentiment is from Verve Forever in Our Hearts, stamped on SU Baja Breeze. The ribbon is the reverse of some American Craft polka dot ribbon--I love the softness of the dark grey instead of black. The image is matted with PTI Smokey Shadow. The dp is Stampin' Up from last year.

Here's my odd encounter of the day: DH and I were outside trimming hedges and suffering heat stroke, when DH says, "there's something you don't see every day" and I come around from behind the hedges to see two horses walking down the sidewalk (they were being ridden, I mean, this is a nice neighborhood, we don't let wild horses just roam here. ;) ). They were visiting the people next door. So, uh, that was weird.

It's like Isner v. Mahut, but with cards!

Did anyone else watch/read/listen Wimbledon's longest match?  The guys played for over 11 hours (I watched the last twenty minutes)!  So that got me in the mood for some marathon card makin' for the Verve Release Challenges.  I can spend forever planning what stamps and paper to use for a card, so I limited myself to using (mostly) Verve stamps and to using papers from October Afternoon Daydream collection.

Game

I am in love with this paper! Even awesomer, the paper pack had some diecuts and one of them was a smaller version of the print, which I used for the balloon from Verve's Up Up & Away.  I inked the edges with a little Colorbox Creamy Brown Chalk Ink.  I used my almost-last-scrap of PTI Aqua Mist and embossed the clouds from the same Verve set with white embossing powder.  The sentiment is from PTI, and yes, I did plan it so the love was in the cloud.

The buttons are from my button stash, I think the brown one may be SU and the blue ones are from PTI Ocean Tides. I cut little strips of paper to "thread" the buttons.  The brads are Hobby Lobby and the ribbon is PTI Dark Chocolate Twill.

Set

I know, I know, normally I don't equate frogs with "happiness" of any sort, but this Cat's Pajamas Prince Charming is just too, well, "charming." I colored him with SU Old Olive marker and Prang Metallic Gold Marker.

The sentiment is from Verve's Kindred Spirits, the patterned paper is still October Afternoon Daydream, the card stock is SU Dusty Durango and Old Olive.

Match

This card came together way too easily!  I don't know why I've never used these journaling tags before; they are so much fun to frame an image with.  The polka dot, flower paper, and tag is still from October Afternoon; the text paper is PTI Sweet Blush stamped with PTI Text Styles.  I sewed around each panel, then used my fingernail to distress the edges a bit.  The butterflies and sentiment are from Verve's Petals & Stems and Fluttering By.

I stamped the butterflies onto PTI Sweet Blush, put some clear packing tape on the back (one of the best tips ever--it really adds stability to those little pieces like the antennae), cut out, and adhered with glue dots. 

Fun Isner v. Mahut Facts: They played 980 points with 2198 strokes. Isner had 112 aces and Mahut had 103; the previous record was 78.

Fun Meg Tennis Fact: My DH and I are at the pro level at doubles tennis in Wii Sports.

Taylored Expressions(ish) Challenge 115

I made this card for last week's Taylored Expressions Challenge, but I ended up veering from the sketch a bit.

I had planned to make the butterfly the extra circle by the ribbon, but it just didn't look right. I also had planned to add some SU flower brads on the top and bottom, but they were too big for the space. I'm so mathy and rule-oriented that I always feel like I'm taking a walk on the wild side when I don't follow a sketch exactly (Yes, that's what passes for excitement in the corgi creations household).

The stamps are Verve Petals & Stems. I love this new-to-me old SU dp I found and wanted to use all the colors in it. So I stamped the flower using versamark onto Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink (I think--I'm never sure of the SU pink color names), embossed with clear embossing powder, and cut out. I did the same with the flower centers and butterfly with So Saffron paper. Then I used zots small glue dots to put it all together--I must say I like the thickness of these when I want just a little dimension.

I stamped the stems using Old Olive classic ink, which actually worked pretty well with the clear stamps. I can't pair the smaller stem in this set because it's too "wonky" when compared with the bigger one, (I'm not saying I don't have issues) so I just covered the bottom of the panel and stamped the bigger one again, making it shorter for the smaller flower. The sentiment from PTI Birthday Basics is stamped using Colorbox Rouge chalk ink. Can you believe how well that ribbon coordinates? It's some American Crafts that I've had for quite a while. After matting the image in old olive, I used foam tape to pop it up.

I think I've already mentioned all the supplies, but if you have any questions, let me know!