Love Shack

OK, I'll admit that I totally had "The Love Shack" lyrics { . . . is a little old place where we can get together . . . } going through my head the entire time I was making this card! Who else remembers the B-52s? Raise your hand!


I know it's a little racy, which is not my usual style. The person I had in mind for this card the minute I dreamed it up is not who you might expect: it's for my aunt!! Well, and my uncle, too. You see, my aunt (who is now 80) has always said she thinks I should write a book. Of course, I have written a book--actually many, but all of them are math text solutions manuals and study guides and the like, so those don't really "count" as far as she is concerned. She always wants to know, "Emily, when are you going to write me a steamy, juicy romance novel?" I truly don't think that is in the cards for me, but I thought I'd have some fun and send my aunt and uncle their own little love shack, complete with two tickets "for a fun time." They will hoot and holler over this for days! I'll write a little note inside, something like "Have a Happy Valentine's Day, you lovebirds!" One day brightened? Check!

Some notes about making this card:

• Stamps: I used Hero Arts Snowy House (CG212) and Hero Arts Sparkle Clear: Tickets (CL171). The "love shack" text was stamped from a Studio G alphabet set.
• Colors: these were inspired by the January 2012 Hero Arts Color Challenge, which was to use the color palette below
• The house is watercolor painted using dye inks. (I stamped the image in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and heat embossed it with clear EP before painting.)
• The dusk sky was created with a brayer and Meg's fantastic Poor Man's Spectrum Ink Pad technique.
• That fabulous crocheted mat was part of a RAK from my sweet friend Jessi. Is that fabulous, or what? She is one multi-talented gal, for sure, with a heart of gold. Thanks, Jessi! It totally makes this card!
• The background paper is a random page that I ripped from a circa 1960 Webster's Dictionary and sponged with pink ink around the edges. Here's a tip: scan any randomly ripped-out pages for appropriateness before gluing down on your project! My page prominently featured the definition of "maidenhead." There is such a thing as too racy for a card! I simply flipped the page over where one can find much more innocuous definitions for things like "Main Street" and "make." Disaster averted!
• And, yes, the smoke coming out of the chimney is a pulled-apart cotton ball.

Because I used my favorite colors for Valentine cards--pink and brown (with some purple and red thrown in for fun!)--along with kraft, I'm entering this in the Make It Monday with Kraft Outlet challenge to use your favorite colors.

I had such fun making this card. Thanks for dropping by to read about it! I hope your weekend is swell. :)

Emily

Pine Boughs at Night

The first noontime release-week challenge over at Flourishes is called Night & Day, and the challenge is to show a time of day in your creation. It gets dark so early around here at this time of year, so I was inspired to try to capture the look of snow-dusted pine boughs at dusk.
I used Meg's fabulous Poor Man's Spectrum Pad technique with a brayer to create my dusk sky, then stamped the pine branches from Flourishes' All That Glitters set in black to create a silhouette. I glittered up the boughs with some glitter glue and did some scoring on a panel of Marina Mist to give my scene a subtle background. The sentiment, from the Flourishes set Country Charm Labels, is stamped on a panel of vellum.

It's a simple card, but hopefully elegant--that's what I was going for, at least! It will do nicely as a post-Christmas thank-you card.

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

Spooktacular Halloween

Happy TGIF, everybody!! I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on my kids' school schedule and the time I have in my day for doing my freelance work, so I took a little time this morning to treat myself to a little slice of bliss. Here's what I've been up to!!
I played along with today's Free for All Challenge, F4A30, over on Splitcoast. The challenge is to use a punny saying on your card. No problem!! As a DT member for Mark's Finest Papers, I'm amassing quite a collection of MFP sets, many of which include a variety of punny sayings. It seems to be one of MFP's hallmarks!! I wanted to add to my stash of Halloween cards to send to far-flung family next month, so I went with the MFP set Broom Rides which includes the punny saying "It's SPOOKtacular!"

Next, I went looking for an awesome sketch to use for this card and found a great one in Repeat Impressions' What If? Wednesday Sketch challenge S810. Then I thought I'd see if I could play along with Jazzy Paper Designs Inspirational Challenge #13, which was to be inspired by an album cover on the Verve Music website. I found the perfect inspiration piece in John Fogerty's Revival album cover: Perfect idea for a Halloween card, doncha think? I set to work with my brayer and some pumpkin pie and so saffron ink to reproduce that awesome sky on the album cover. Didn't get it quite right, but I'm still quite happy with my results. Finished up my scene with some silhouette-y Halloween elements.

Finally, I made sure that my card included something that tweets or flutters for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge 130, to include a bird or butterfly somewhere on your card. I've got my spooktacular owl to cover that base. ;)

So that's the story of my card creation and bit of fun for today!! Next, it's time to get down to work on today's allotment of my freelance project. I'm looking forward to my "book group" tonight--our first meeting since the end of the last school year in June. Gotta use those quotes because we never do any reading or anything--our "book group" is just an excuse for a bunch of girlfriends to get together on a monthly basis and socialize. If we didn't make our appointments for "book group," we'd never find the time to get together!! Sometimes we just get together at someone's home to chat; other times we might craft, see a movie, go out for dinner, or whatever fun someone cooks up. And we always have a visit to a local day spa in March. Fun! It's going to be great catching up with everyone tonight. :)

Well, have a fabulous weekend. Thanks so much for checking in today!!

Recipe:
Stamps: MFP Broom Rides
Paper: SU basic black CS, SU pumpkin pie CS, HP glossy photo paper, Pink Paislee 365 Degrees DP
Ink: SU pumpkin pie, SU so saffron, Marvy Le Plume II black marker
Accessories: EK BOO border punch, MS postage stamp punch, black satin ribbon from Mark's Finest Papers, foam tape
Techniques: brayered sky