memory game valentine {SSS wednesday challenge}

Have you had to turn over a lot of mis-matches before finding your valentine?

It's time for another Simon Says Stamp wednesday challenge, and this one is all about making your card recipient smile.

The memory-game-inspired card came together in a flash: punch seven 1-inch squares out of patterned paper, and two more out of white cardstock.  Then, stamp the same image on the two white squares and try to color them identically (I used the dusty bunny image from Paper Smooches "squeaky clean" stamp set.)

For fun, adhere some of the squares flat onto the card base and pop a few up with dimensional squares.

Lawn fawn's milo's abcs is perfect for creating a custom sentiment.  Anything to do with finding your special someone could work:

♥ i found you ♥

♥ two of a kind ♥

♥ i won ♥

Can you think of anything else?  I hope you like my card, and decide to play along!  As usual, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a 50$ voucher to their store.

♥.

an apple a day...

It's been so long since I've had time to enter any challenges.  I hope you don't think I've gotten too rusty.

The buttons are for CAS-ual fridays, and the layout for CASE study.  I've been busy making little get well cards for Sofia, to stock up for when she's at home and feeling blue after her knee surgeries.  But this one is for my Thomas.  I wanted something special to tuck into his backpack on the first day of school...  a polka-dotted blue apple, just because.

I cut out the leafy wreath with my silhouette.  (as an aside, if you own a silhouette, how often do you change out your blade for a fresh one? i'm trying to keep some balance between my cheapskate nature and my hatred of jagged, raggedy edges.)

The apple image is by Paper Smooches - my first PS set, and I still love it.  I colored it in with aqua copics, and used my colorless blender to create the polkadots.

I hope you like it!

merry wreath.

I'm on my last leg of Christmas cards, people.  Have you all sent yours out already?



It's not a new idea, but I created a Christmas wreath using a leafy image (from Paper Smooches "reflections" set.)  I traced around the inside of a scor-tape roll and made sure that the stem part of the leaf image followed that curve, overlapping them a bit.  I stamped off onto a sheet of scrap paper to get the lighter impressions, and fill in any gaps.  The little "berry" images are from the same set.  The "merry" sentiment was cut out using my Cameo Silhouette.  I love that while I created the card, the machine cut out my sentiment, and 11 others (since I taught this card in a recent class.)  It's like magic :)

It's a simple card, but if you're still making cards this late in the game, they'd better be fairly easy to put together, right?

I'm sharing another simple Christmas card tomorrow, and then that's it for Christmas cards!  We'll be moving into the gift-packaging and off-blog-baking portions of holiday craziness.

See you tomorrow!

ps. someone pointed out to me that the "pin it" button hasn't been working.  I think I fixed it, but if there are still issues, please let me know!

warm wishes

A christmas card with....

a bit of a retro feel,

and white whipped cream with a touch of sparkle,

in a huge, paper-pieced mug,

wrapped in a comfy quilt of hexagons,

and a cozy kraft panel, topped with the nicest faux-stitching image.



until next time,

e.

retrosketches #28

Good Monday, all!

Today marks the kids' first full week back at school... I'm still dragging my feet to get into the routine of rush-rush-rush in the mornings... "did you brush your teeth?"  "don't forget to put your lunch into your school bag!"  "whaddayamean you don't want a sandwich?  You just watched me make it!  You're gonna eat it!"  "no, those clothes don't match together!"

Doesn't everyone with school-age children have those sweat-inducing kind of mornings? ha!

I am very happy to report that Thomas excused himself from our dinner table last night with a lispy: "maman, je veux aller à la toilette, s'il vous plait."  (mom, I'd like to go to the washroom, please.)  He looked so proud of himself, we were all beaming, and maybe even clapping.  Language does not come easy for our little guy.  We have been working with him all summer to get him ready with some basic phrases for his french kindergarten... this is..... a start :)

In crafty news, I'm happy to be joining in the retrosketches fun for the second week in a row:

That "hi y'owl" greeting cracks me right up.

The polaroid frame (by PTI) got a paisley treatment, courtesy of a new (to me) stamp set by Paper Smooches.  I colored in the paisleys and the background with copics.  I actually die-cut 5 polaroid frames and adhered them one on top of the other for a much chunkier frame.  When it was all dry, I dry-brushed a very thin layer of glaze over-top.  I like the texture and aging effect it had on the paisleys.

Inside the polaroid, I stamped an owl (and since I'd just used my CSS owl, I decided to stamp with Lawn Fawn's this time.  I believe in equal opportunity for all owls. hee hee.)  I wanted to keep the card very monochromatic, so the owl, log, and even inside of the sentiment banner, were all colored with the same 3-4 copic markers... the speech bubble was stamped in a soft brown (literally, hero arts' "soft brown shadow ink.")

I hope "y'owl" like it! *groan*

retrosketch #27

I haven't played along with retrosketches in way too long!  Now that the kids are away, the mommy will play, hee hee.

 That skinny deer cracks me up (from paper smooches' "happy camper" set.)  I cut him out, stuck him down onto some starry night paper (left over from the camping party) and used the CSS cupcake wrapper dies to give him some rolling hills to stand on...

 I love my woodgrain washi tape.  I'll be sad when it gets used up....

Hope you like it!

he's just a love machine...

Today is my (own private) love machine's 34th birthday!

So, of course, I made him this card:

hee hee.

supplies:
stamps: hero arts happy background, paper smooches "squeaky clean," pti "fabulous frames"
ink: memento black, impress red currant, pti fresh snow, copics
paper: kraft, white (both from pti), basic grey (su), basic grey patterned paper
other: 1.75 inch circle die collection and fabulous frames dies (pti), glossy accents, sewing machine

Gallery Idol, round 2.

FOR GALLERY IDOL CONTEST VOTING, CLICK *HERE*

eeeeeeeeeek!

Words cannot even express how thrilled and honored I am to be participating in the Gallery Idol competition.  After the initial "heart attack moment," when I realized that I made it to the 2nd round, I got started playing around with the idea that struck me within the first 10 minutes of reading this week's theme.

The theme is "you color my world."

Sofia (my 7 year old daughter) immediately suggested a smiley-faced rainbow.  I also had flashes of crayons spelling out different words, die-cuts with rainbow colors peeking through the negative spaces - but yo - this is GALLERY IDOL.  I had to bring it... my style. *grins*

Here is my very own "girl on fire":

I remember seeing a breathtaking poster with a black silhouette-d lady, where her hair flowed upwards in swirls and flowers... I really wish pinterest had been around at the time!  Since our theme was COLOR, I kept the silhouette, the background script, and the ink splotches all very monochrome and let the colors sing and fly upwards on the card.  This lady is in l-o-v-e (and probably walking around humming "you make me feel like a natural woman" to herself, hee hee.)

Wanna know which stamps I used and how I created my little lady?

I first stamped my silhouette in SU's crumb cake ink.  See the cameo stamp? (from Paper Smooches' "pretty momma" set) - I inked her up, then gently wiped off the frame around and the back part of her head.  Too bad, so sad, lady - it all had to go *wink*

I then mapped out where I'd like the hair to start and how I wanted everything to flow using a pencil (making sure that her flourish-y hair started at her bangs, so she didn't look like a bald-on-top woman with hair only coming out the back - don't ask me how I'm able to give you this important tip):

Next, I added flourishes (from PTI's "fancy flourishes" set) in a rainbow of colors - red, yellow, orange, green, and blue!

uh, she didn't make the end cut... I gave her quite the poof on the bottom, didn't I?

For a final touch, a little bling-y butterfly (from SU's "elementary elegance" set - which I found to PERFECTLY coordinate with the smallest butterfly from the "beautiful wings" embosslit - did you SU demos already know that?  hee.  You probably already did.)

I really, really hope that you like my project... and if you did, I would be forever grateful if you would go vote for me!

Click *here* to visit the top 20's gallery and cast your very important vote!  I will also have a voting widget on my blog's sidebar that will stay up for as long as I'm in the competition - use it! haha.

Have a fantastic day, all, and thanks for coming by!

pretty momma.

Hi peeps!

I have some great news to share:  one of my Christmas cards (and boy was it ever weird to craft for Christmas in April...) was picked up for publication by Paper Crafts magazine! woot!

I'll keep this post short & sweet since I'm still not feeling too well.  Here's a no-sentiment notecard I created for my group to make at our card class next week:

I sponged black ink onto a baking doily, used some very yummy patterned paper, then stamped a houndstooth background (hero arts) and a pretty cameo (paper smooches' "pretty momma") onto a tag die-cut.

 The finishing touch?  A little rosette made from book-print.

Happy weekend, all!

happy heart day.

I love waking up to a little something special.

and also, other little things that spell love: a coffee made, bed-covers straightened out, and time to take a shower (without little ones clawing at the shower door, lol.).  My sweet man also dove into my supplies and made me a special card - love that!

My littles enjoyed their chocolate treats and homemade cards at 6:30am.  Along with some pancakes, and pink milk...

Sofia got this card.

Thomas got this one, but with a little something special inside.

A banner of monsters.  He loved it, which is a good thing, since I think I sprained a finger cutting out 22 of these bad boys... and it's already hanging up in his room :)

Any special plans for tonight?  We're hosting my sister's family for a fondue party (which, my hubs would like me to tell you I've been calling our "fond-ue of you" party all week... because that's the kind of geek I am...)

Hope you all feel the love today - kisses from our family to yours!

could Maia look more unimpressed? hee hee.

got coffee?

I made my own little "coffee specimen sheet", complete with my chicken-scrawl-handwriting listing the type beneath each type.  I'm no calligraphist, but what better way to make a card more personal than to write on it yourself?

I think I mentioned my sister has a birthday coming up, but did I mention that my dad's birthday is on the same day?  The way the story is told, my mom took a healthy dose of castor oil to make that birthday present happen.  Ew.

I stamped and paper-pieced different mugs from Paper Smooches' "hot concoctions" set, and imagined a type of coffee to go with each one.  My favorite?  The "extra shot" at the bottom - complete with huge droplets of black coffee spilling out (the droplets are from lawn fawn's "plus one" set.)

Thanks for looking!

Winter birthday wishes.

I'm going to keep the writing short and sweet since I'm still a bit hopped up on Nyquil, head-swimming from hearing dry coughing in stereo sound...

Our latest Papertrey Princess challenge is to create a birthday card.  Awesome, since my dad and my sister have birthdays coming up in a few weeks, and I'm pretty sure my mom will be contacting me to create their birthday cards *wink.*

I used the "lost & found Christmas" paper-pack, from My Mind's Eye - aren't they so rich and cozy looking? The sentiment is from PTI's "in the meadow," and the mug and spoon images are from Paper Smooches' "hot concoctions" set.  To add to the cozy feel of the card, I distressed the edge of my white mat, beneath all the patterned paper, and sponged all the edges in "vintage photo" distress ink.

Thanks for looking!

of bats and zorro...

My little man, my 4 year old Thomas, will be dressing up for preschool today.  He has been wearing his costume pretty much everyday this week, and it makes me smile. every. single. time.

If you read the blog post title, you've probably already surmised that he will be dressing up as Zorro :)  If I can catch him at a standstill sometime before Halloween, I promise to share a picture.  I love the pants with the built-in-boots!  hee hee!

In honor of Halloween at the preschool, a batty-love-card in the most Halloween of color-schemes:

I used the bat and sentiment from paper smooches' "falling for you" set, the PTI gingham background set, and the hero arts ledger background stamp.

The wonky little bat was heat embossed, and suspended, precariously from a black thread...

See?  I used PTI's 2.5 inch circle die collection to cut a circle into both my gingham and orange card base layers.  A length of thick black thread is sandwiched between the layers.  There are actually two bat images...

You can even see the foam squares holding them together in this picture, on either side of the thread.  I stamped the inside of the card with the ledger stamp for extra interest.

Are you envisioning something else hanging there?  Maybe a Christmas ornament?  A bicycle, with the thread crossing lengthwise?  The possibilities are endless...

CAS-ual Fridays - just add color!

Adding color to stamped images, for the new CAS-ual Friday challenge.

I stamped the acorns from paper smooches' "falling for you" and colored them in with copic markers.

The circle frame around each acorn is from a PTI "tag its" set.

Thanks for looking!

Play date cafe challenge #104

These color challenges are highly addictive...

Especially when a new set of stamps comes in the mail...

I'm seriously having to stop myself from taking that little mustache stamp and adding it to everything...  I did, however, print up a picture of my hubby and stamp him with that little mustache... you know, just for fun... hee hee.

Here's this week's color inspiration from the Play Date Cafe Challenge:

And, in full, here's my card:

I started out with a 3.25" circle, punched out from an index card.  I stamped images from paper smooches' "hot concoctions" set in a cute little formation.  (I did some masking so that the black disk could look like a plate, and also masked around the mug so that I could stamp the alpha pattern inside.)

The craft doily was sponged with a green ink to match the little strip of green cardstock framing the bottom of the focal point circle... The purple cardstock was stamped with PTI's "polka dots II" and the yellow cardstock with "chevron stripes" (also PTI.)

I created my own faux-twine by taking a purple copic marker to a length of string, marking it at regular intervals.  Nothing like the real thing, of course, but when you want something to match... it's a good solution!


Thanks for looking!

aw, nuts!

When one of your bffs asks you to make a card, for a man who had a "lawn mower accident" and has a "great sense of humour"... well, you don't say no!  (Can I just side-bar here to say how traumatized I am to think about getting a foot caught in a lawn-mower?  I shredded my index finger in a hand-blender a few years ago, and all I can do is shudder.)

So how do you go from lawn-mower-accident to entering a CAS-ual Fridays challenge?

Um, it's a stretch, but I think it works for a fall-themed-paper-pieced-card:

"Aw, nuts!"  As in, "aw, nuts!  sorry to hear that you got your foot caught in a whirring blade and are now holed-up in the hospital..."

I started out with a kraft base, which I embossed with PTI's woodgrain impression plate.  The strip of patterned paper was cut with a PTI half & half die - love those!  The acorn is from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" set, and I created my own greeting with lawn fawn's "smitty's abcs".  All of the patterned paper is from SU.

Hope you like it!

CAS-ual Fridays... better late than never!

I'm just getting the hang of this whole blogging-experience... there are so many different challenges, color-inspirations, company contests - it's hard to know where to begin!

I started this blog because

a.  I desperately wanted someone other than my husband to validate my work (hee hee)
b.  I needed a showcase for my style to show clients as part of the JustMePrints business I share with my sister (click here to check us out!)
c.  I wanted to enter a PTI challenge.

But some of the other challenges look like fun too!  And I want in :)

I like to think of myself as mostly a CAS girl (that's "clean-and-simple" for any non-crafters *coughhusbandcough* reading this blog) so this one's right up my alley!

The only graduate I have in my home is a pint-sized one.  My little Sofia is 3 weeks shy of completing her kindergarten year - the time has just flown by!  I'm so excited to give her this card:

It was an excuse to break open my new Lawn Fawn sets.  I created the background with the new "schoolhouse backdrops" set and then stamped the large sentiment with "Quinn's ABCs".  The apple is from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" - I stamped it on SU designer paper and cut an opening to make way for a little sentiment from PTI's "way to go, kiddo".

I couldn't help but stick a bit of bling to the bottom of the card - she's such a girly-girl.  The bling was completely necessary *wink*

Thanks for looking!

eat your veggies, kid.

We're tired of whining, pleading, bribing, threatening, etc. with Sofia to get her to eat her veggies.

This bad boy is getting tucked into her lunchbox tomorrow... think it'll do the trick?  ha.  Hopefully it will, in the very least, put a smile on her face.

She drew me a picture of a broken heart today, and told me every time we "make" her eat her vegetables, she feels like her heart is breaking.  Cry me a river, kid.  And also, let me give you a huge hug so you don't notice that I'm cracking up behind your back.

For this card, I used Vegtastic - I can't get enough of those Paper Smooches cuties!  I first stamped the trio of veggies in Versamark ink to create a background on my kraft cardstock, then stamped them again on patterned paper and snipped them out.  The notebook die-cut was stamped and clear-embossed with the "order form" image from PTI's It's official.  Cute, right?  I'm imagining she'll order veggies.  And eat them.  It's a nice dream :)

My little "with love" sentiment on the bottom is also from Vegtastic - but I added the comma by hand and also handwrote m-o-m in the little circles.

Here's a closer-up look:

The E-A-T letters were die-cut and then stamped with PTI's gingham image - also been using that pattern on everything.  The message on the card is pretty clear, right?  In-your-face veggies, veggie-background, e-a-t+arrow pointing to veggies... clear enough for even the almost-6-year-old?

monster love!

Is he not the cutest?  

I'm in a great mood today.  A giving mood.  Sooo, I'm going to let you all in on my secret to crafting in a hurry (ie, when the kids are napping or aren't clawing at your legs or asking for more chocolate milk because they're hunnnnnnnnnngry.... lol).  Here goes:

Save yer stuff.  

This card came together in 10 minutes (and I promise you at least 7 of those minutes was spent threading those buttons... grrr....)  The sun-rays were already stamped onto the kraft paper, and the "sun-circle" was already roughed-up.  The monster with his insanely cute googly eyes was already colored and cut out.  The strip of stamped "ground" was also a scrap from another project.  All of these pieces were rejects from different projects.  I couldn't get them to work at the time, but I like how they came together here!

In 10 minutes, I stitched a crazy pattern into the sun (mostly because that's all I can manage for now), stitched the ground under the monster's feet, and stitched the "strings" for the button-balloons.  All that remained was to fill the space on the right with the greeting: monster love x3!

Thanks for looking!  Have a great weekend :)