Color Challenge

[If you're looking for today's Shopping Our Stash challenge, please scroll down, or click here.]

I am in the midst of creative turmoil ... too many ideas want to get out. Just when I thought it was safe, I did some Google Reader blurfing and found five more challenges I need to do, and one of them I needed to do RIGHT NOW.

This is what set me off: the current ColourQ challenge:

Yes, I know it contains (gah) pink, and I actually rolled right past it because of that. But then I saw the pattern on the bag, and I got an idea. Then I made this:

Yes, I saw the Hero Arts/Studio Calico Lattice background, and I saw it colored. I think I used Blushing Bride instead of Pink Pirouette, but it's still in the spirit of the challenge colors. 

Then I decided I didn't like it, and I tried again:

This time I used some Distress markers for the orange and red, and Pink Pirouette for the pink. It's pretty much the same as the first one, except the embossed piece is a different shape. This was all I had the patience to color after a day at the salt mines.

Both of the cards are based on a sketch I printed on Sunday, but it has no reference on it, and I have too many blogs in my Reader to go through the challenge ones to find it. So all you sketch challenge blogs out there?  PULEEZE add a watermark or something to your sketches so when we come back to them later we remember where we saw them. kthx

Now that I look at these cards, I am no longer in like with them, and I may need to try something else. BUT, it's out of my system, and I'm moving on.

Thanks for stopping by!


*sentiment is from the SU Happy Greetings set

SOS #62 - What Was I Thinking!?

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash! This week's theme is What Was I Thinking?!?! We'd like you to use something you HAD to have, but it's sooooo not "you". Maybe the latest trendy item that everyone else is using, or maybe something you liked at the time but now you have no clue why you liked it? Yeah, that.  Use it.

In my world as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I am easily enabled to need all the new stuff, and in every color. I have an embarrassingly large collection of SU stuff that has never been opened, so my challenge today was to narrow it down to one or two items. I chose the Printed Petals stamp set (seriously? flowers? me?) and the pom-pom ribbon. Yes, pom-poms. I saw someone use them around the edge of a circle and I was sold ... bought it in every color ... twice.

Here's my card:

The pretty DSP is Comfort Cafe, and I layered it with Midnight Muse. If you'd like some background music, queue this one up. It's Midnight Blue by Louise Tucker, and I break into song (in my head) every time I use Midnight Muse ink.

The ribbon is Soft Suede polka dot, with the dots face-down. It covers a boo-boo. Speaking of which, the sentiment (Made For You) was stamped crooked so I saved it by stamping it again on a piece of Vanilla to make it look like I meant to do that. The button is also SU, from the new catalog. Pearls are also SU, colored with a brown Sharpie.

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash and find something you HAD to have because everyone else was getting it, but now you question your sanity. Use it on a card, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Too Old To Care

They say that 50 is a magic age, and it is! All bets are off once you cross that line. You can be weird, and people just shrug. Well, they may whisper, but you don't care any more. I have to say that it was magical for me. I let my irreverence show, and it's been a great ride so far.

So when I saw this sketch challenge at Fetch A Sketch:

I busted out another sheet of my SU Twitterpated papers, then went looking for a sentiment* for the central element. This is what I ended up with:

I had to flip the sketch to make it fit, but I'm good with that. I even opened and used my In Color Dahlias. That's Raspberry Ripple and Baja Breeze card stock for the layers.

Yeah, I think this is perfect for me. I may frame it. 

Thanks for stopping by!

* sentiment by Art Impressions

Note Card Set

Every once in a while I like to do something different. I've made cards like these before, but this time it was a break from my standard A2 card size. I was kinda on a roll this weekend with challenges, and I needed a little something to mix it up.

Here are the cards, then I'll explain:

It all started with the DTGD challenge to make a skinny card. Then after I made these, I realized that was a sketch challenge, so these were a bonus. :)

It all started with a piece of KaiserCraft paper from my "why haven't I put these away yet" pile. I figured out (quite by accident) I could get two layers for each of the four cards out of one piece of 12x12 paper with very little left over. I was pumped!

The bases are made from one piece of 12x12 Whisper White, cut into 6x6 squares, scored down the middle, giving four 3x6 cards.  The pieces of pretty paper are 1/4" narrower than that, then 1/4" narrower than that. Can you tell my brain is tired?

While assembling the cards, I couldn't decide which pairing I liked best, so as is my nature, I chose not to decide and made two of each. I solved the problem of stamping onto the black paper by using a strip of the remaining piece as banners. I love how these turned out.

Since I failed to read the directions for the DTGD challenge, I'm entering these in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Well-Behaved Women

I've combined two of my favorite types of challenges for this card. First, a sketch from iSpy Sketches:

and the recipe over at Catered Crop is ... WASHI TAPE! Hello!

So I made this:

I think purples are the toughest colors to photograph. That's SU's Wisteria Wonder, in case you were wondering. (haha - saw that one coming, didn't you?) I was going to be all proud of the fact that I matched a scrap of that dotted paper to the Wisteria Wonder, but then it took me eight attempts to stamp the sentiment, so ... yeah. Sigh.

ETA: Yikes! I need to go back and add a hypen to that sentiment. Tsk, tsk.

I also find that no matter how much washi tape I collect, I never have just the right one I want for a project. I really didn't want to use another dotted pattern, but all my other reds were too wide or the wrong color. How does this happen? Is this why we continue to collect things? If I'm not careful, I'll end up with a washi tape collection that rivals my boxes of Every Color Ribbon But The One I Need.

On another note, I realized this came out purple and red, so it would work for a Red Hat lady. They still have Red Hat groups, right? I don't get out much, but I think I've seen groups of red-and-purple-clad women at lunches. They always seem to have so much fun.

Ah, the sentiment is from my mystery box of unmounted sentiments. Maybe it was from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

Okay, I think I'll give it a rest now, and go do some laundry. Thanks for stopping by!

Just Playing

I finally got around to watching Kristina Werner's latest Friday Focus video, and I needed to get inky and play. 

Mine aren't even close to the level of hers in the quality or technique columns, but I wanted to play with different color combinations and see what happened.

I made three. For this first one, I schmeared Squeezed Lemonade in the center of my craft mat, and Scattered Straw around it:

I spritzed it with water and picked up the ink on some SU water color paper, dried it, and picked up some more ink, dried it some more, then went around the edge with Ripe Persimmon and a blending tool.

For my second combination, I used Bundled Sage in the center, surrounded by Evergreen Bough:

I distressed the edges with Peacock Feathers.

Then I went back in and used Broken China in the center, surrounded by Peacock Feathers:

and I distressed the edges with Evergreen Bough.

For all of them, I can tell you you need to dry them bone-dry. I did not, no matter how hard I tried. I also kept forgetting to apply the powder before I stamped the images* in Versamark, and the silver EP stuck everywhere. Ugh.

But you get the idea. I think this is pretty cool. I definitely need more practice with this technique, but it's promising! I need to work on a tie-dyed version. Yeah, right. Hey, it could happen. :)

Thanks for stopping by!


*Stamps from the MFT Masculine Graphic Tee and Stamp Set.

DTGD - Skinny Sketch

Another DTGD challenge at Splitcoast is to make a skinny card using this sketch:

I flipped it 90 degrees (who said you don't need High School Geometry?):

and made this:

I took the liberty of leaving off the one element since my sentiment was on the oval. Oh, and that's yet another irreverent sentiment that has now seen ink. Go, me.

All of the papers here were from The Heaplet, except for the card base. That was from a pack of Core'dinations Beach papers that I may have two of (two packs), and I keep forgetting I have it since it was put away. That's probably also why I have two of them. I did such a poor job of planning this card that the balance of that piece is in The Heaplet, all cut into weird sizes.

ACK! Five more challenges were posted today. I'd best get busy!

Thanks for stopping by!

DTGD - Making A Scene

Another DTGD challenge at Splitcoast is to make a scene. I kinda cheated and went into my CASE file for this one. Then I realized several other people had posted similar cards in that challenge's gallery already, but I'm okay with that! Here's my card, then I'll explain:

I've had that Memory Box die for ages and just now opened it. I've seen several people use just parts of the die, and some used a different color for the house. I went one better and used a different color for the house and the trees. Yes, I die-cut it three times and glued them all on to the lighter-green base.

I had a piece of the sky-ish marble paper left in The Heaplet, and now it's on this card. I'm going to miss it when it's all gone. :(

A few obligatory birds, an irreverent sentiment that was new and has now seen ink, and a wood veneer arrow, for emphasis.

There's more challenges on the horizon, and I hope to get to a few of them between loads of laundry. Oh, look, it's 11:45 am. Perhaps I should shower and start my day.

Thanks for stopping by!

DTGD White on White

I think we've already established I have an aversion to white space, so I find it funny that this white-on-white card came together so easily for me.

I'm playing along with the Dare To Get Dirty challenges at Splitcoast. If you are a Fan Club member, this is the chance to play along with the Dirty Dozen Designers. Everyone can view the galleries and comment on the projects, but only Fan Club members can upload to them.

The first five challenges were posted today, and out of the gate I decided to do Lydia's (aka: understandblue) challenge, which is Whiter Shade of Pale: make an all white card.

I started with this sketch from Retro Sketches:

and I made this:

I grabbed a remnant of embossed white-on-white card stock from Bazzill to use as the longer vertical piece. The rest ... just happened. I went for bonus points by using a white sentiment, too. :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: No, Lydia, not Annie Lennox. Procol Harum. Duh.

Toothy Birthday

I get some of my inspiration from the strangest places. Case in point: Did you know a beaver's teeth are orange? Yes, they are! How do I know this? Twitter told me. Twitter makes you smart.

So I pulled out my Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies set and this sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

and I made this:

I might be in love with this sketch ... not gonna lie. I suspect you'll see it again.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies and Sentiment Sampler. Basic Grey What's Up 6x6 paper. Copics. SU Bermuda Bay grosgrain ribbon. Buttons from Mike's.

Let The Good Times Roll

I have an embarrassingly large collection of uninked Paper Smooches stamps, so I've decided to work on using those for a while. Also, it's the end of July, so I thought maybe I should do the July Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) while there's still a day or so left in the month:

I did a literal interpretation and made this:

 Papers from the Basic Grey PB&J 6x6 pack. Stamps from Paper Smooches Perpetual Bliss. In my former life I had a reproduction juke box that held my 45s. Now I just have a pile of 45s and a turntable. Anyway, when the juke box is powered on, the lights in the sides light up and it's magical. To try and capture some of that, I covered the lights here with glossy accents:

It's very shiny!

I have my next Paper Smooches set out and waiting for me, so I'll be back soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

As A Card Morphs

Most of you stampers know about this morphing phenomenon, where you start out to make one thing and something completely different comes out. I thought since this card took me a week to make, and rose from the ashes of several failed projects, it might be fun to show you the process. Caution: no one knows how my mind works, and it's probably best we leave it that way.

Let us begin. First, the finished card, so you'll know where we're going:

It all started when I watched this video by Claudine Hellmuth, wherein she shows us how to use her paints to color an embossed image on sticky-back canvas. I thought I could do this. I was wrong. But along the way, all sorts of things came out.

I began by rescuing a long-neglected package of SU canvas tags. I know, I know, they aren't sticky-back canvas, but I thought I'd try them anyway. And since they were just collecting dust, I had nothing to lose, right? I stamped the Hero Arts Antique Brocade image in Versamark onto the canvas pieces and heat-embossed them with clear EP. I then put some paint onto my craft mat and used pieces of cut & dry foam to gently apply the paint to the embossed image. Blech. Look:

I was too heavy-handed. I think these will end up as background pieces, or maybe pretty trash.

I then moved on to the good stuff: sticky-back canvas. I embossed the same image over it, but this time, instead of using paint I went to my trusty pearlized sprays I made a while back with my Distress reinkers and Perfect Pearls. I spritzed the piece of embossed canvas and this is what came out:

It's purty and shimmery. It sat on my desk all week.

Today I was determined to use it and get it off my desk. I looked to my right and saw an old sketch from Deconstructed Sketches. I print these out and stack them on the side of my desk, and they are easy to grab when I need a piece of scrap paper to use for applying embossing powder or to smooth over a background stamp. This one got used a lot:

I finally looked at it as a sketch (ahem) and decided to use it. Here's the actual sketch:

 and I turned it sideways:

And the trimming began. I cut the sticky-back canvas piece into a tag shape, and decided it needed to be dressed up. I started to harvest things off my desk and the finished tag ended up like this:

I added a piece of lace to the bottom, but it was pretty wide, so I cut off the top edge of it. I added a piece of the failed painted canvas from above, because I could. Then I wrapped some pink (gah, I know) twine around it in an attempt to make it look artsy-fartsy. I then took the trimmed-off piece of lace and threaded it through a hole in the top of the tag. That rolled flower came later.

I next decided to use a mystery piece of Bermuda Bay card stock and cut it into strips for the sketch:

These started out at 3/4" wide, and there were three of them. At one point I embossed a background stamp onto the strips, then opted for plain card stock instead. They finally ended up at 1/2", or maybe 3/8", and I was running out of pieces, so one became 1/8". I hope it looks like I meant to do that.

It was about this time that I felt I needed a round element, and that's when the rolled flower came to be. I really like it, too! :)

Last: a sentiment. I decided this was too shimmery and froo-froo for a snarky sentiment, though sometimes that's the best time to use one. :) Instead, I went to my almost-never-used MFT Pearls of Wisdom set and selected this one:

I'm not much into sappy sentiments, but this one is passable, and I think it works with the rest of the card.

Once again, the finished product:

Thanks for sticking around through that tome. It just took me so... long ... to make this that I felt the burning need to share.

I'm going back in for more. Let's hope it takes me less than a week to make the next one. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS 201

I've been deeply mired in the craft room, making a ton of pretty trash, so when I saw the current Clean & Simple challenge:

I dropped everything (into the trash) and gave it a whirl. This is what came out:

 I had this idea to use some of my growing collection of Thickers for the sentiment, but it wasn't working for me. I used a piece of DSP from the SU Twitterpated pack, because it's mostly white and wouldn't give me conniptions about white space.  In the end, this one got a heart with a sentiment over the top.

I also tried it without the poppy layer, but I couldn't get past all the white, so it got layered.

This next one is a little closer to my original plan:

It's the reverse side of the first paper, and I decided those blue-green letters would work on it. I tried them on top of a white heart, but that failed me, so they got attached to the paper, sans heart. Again, it needed something, so I layered it with a piece of my precious Tim Holtz Kraft core paper.

It's still CAS, at least in my world, so I called them done. I also think I need new bulbs in my lamps. This came out really dark. Sorry about that.

I'm going back in to tackle a few more challenges. Thanks for stopping by!

Emboss Resist in Blue

I've been neglecting my Stampin' Up! stamps lately. In fact, my "you can't put it away until you've used it" rule has left a stack of stamps at my feet, and I get to look at them every day. It was only a matter of time before I got a clue, and last night I made this:

It's kindof difficult to tell, but those flowers are embossed. I stamped them in Versamark and embossed them with clear EP. I think they'd pop more if I'd used white EP.

I colored them with Midnight Muse, Island Indigo and Pool Party markers. It's important to note that when you go to wipe off the embossed part, you need to do it towards the center of the flower instead of towards the outside. Here's why:

 Yeah, that's not pretty.  Oh, and when I put my camera down, I saw this photo op (vertigo warning!):

I'm easily amused.

Now I can put both of those stamp sets away and move on to other crafty goodness. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp sets used: Betsy's Blossoms, Sweet Essentials

Welcome Little One

I've managed to keep up with my Google Reader backlog lately, and I recently added a few more challenges to the list, just to keep things fresh. My latest addition is {PIN}spirational Challenges, largely because of this week's photo:

Just look at all those ideas! The DT had some fabulous samples up, so this one has been stewing in my grey matter today. I actually started it last night, but the first two attempts are just so much pretty trash now. Here's my third and final attempt:

I obviously have no filter, and I tried to get them all on one card. What inspired me: chevron, floral bedspread, pillow pattern, and elephant. See? No filter. I also declared it to be Peach, and not (gah) PINK.

Pillow: A square design die from Savvystamps. It's actually a rectangle that I cut away at over the first two attempts, and this is pretty much all that's left of it.
Floral bedspread: As luck would have it, I did have washi tape with a pink and yellow floral pattern!
Chevron carpet/floor: Stamp from Clear & Simple Background Basics I.
Elephant: Stamp and sentiments from Verve To the Moon set.

I think this card just spawned another idea. I need to go play. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

You're Still The One

Several years ago I bought the Feeling Groovy stamp set from Verve because all the sentiments are lines from some of my favorite songs. This one is an oldie but goodie from Orleans. Go ahead and queue it up in the background, then come on back and see what it spawned ...

I combined two challenges ... this sketch from iSpy Sketches:

 and this color challenge from colourQ:

And this came out:

Yeah, it looks out of focus, because there is so much shadow. Here is a closer shot of a few of the butterflies that might be a little easier on the eyes:

I colored all those pearls with a Sharpie. I did.

Alright, now, everyone sing along: You're still the one that makes me laugh ... still the one that's my better half ... we're still havin' fun, and you're still the one! You're welcome for the ear worm. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS #61 - Something New

It's time for a new Shopping Our Stash challenge! This week we ask you to use something you HAD to have, but haven't opened yet. I know we are an easily enabled bunch, and I have a ton of stuff I needed to own and it's all in a pile waiting for some love. In my case, I find I need things that are used in some of the online classes I take. In theory, you should see these classes as examples, and be able to use what you already have to mimic the lessons, but noooooo, I am weak.

One of the items I was enabled to need during April's OnlineCardClass A Cut Above was a set of Tim Holtz Embossing Diffusers. Say what? In case you haven't heard of them, I'll show you in a sec, but first, my card:

See that unembossed section in the center? Yeah, they let you do that. This is what one of them looks like:

This is one of the three that come in the package. They are made of thick plastic, and each has two parts. You use them with an embossing folder to partially emboss a piece of card stock. They are the thickness of one of the clear cutting plates, so you effectively use this instead of one of the cutting plates in your sandwich.

Here is my stack just before I ran it through the Big Shot:

The card stock is inside the embossing folder, and I've secured the outside piece of the diffuser to the folder so it doesn't shift. I need all the help I can get keeping things not crooked. ;/

After I ran that through, this is what the card stock looked like:

Then I ran it through again using the tan embossing mats and the center oval piece so it popped out the unembossed oval. In the end, it looked like this:

Cool, huh? Then I went into stash mode and used an already printed Hambo image from my UFO pile. I cut it out with a Nestabilities Petite Oval, colored it, then used some ancient yellow eyelets to secure it to the raised oval:

The sentiment is from one of my Paper Smooches sets. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, and I suspect you'll see me use these diffusers more now that they're open. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Now it's YOUR turn. Go into your I NEED THIS AND I NEED IT NOW stash, pull out something you haven't opened yet, open it and USE it. Then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!