Candy Cane Madness & Heat Tool Drama

Hi there!  Popping in with an entry for the latest challenge at Jay Gee's Nook.  The photo inspiration collages are always gorgeous although I don't play along as often as I'd like.  This time I was inspired by the middle picture on the right side - love that candy cane inspired comforter!  I pulled out a few different stamp companies for this one - the noteblock is Purple Onion Designs, the candy cane is Neat and Tangled and the bow is Papertrey Ink.  

This is one of the last cards I made before my heat gun died.  :( For 5 years I've had an EK Success Colourizer and I loved it!  It had two heat settings and was super quick to melt embossing powder.  I noticed it was starting to slow down a bit recently though so I tried to order a new one.  Unfortunately they don't seem to make them anymore so I ordered a Ranger heat tool.  I'm glad I did as it was here and ready to use when the Colourizer died but I'm not impressed with it.  It takes forever to melt the powder and it seems to only work when placed at one very specific angle to the paper.  It's really put me off heat embossing now as it takes so long.  :(  Any recommendations on other brands?

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Patterned Paper:  Anna Griffin

Stamps:  (Christmas Noteblock) Purple Onion Designs, (Candy cane from Sweet Home) Neat & Tangled, (Bow from Bells & Boughs) PTI

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Punch:  (1/8" hole punch) McGill

Copics:  R46, G07

Mother's Day In Bloom

Good morning, all!  Just came back from a lovely walk with the hounds and am ready to start the day!  Tonight we're having a few people over for a Mexican dinner for my Uncle's birthday so there's lots to do to get ready for that.  For now though I'm sneaking in with a last minute entry for the challenge at Jay Gee's Nook (and one more for Simon Says Stamp of course!).  As usual all the inspiration pictures are gorgeous and bring lots of ideas to mind but I was particularly drawn to the top right picture this time.  I really like those black and orange stripes and I used my new (to me) In Bloom stamp.  Love this flower image!  I used the rock and roll technique to make the edges a little darker which I don't think I've really tried before but I like the result.  Okay, off to start prepping the chicken enchilada casserole.  Yummy!!  Have a wonderful day!

Cardstock:  (White) Gina K, (Orange) Bazzill, (So Saffron) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  Doodlebug
Stamps:  (Flower and leaves from In Bloom, Sentiment from Fillable Frames #4) PTI
Inks: (Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, Always Artichoke) Stampin' Up
Copic:  E08
Gems:  (Bon Bon Assortment) Doodlebug

Bright and Fuzzy

I think this is now the third time I've paper pieced a Purple Onion Designs image for a CAS-ual Fridays challenge. I really need to change it up a bit but when I made this card on Monday I was in need of bright cheeriness and this card did it for me!  The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to use ribbon.  That is something you rarely see on my cards despite the large quantities of it that can be found in the Craft Cave...  However, I pulled out this fun red fibre to add to the plant pot.  I love the fuzziness of it!  And since I needed bright cheeriness I knew that the challenge at Jay Gee's Nook was perfect as the inspiration photos are full of rainbow goodness.  


Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill
Stamps:  Purple Onion Designs
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Cherry Cola, Orange Cream, Lemon Drop, Fuzzy Navel, Deep Blue from Lime Rickey collection) Basic Grey
Ribbon:  (Adornments Fun Fibres) EK Success

'Tis the Season

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted.  Just like everyone else I've been busy busy busy trying to get things done during this crazy time of year!  Also, most of last weekend was spent finishing up that 72 card special order and I was more than happy to finally hand it over on Tuesday!  Today I'm supposed to be doing some cleaning but instead I snuck off to the Craft Cave to get a little carding done.  So much more fun than vacuuming...  :)


Today's card is for 4 challenges.  The colours are taken from this week's Just Us Girls challenge which I had to play along with because my buddy Lynn is the hostess!  :)  (Hope it's okay that I snuck some yellow in there...)  My inspiration is from the photo collage at Jay Gee's Nook (in particular the gift bag in the lower left hand corner).  I also wanted to play along with the Inkspirations Christmas Creations Challenge as, sadly, this is their final challenge.  And last but certainly not least I'm joining in with Use It Tuesday's Holiday challenge.  I've had that poinsettia die in my stash for a few years now and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've used it.  That music background also had quite the layer of dust on it when I pulled it out too!  That's it for now.  Later, gators!
Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Pcaon, (Kraft) PTI, (Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Music Background) Hero Arts, Banner from Bannerific) Lawn Fawn, (Sentiment from Boughs and Bells) PTI
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Die:  (Poinsettia) Marianne Design Creatables

Merry Drinks

Whoop whoop!  I just discovered that over at ColourQ I am Co-Colour Queen with the fabulous Jenny!  And then I found out that I won some Unity goodies from the Friends With Flair blog hop!  I was worried what the day would bring when it started with Jem stealing half my breakfast but after all this good news even he is forgiven!  :)  
My card today is an entry for Jay Gee's Nook's latest challenge to use holiday stamps to make non-holiday cards.  I'm hoping to give this challenge another go at some point and use some actual holiday images but for now I'm using this holiday sentiment from Hero Arts.  It's from a set called, appropriately, Get Merry and is a 2010 release.  I thought the sentiment would work perfectly for a boozy birthday card and used it for one of the girls at work.  
Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill Basics, (Melon Mambo)  Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Drinks from Cheers to You) Stampin' Up, (Sentiment from Get Merry) Hero Arts
Ink:  (Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko
Impression Plate:  (Sunshine ) PTI

A Smile is a Laugh That Bursts

Good morning, Crafters!  I have a card for two challenges today - Jay Gee's challenge and Picture Perfect Creations.  Lots of purple going on in both and for some reason purple makes me think of laughter so I though this little quote would go nicely with the colours.  I stamped the background with a few other stamps from the set and used embroidery floss to attach the tag.  I wanted to use a ribbon but it turns out I have no cream coloured ribbon.  Pretty scary considering how much ribbon I do have. Might need to rectify that situation...

Supplies:  CS: SU; Stamps: Fiskars; Inks: SU & VersaMark; Embossing Powder: Ranger; Gems: Doodlebug;  Dies: Nesties; Embroidery Floss: DMC

Got a bit of carding in yesterday afternoon during which time we had a fantastic thunderstorm and lots of wonderful rain!  After all those months of nothing we've had quite a bit of the watery stuff these last few weeks and our once charred lawn is now growing faster than Luis can mow it!  :)  It's a beautiful sight! 

Little Things Make Me Happy

Last month I missed the challenge deadline at Jay Gee's Nook by a few hours.  I was so annoyed at myself but was determined not to miss the next one and am getting my card in nice and early.  I was inspired by the picture in the lower right corner of the photo collage - love that white octopus on the turquoise background.  I also wanted to join in with the challenge at All Things Unity which involves using butterflies.  It seems like almost every Unity set I have has a butterfly but I hadn't inked up this one yet so I thought I'd dust it off and try it out.

Supplies:  CS: PTI; Stamps: Unity & PTI; Inks: VersaMark & VersaMagic Cloud White; Embossing Powder: Ranger Seafoam White; Nestie: Lacey Circles

I was so excited earlier today to see a manta ray swimming around down by our dock!  I haven't seen one in our bay in years and he spent quite a while tootling around down there.  They really are gorgeous creatures and I am so blessed to have an aquarium in my back yard!

Tea Pot or Magic Lamp?

Jay Gee's Nook's current challenge is to create a card inspired by the above pictures.  I love that tea pot clock and I'm really digging yellow & turquoise these days.  I pulled out a couple of Stampendous stamps and used one to make my own background design and the other to paper piece the tea pot. 

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Cardstock: Bazzil, Paperbilities; Stamps: Stampendous, Elzybells, PTI; Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark; Die: PTI, Nestabilities

When I put this card together and sat back and looked at it I thought, "Huh.  That tea pot kind of looks like a magic lamp."  Then I told myself I was being silly - magic lamps are longer and sleeker and only my silly brain would see this as a magic lamp.  It's quite an obvious card - when you're sick you have a nice cup of tea!  Skip ahead to later in the day and I'm showing the card to my mom.  She looks perplexed for a moment then says, "Oh I get it.  The genie in the lamp will make you feel better right?"  Guess where I inherited that silly brain from??