Sweet in Pink

Some childhood friends just had their third little girl last night which was the inspiration for the today's card. I will probably make another card just for them but last night's events inspired me. I think its so neat that they decided to be surprised by whether it was a boy or a girl - certainly something I could never be patient enough to do myself! So Sarah, Roger - congrats to you and your family. Your lil' Laila is one lucky girl to have parents (and sisters) like you.

The thought of a sweet little baby girl, all snuggled up in pink with soft skin and the small cooing noises they make made me happy. So I got to work on this card, sweet in pink and white.

I actually giggled when I added the little pink bow to my card. It reminds me of the bows moms creatively stick to their little girls' heads when they are just days, weeks, sometimes months old.

After embossing the white cardstock, I actually added some Liquid Pearls to each dot. And then I just let it dry for a few hours before adding the tulle and all the other pieces.

When I'm adding tulle or layering white on white like this, I like to avoid getting the adhesive too close to the edge so the paper looks like its floating a little. Foam dots add too much dimension, even the 1/16" ones. This way, there's just a little bit of shadow that shows the edge of the focal point and serves a little like a frame which I really love.

And of course, this too is going into the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol.

Hope you enjoy!
Holly

Congrats:Part Deux

So here I am, on this quiet Sunday afternoon, sitting on the couch with my Grady. He's heavily involved in Lego Batmat for Playstation and I'm trying to write and type while he narrates his play-by-play. Its kinda funny to see the little guy seem a little grown up-ish.

So today, here's my card from my "Congratulations" marathon card making. Paper Crafts is hosting their Gallery Idol and they are accepting cards with congratulations themes. This one is for a relative who will be getting it soon. I didn't realize how much pink I had until I tried hunting around for masculine papers. I actually had to go buy some when I figured out that I was going to need a guy card.

I'm actually going to put this on Card Patterns too.

Gotta go help the kid get through his video game!

Have a great week!

Holly

Not a Fluke!

Happy Sunday! Today was a bit of a slow day which I'm happy for since looking at the rest of June and into July, its gonna get hectic! Bryan actually printed a calendar and posted it on the fridge so we could keep track of all the events and things going on. I can see the summer slipping away already!

Today, I learned that my ability to complete a card in an afternoon wasn't a fluke.

Are you ready to hear what I achieved today? Drum roll, please...THREE! So happy with progress!

I do have a bit of motivation in that Paper Crafts is doing Gallery Idol and I'm trying to enter as many cards as I can to give myself a chance at getting into the top 20. That's the goal this year...make the first round.

So here's the first one:

I hate how dark my photos are. Bryan keeps telling me I need to set up a box to shoot with. He's right, I know but I just haven't had the time to look for one. Maybe I can take a quick trip to the local camera shop this week to get a small box to help me get better images.

When I started this, I knew that I wanted to cut a little window out of the front and stamp the sentiment on the inside.

I trimmed the yellow piece on the inside and stuck it to my card first.Then I trimmed the two pieces on the front together. After stamping the text background and frame (and distressing all the edges on the two pieces), I used a light adhesive to keep them together and then I trimmed the oval with my X-acto blade. I use them so much at work that its easier for me to use that than a pair of scissors sometimes.

Then I stamped the sentiment. I did stamp onto some scrap of the yellow background paper first to make sure the ink I chose would show up but not be too prominent. I wanted all the elements on the card to blend together. I hate it when I use an ink that's slightly off color and realized it after I've stamped it.

I'm saving the other two cards for posts next week so check back in to get a peek!

Have a great week!
Holly

Finding a Rhythm

Hope you had a great weekend! We certainly did...a trip to Mt. Rainier yesterday and then just hanging around the house today. Grady found a lady bug in the back yard and thought she'd like to "hang out inside" for a while.

Since I really started doing this at the end of January, I've noticed it usually takes me A LONG TIME to get a card finished. Its frustrating (isn't it?)! I know getting a project done quickly sometimes isn't always the goal but it seems like I should be able to finish a card in an afternoon. But, its at times where I'm lagging that I find my work self telling my hobby self to pick up the pace.

Guess what? Today I did!

I think I sat down around 2:30 and by 4:00, I had my card done. Yay for me! And here she is...

Another Cr84fn challenge (I like this color challenge blog ALOT!)

I love this paper from Making Memories - a new line called Dilly Dally. Its so fresh and cute. I got a few of the accessories too but I didn't end up using them on this project.

I used a journaling label for the sentiment. I have a bit of an addition to these little labels although I don't scrapbook so I have stacks of them waiting to be used. Thanks to Betsy Veldman (who uses journaling tags from time to time on her cards), I tried it on this card and it turned out perfectly!

I'm excited to get more details from Paper Crafts Magazine about their Gallery Idol - deets tomorrow so keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Have a great week!
Holly

A Whole Lotta Learning

I love a challenge. Really. I do.

Well, ok. Sometimes, in the middle of the challenge I don't love it so much but after its all done and finished, I'm feelin' good. At the end, there's some satisfaction in knowing you've "won" - that you've figured something out. You learn some lessons along the way. And with that, here's today's card, a CR84FN challenge card:

I love Liquid Pearls. I'm building my collection of colors. I used White Opal on this card. You can add that pearl element in any size you want so you don't have to stock up on a ton of adhesive pearls.

My other "new" favorite is tulle ribbon. I'm using it on everything right now. I just love how fluffy it feels, not to mention the fact that I don't normally run into color matching problems like I do with ribbon.

THE LEARNING

Today's card wasn't a challenge in that I couldn't find the right paper. It wasn't that I didn't know what kind of sentiment I wanted to use. It wasn't that I didn't know how I wanted to pull it together. No, no. Today's challenge was more along the lines of my stamping skill. I must have die cut and stamped the sentiment and flourish 8 times (or more?). You think it's easy until its not.

And my lessons learned:

Lesson #1
While I LOVE my Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink, I learned that my kraft paper doesn't (well, maybe it likes it too much). It kept absorbing into the paper before I could get the entire stamped image covered with embossing powder. Let's just say I refined the technique of moving swiftly!

Lesson #2
I learned that if you leave the die cut in the die, it makes stamping a bit easier. It didn't turn out perfect but it seemed to be closer to being in the right place when I stamped it this way than when I didn't.

Lesson #3
Ink is tricky sometimes. This time, I learned that chalk inks don't make good images on kraft, even the light shade of kraft I have (its actually Speckletone Papers in Oatmeal by French Paper).

Bonus Lesson: Paper Pleats
Lesson #4
Scoring is like cutting. Measure twice, score once. I messed up on the pleats and had to start over because I mis-measured. Waste of time, waste of paper.

Challenges are good. They're one of the best ways to learn your lessons. Now...onto the next one!

Have a great week!
Holly