SOS Challenge #15 - Snarky

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is: Sassy, Snarky and LOL. Time to dig out those fun sentiments and images! Or pair something typically not snarky with a sassy saying, or maybe you have some funny family pictures that need a fun layout! Time to put the FUN back in crafting!

Imagine my delight when I saw this challenge in the line-up. :) My only challenge would be which snarky sentiment to use! I started with the 8/24 sketch from Splitcoast:

mostly because it afforded me the opportunity to use a bunch of SU Beau Chateau DSP remnants from last week's Stamp Camps. Here's my card:

heh heh You see, one of my SU customers once told me that putting irreverent sentiments on really pretty and froo-froo cards has a certain element of surprise to it that might be appealing. Oh, boy, was she right. One time a customer picked up a really pretty card, read the sentiment, said, "Oh." and put it back really REALLY quickly. :) So anyway, that's the tactic I took here. And except for the sentiment, this card is all SU, including that button that I found in some Holiday buttons from last year.

Since I was on a roll, and all my papers were out, and I couldn't decide which dusty sentiment to use, I made another card, too. Same layout, just different words:

I'm actually sold out of cards that use these sentiments. I can't keep up with my public's demand for snark! I'm only one person!!!!! *dramatically wipes brow*

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash and find a funny sentiment, or do something funny with a non-funny sentiment, or print a funny sentiment on your computer (I do that all the time). Then use it on a card and link up to us over at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Girl Card

I don't make a lot of baby cards - it's a pretty thin section in my offerings. But when I saw this paper:


I had to buy both the pink and blue for my baby papers stash. As you can see, I broke out the pink papers today, but NOT because I wanted to make a baby card. Nope, it was because I wanted to use our new stocking punch (available September 1st - which is OMG NEXT WEEK!) to make those cute baby socks. I got the idea in this post (not mine) but I knew instantly I'd love being able to use a holiday punch for something else. I don't generally like buying seasonal items, but if I can stretch it, I will.

I stamped the holiday stocking from the coordinating Stitched Stocking set (also available Sept 1st) in Blushing Bride onto white card stock, then punched it out. I cut the stamped stocking short, lopped off the top, then stuck it down on the top of the (now) sock. Isn't that a stinkin' cute idea?

The brown paper at the bottom of the card is the reverse of the bird paper, and I used it to give me a place to put the sentiment without it getting lost. The ribbon is from my Every Neutral Color But The One I Want box of ribbons, and since I made 3 of these cards, I probably only have 2 or so yards left. ;/

And since I made three, I'm out of the baby card-making mood, so the boy cards will have to wait.

In other news, Irene was mostly a tease in my neighborhood. No damage, at least not that I can see from my couch or craft room. There have been reported downed trees and power lines, but the worst of it was East of me. The most horrible thing that could happen would be traffic lights still out for the morning commute. Ugh.

Thanks for stopping by!

Die-Cut Tree

One of the Memory Box dies I got is a very-detailed tree, so I decided to use it today and made this card with it:

All the papers are from my Basic Grey oxford 6x6 pack. I cut the tree THREE TIMES before I got one that cut through all those leaves cleanly. My last try was with a shim, and run back and forth 2 or 3 times in both directions. I still had to hand-trim a few of them. I will not be using this die for a VSN card, as it would take me 45 minutes just to cut the tree. ;/

The clouds are cut with an A Muse Studio set of dies, and the sentiment piece is from another set of now-opened Memory Box dies. The sentiment is from an A Muse set.

All the distressing on the sky was already there. Niiice, huh? The hills were cut with the blade from my cutter kit. I outlined the edges of the curves with a brown Memento marker for a little definition.

In other news, it's still just raining, but I've shut down everything extra, like lights in the craft room and kitchen, etc. Dishes and laundry are done, and it's just me and the laptop until bed time. Hopefully I'll wake up to no surprises and I'll get to craft some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown #30 - Primary Colors

This week's Hambo challenge is to use primary colors with their pencil digi, free if you emailed them your card last week. Um, I forgot. So I used a different Hambo image and made this:


And no, these are not all primary colors ... the blue is more of a turquoise, but it is in the spirit of primary colors, and I had to BUY AN IMAGE TO MAKE THIS CARD BECAUSE I FORGOT TO EMAIL MY CARD, so I should totally get a bye on that whole color thing.

The papers are SU Big Top Birthday, and I think they'll make great birthday cards! (duh)

Please excuse me while I email my card to Hambo and then slink back into the Captain's Quarters for some more stamping.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: No storm yet. Just a bunch of boring rain.
PPS: I just emailed my card. I need a keeper.

Craft Your Passion #72 - Snark

I tend to create work for myself, and I'm very good at it. Case in point: I keep adding challenge blogs to my Google Reader, and I have more challenges I WANT to do than I'll ever have time to actually do. I need to pick & choose, and this one was a no-brainer. Why? Because Craft Your Passion is sponsored this week by Bugaboo Stamps which I love! So I made this:

HA! I love her! I bought this set a bazillion years ago and remembered "finding" it when I was rearranging stacks of stuff in the Captain's Quarters. I also have a bunch of their digital images, but I needed to ink up one of those stamp sets, so I did!

I also entered this in the VSN twine challenge. I love a two-fer!

Okay, I have more VSNing to do. Catch you later!

Clean & Simple 155 (Not)

I need to give it up. Not stamping (no no no), but the C&S sketches. WHY WHY WHY am I incapable of keeping things C & S?

Here's a perfectly good sketch from the Clean & Simple blog:


and look what I did with it:

I blame my addiction to Basic Grey papers. This card started with the sketch and a pack of sparkly bird stick-ons that I got from Impress. (Impress is evil and enabling.) I thought I'd flip the sketch and use the horizontal element as a perch, so I did. And I stamped the sentiment (A Muse) where is was supposed to be. Then things went South.

The left side of that black strip looked nekkid, so I die-cut two sets of flowers with one of my SU Sizzlits and attached them with a yellow brad. Then I realized I'd forgotten the three circle elements in the sketch, so forgetting that I'd flipped it, I added more flowers - one with a button and two with liquid pearls in the centers.

Not even close. Oh, I like it just fine, but I can't link this to their blog. Geez.

I'm off to stamp some more. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Mashup #21 - Bossy & Sketchy

Every week I check out the Friday Mashup in my Google Reader challenge blog section, and I just never get to them. But THIS WEEK! Ahhh, this weekend we anticipate a visit from Irene, so the city canceled the farmers' market and I actually have TWO WHOLE DAYS to craft. Sweet.

This morning I straightened my desk a bit from last night's VSN activities, and I set in to work on this week's Mashup challenge:

We could use the sketch (sketchy), or use dry embossing (bossy), or combine the two. I ended up just doing the sketch. Here's my card (sorry for the glare):

I still have a pile of Graphic 45 cut-outs, so I started with those. I like most of the characters, but the ones I have left are one's I'm not so sure about. I didn't see how I'd ever use those "Magic of Oz" pieces, for example. Well, you know what? Put two of them together and you have that vertical element for the sketch! And I declared the "Magic of Oz" to be my sentiment, too. I cut a scrap of black with an MFT doily die (loooove that one) and cut out one of the Oz characters for its center.

You may not be able to tell from my crack photography skillz, but the black horizontal element is a combination of a strip of card stock and some black lace (SU, retired).

Okay, I'm off to craft some more. VSN starts at noon, and I have a few more challenge cards to crank out before then.

Thanks for stopping by!

Meh

I seem to be surrounded by excitable people. You know the ones: "do you think it's going to rain should I bring an umbrella omg I don't want to get wet what should I do", or "there's an accident on the other side of town and I know you don't live over there but do you think traffic will be bad in 5 hours when you leave for home", or "you live on the East Coast there's a hurricane coming I can't believe you haven't driven to Ohio yet". Yeah, those people. To them I say:

I decided a long time ago that some things just aren't worth worrying about. I just let. it. go. I'm pretty sure "meh" doesn't mean "I don't care", but in my world that's how I use it. As in "whatever".

I saw a digitally-created "meh" card online somewhere and decided if I ever found the time, I'd make one of my own. That card was plain white with a black "meh" in the center. Well, I have so much paper, I used some on my version of the card. This is a piece of (I think) Cosmo Cricket, and I declared the flower colors to be Real Red and River Rock. Love them!

The letters are some chipboard letters from my stash that I got a few years ago in the dollar section of Target, but I was out of h's, so I had to make my own (chronicled here). WHO KNEW these three stinkin' letters would take me three days to paint?!?! I sanded the m's and e's to get the smooth surface off, but the edges were a royal PITA.

I wrapped a piece of red satin ribbon around the papers and used my last white cloth flower:

The leaves are punched from a piece of River Rock remnant with an MS punch, and there's a rhinestone in the center of the flower that attaches it to the card.

Pretty easy once I got those #($^#&$^ letters painted. ;/

We're supposed to get a little wind and rain Saturday night and into Sunday morning. I'm not too worried, though I secretly hope Irene shifts East a bit and leaves us alone. No matter what, I have plenty of stampy stuff planned, and none of it requires electricity or water, so I'm all set. I'm even planning to play some of the VSN challenges over on Splitcoast. You should come play!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock # 35 - Midas Touch

Guess what, kids? I'm the guest Belle over at this week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge! I KNOW! Squee!

The Belles are always on the look-out for new ideas for challenges, so when I thought of using a pretty piece of gold-embossed paper I have in my stash, I thought about Midas (that would be King Midas - not the muffler shop) and all things gold; I pitched the idea and they liked it, so here we are!

While the King Midas story is all about gold, you guys get a break and can use gold or silver, with white or vanilla/cream as a neutral, or mix and match if you'd like! I stuck with mostly gold for my card:

In spite of my sukky photography skillz, or maybe because of them, you can see the gleam of the gold-embossed words on this paper. It's just gorgeous. I added a piece of ruffled cream ribbon under a two-sided gold satin ribbon to give it a little contrast.

The sentiment was stamped onto a piece of vanilla, then embossed with some Stampendous sparkly gold EP. I needed it to shine more than the regular matte gold EP would since the gold in the embossed paper is so shiny.

The top of the card looked nekkid (you all know by now I have issues with white space, even when it's gold), and it needed something, so I punched a snowflake from some SU Brushed Gold paper, went over it with a Versamarker, sprinkled it with some of the same glittery gold EP and heat-embossed it.

(You can see where I missed, but that's okay!) :):)

Because I had gold on the brain, I put a gold eyelet in the center of the snowflake and tied some retired SU gold cord around it a few times, then tied it into a bow. It's stuck on with a glue dot - those things are strong!

I also used some SU Brushed Gold for the layer between the pretty paper and the vanilla card base. You can kinda see it to the left of the snowflake. Heh heh - I should have used BRIGHT, SHINY gold paper, but I think that might have been a bit much.

So there she is - my Midas card:

Now go forth, dig out some gold or silver papers, and make your own Midas card, then link up over at the Jingle Belles blog so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kimono CASE

When I get home from the Day Job, I like to spend about an hour blurfing through the blogs of some of my fellow Demos to see what they've made while I was chained to my desk. I do this mostly for ideas and inspiration, because I almost never totally CASE someone else's card.

The other day I saw this card and video on Dawn's blog and I knew I had to try it. Here's my version:

I used a piece of long-ago retired SU DSP (I have a ton of it - no surprise there) for both the kimono and the belly band:

I used one of our button Sizzlits to cut out 4 buttons from some Brushed Gold paper and glued them all together, then tied some retired gold cord around the black satin ribbon and through the button to secure the ribbon.

I added a little something extra to the inside of my card, though:

A money/gift card pocket! And it's plain vanilla, so you can write a message on it. I was just playing around with this one - I'm not crazy about those rounded corners - I think I'll leave them square next time.

Aaaaaand, it fits perfectly inside the kimono when it's closed - right up to the collar, so none of it shows:

I kinda like it. Added bonus: It fits in an A2 envelope. :)

Now go watch Dawn's video and then try this yourself. Easy-peasy. I suspect it will make an appearance at my November Stamp Camps, just in time for the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by!

WOTT & WOYWW 08/24/2011

Time to venture into the Captain's Quarters for a look at the current state of my crafty table:

Not too bad, comparatively speaking. Let's zoom in on a few choice spots, shall we?

First, please notice the HUMONGOUS (bigger than 6x6) workspace:

I'm in the middle of blackening letters for a cards I've wanted to make for quite some time now. I ran out of h's, so I had to improvise by tracing them onto chipboard, cutting them out, and stacking them to be about as thick as the m and the e. I need another layer, and I'm waiting for the paint to dry. I AM!

In the back we have this:

A piece of Graphic 45 paper left over from my Halloween card extravaganza from the other day. I'll get to it eventually.

On the left side of the table we have this:

Let's see, several adhesives at the ready ... some stamps that need to be cleaned ... my Paper Smooches sentiments I can't seem to stop using ... my Lawn Fawn letter set (and two on that clear block below the set) ... a piece of Halloween paper I used to punch out the letters for a card and, well, it's still there ...

And on the right side of the table, we have all sorts of goodness:

a bunch of chipboard letters ... some cork letters waiting in the wings ... some Beau Chateau paper remnants ... my latest batch of printed sketch challenges I won't get to ...

I think that's enough. I'm off to link to the WOTT and WOYWW blogs. When I take one for The Team, I need to share! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #14 - Red, Roses & Ribbon

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use Red, Roses and/or Ribbon. You can use one, two, or all three on your project.

I used this (now old) MFT sketch:
to make this card:

That's more of my retired Sweet & Sour DSP, for which one of the coordinating colors is Rose Red. The seam binding (ribbon) is Rose Red, too. I cut the orange roses with my MFT dies and rolled them up. I still need a lot of practice with those. The images are all from my SU Best of Everything stamp set.

Now go forth and create something with red, or roses, or rose red, or ribbon, or ... you get the idea. Then come on over and post it at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloweeny 'Speriment

I just spent way too long in the Captain's Quarters, playing with some Graphic 45 Halloween papers. Last year they were Alice in Wonderland, but very dark, if you know what I mean. The cards I made from them sold like hot-cakes. This year the papers are The Wizard of Oz (best. movie. ever.) and tonight I decided it was time to use them. Earlier today I made a challenge card with them (monkey alert!), so I started cutting them into parts to make a bunch more.

I made eight, all a little different, but basically the same idea. Here is one of them so you can see some of the detail:

This one got a red glimmery punched background for the sentiment. :) This one is also the last one I made. The other 7 use horizontal papers, and this one used the cut-off ends of those.

I tried to pair the images so they were looking at each other, or at least made sense. I don't like it when an image faces to the left, or looks off into outer space. Well, unless it's an alien, but The Wizard of Oz has no aliens. Just flying witches and flying monkeys. And a Wizard. Hmmm ...

I also 'sperimented with Picasa and made a collage of them. You may need to click on it to embiggen it so you can see them.

It's kindof a fun mix of images, though this short bout of mass-production might have killed my enthusiasm for making any more.

Now if someone could tell me HOW it got to be 9 pm on a Sunday night, I'd appreciate it. And also, where do I petition for a 3-day weekend, like ALWAYS? Something needs to be done about this, and soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Flying Monkeys!

I liked this week's CPS Card Sketches sketch:

Well, actually I like most of them, but I found time to DO this one ... Anyway, somewhere in this card is the sketch:

I wanted to use some of my Graphic 45 Halloween papers - Wizard of Oz theme this year - and I chose the Flying Monkey panel for this one. The ghost paper is the reverse side and the green checks are the revers side of another piece. I had a hair-brained idea to use my SU Pennant Punch for the three side elements instead of rectangles, and, well, the jury is still out. Maybe it's the purple that's wrong. Hmmm ...

Anyway, I blew the sketch when I decided the top was boring and nekkid. I added a strip of last year's SU black lace (yum!) and stamped EEP! with my Lawn Fawn letters onto a piece of the same patterned paper, punched them out with a 1/2" circle, and matted them on 3/4" black circles.

I dedicate this to all my peeps who are afraid of monkeys, and there are quite a few of them! Not that they'll be reading this post, though. Oh, well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Waltzingmouse Sketch # 61

My brain is still mis-firing - I don't know what's going on, but I wish it would stop. For example, I decided to do this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge, and I didn't realize they gave us two sketches - one for page layouts:


and one for cards:
So I did the page layout on a card:

When I first saw the (page) sketch, I got all excited because I thought I'd use my stack o'washi tape that I bought and have never used, mostly because I didn't buy the coordinating papers, so they go with nothing I own. HOWEVER, they do go with white. :)

I started out with that white MS doily tag, but I set it aside and stuck on a piece of each of the three washi tapes on the bottom of the card front. I decided that SU Pool Party was a close enough match for the greenish tape, so I cut that with one of my scallop circle Nestabilities for a layer under the doily.

Now I needed a Waltzingmouse stamp for this to qualify. Well you now what? I have 3 or 4 sets of WM Nestie-friendly stamps, and one of them is for the Classic Circles. I measured the inside of the MS doily tag and lo & behold - one of them fit! I was saved! Of course, I needed to add more than a silly circle, so I stamped one of the pretty shapes from the set across the green washi tape, too.

The sentiment in the circle is from a PTI set, and since it looked lonely, I stamped the same pretty shape over it with stamped-off SU Regal Rose. Eh, not my favorite, but it's better than plain old white.

The buttons are from a bottle of PTI buttons I got a few years ago.

This was fun! Thanks for stopping by!

Market Update (08/20/2011)

It was actually a pretty nice day yesterday for the market. Plus, I scored a spot under the pavilion, so I didn't need to set up a tent. That's always a relief. I get more space under the tent, but I'm quite happy so scale back down in exchange for the covered and cooler spot.

Let's dive right into those veggies! It's fun to see who has what and watch the seasons change.

First up is my usual wanna-be-dramatic shot of one side of Farmer Mike's tents:

Tents - plural. The farmers each set up multiple tents since they are outside the pavilion. Where I struggle with an 8x10 tent, Mike sets up two 10x20s in half the time. It's amazing to watch. I am humbled on a weekly basis.

Roma tomatoes:

The end of the tomatillos (or else it's too hot for them to grow):

Tomatoes:

Sweet peppers:

Okra (blech):

Cucumbers:

Summer squash:

Zucchini:

Bell peppers:

I picked mine totally based on color. I'm fickle like that.

Eggplant:

Maybe in a few more weeks I'll get some. Too hot to cook and eat hot food.

More eggplant, I think Italian varieties:

Poblanos:

Basil:

Jalapenos:

HOT HOT HOT peppers:

Sorrel:

Both this and Waterleaf (next picture) can be used for salads.

Melon Row:

I love the part where the kids come though and beg their parents to get certain vegetables. :)

Over at Farmer Margie's, more peaches:

and nectarines:

She also had beets (ugh):

and green beans:

and corn:

Farmer Katie had a whole table of different greens:

Pretty (she rocks the presentation angle, doesn't she?), but I don't eat greens. Sorry - I'm a Northern gal.

Sweet onions:

Probably the sweetest onions I've ever had. Yes, sweeter than Vidalia or Texas 1015.

Grape or cherry tomatoes (I dunno, and they were busy, so I didn't ask):

Striped tomatoes:

Corn:

And a great fruit spread:

which included plums and blackberries:

On to the flower tent, where we had Lisianthus:

(And if you think I actually know the names of these flowers, you'd be sorely mistaken. I take pics of their signage so I can tell you what they are later.)

Mixed bunches:

Gloriosa Daisies:

These orange ones are a different variety than the ones I photographed a few weeks ago. Aren't they gorgeous?! Here's some more of the other varieties:

This one looks painted:


And my flowers:


(dramatic change of focus)

CHERRY PIES!

These disappeared in a flash. They are so good!

Ready for the doggie portion of the show? (Hi, Bunny! *waves*)

This guy is huge, and I couldn't get a good shot of him in the shadows of the pavilion:

But such a gentle soul. Here he is encountering another furry friend:

Here's one of our regulars:

Another regular:

And another:

This one is gorgeous:

Lots of mixed breeds this week, and a lot of them were rescues. Such great pets!

Here is a tired one:

Every chance he got he'd lie down. My doggie water bowl was well-received this week. :)

That's it! Thanks for stopping by!