SOS #119 - Oldest Flower

Hello, and happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This week we ask you to use your oldest flower embellishments (Primas, Wild Orchids, Petaloo, Hero Arts, etc.). Alternatively, you can use your oldest floral stamp.

I have quite a collection of paper and real/dried flowers. Oh, and also a ton of felt and embroidered flowers. And I don't even like flowers. This is truly a strange hobby, where we collect things we don't even like, but I digress.

Instead of those things, I opted to use one of my oldest floral stamps. It's the Pick A Petal set from Stampin' Up!, and I NEEDED it when it first came out. NEEEEEDED it. I blew off the dust and used it to make this:

I stamped the polka dot petal with Memento Luxe Morocco ink and mostly got them lined up, even. I used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the line-y stamp and stamped it over each orange petal. I figured What The Heck, I've got it out, so use more than one petal, right? When I was done I stamped the flower center (THREE STAMPS FROM ONE SET OMG) in Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black. Great coverage! Then I cut it out and put dimensional adhesive under it for later.

There's that whole white space issue I have, so I embossed the white layer with a Cuttlebug folder before I stuck down the flower. I added some MME washi tape so you could see the sentiment, put it all on a white base, and done. Oh, you can see I'm still oogy with square corners; I used my 1/8" corner rounder again on everything, including the sentiment panel.

Hmmm, next time I might put the washi tape on before I emboss the panel. That could be fun!

Now it's your turn! Go dig into your flower stash and make something, then come back to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: My Mind's Eye washi tape, SU Pick A Petal stamp set (it's for sale. you know you want it now.), and the following:

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Quicky Thanks

I actually sold some stamps last week (thank you!), and being a stamper, I felt compelled to include a quick Thank You card in the boxes. The other night I used some remnants and made two of these:

I just cut a 1/2 sheet of card stock into two strips and then proceeded to not score them in half. I missed. Lookie:

See that score line under the twine? Yeah, that's a boo-boo. In another SYFY trick, I just scored another line where it was supposed to be, then added the twine between the two to make it look like I meant to do that. I notched the edges of the card to keep the twine from slipping off.

All I added to the white card stock was a piece of remnant paper and my standard stamped Thanks, this time in Navy ink to match the navy twine that was still out on my desk. :)

Easy, peasy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Washi Thanks

I needed a few quick Thank You cards to include with some packages of stuff I've sold (please buy my stuff), so for the first time in over a week* I entered The Captain's Quarters and made two of these in about 5 minutes:

It's tiny, as in 2.75" wide, so I embiggened the photo here so you can see it. I took a 1/2 sheet of Core'dinations card stock and cut it down the center, then scored and folded it. I had three die-cut remnants from making this card, so I used two of them. I just stamped the sentiment onto it, grabbed a roll of not-yet-used washi tape, slapped some on, and popped the sentiment over it with dimensional adhesive. CRAZY easy to make.

Okay, now I've got the itch, so I'm going back in for more.

Thanks for stopping by!

* The cards for this week's posts were made last week and scheduled. There, I've said it. 

Thank You

I just had one of those moments when you get up to do something, then four things later you still haven't done what you set out to do. I need a keeper.

Oh, and I stamped! When I send out packages I always include a card, and these needed Thank You cards, so I made three of these:

I was cleaning up my desk and found this feather stamp from Impress that I bought a long time ago and never got to work the way I wanted it to. I don't even know why it was out, quite honestly, but in my world that's how things get attention, so it worked. I stamped it in black onto a white panel, then colored it with some markers. There was so much white left over, I needed to fill it in, so I stuck on a few pieces of washi tape.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Flower Friend set.

I like things that come together quickly like these did. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: Need SU ink? I've listed my inks on my For Sale page.

Catching Up

I'm just about finished going through the card fronts I made last weekend and attaching them to card bases. You may have seen some of them before, but now they are finished cards and more in focus.

As is my nature, while trying to dress up one card I managed to almost destroy another one. Thank goodness I am the Queen of the Save.

For example, this card:

I was so proud that I'd used not only a piece of textured gold card stock for the die-cut heart, but I remembered I had some gold washi tape sheet and I used it for the border. While on retreat, one of my fellow retreaters was shocked - SHOCKED - I did not love Stickles and all things glitter. She was ready to shun me. So while looking at this card today I decided to give Stickles a try and, well, let's just say I scraped it off. Ugh. So I needed a save. I made some spray with water and gold Perfect Pearls, laid out my non-stick craft mat, and spritzed it. I hated it. It is now so much pretty trash.

Along the way, though, I managed to get some of the spray on this card front:

Sigh. I was NOT starting over, so I carefully cut around the top of the image, then made a sky by spraying some blue Gelato spray onto some white card stock, and this came out:

I think it passes. :) The top half of the image is popped up on dimensional adhesive so it looks like I meant to do that.

I also mounted these two guys onto bases:

I have that stamp out again and know exactly which sentiment I'll use next. :D

And for my last trick, I made a normal card:

My pal Mary Dawn was stamping next to me, and had a few Herringbone cut-offs I needed to use. The button image is from Technique Tuesday, and it's several layers thick. We were playing with some of the Hero Arts colors, so this is Soft Pool and Soft Cantaloupe. The background was embossed with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder that I now covet.

Now that all of that is out of the way, I can get back to some challenges. Oh, wait, it's 8 pm on Sunday night! WAAAAAAAAH! Sigh, maybe tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: Again, I have a cat draped over my arm, so I'll get to the supplies list later. If you have any specific questions, just ask in the comments. Thanks!

PPS: I need to reclaim some space! I'm selling most of my SU inks and re-inkers. I don't have a list up yet, but I have almost all the colors. If you are interested, please send me an email.

Something Old, Something New

No no no, this is not a wedding card. Nope. It's another Christmas card for the current Jingle Belles challenge to use something new. Well, I opened and used a new item, but since I've been going through my stamps and purging (see my For Sale page - LOTS of stamps) I've re-discovered some really old stamps, so I used one of them with my new stuff.

Here's my card, then I'll explain:

This was like the perfect crafty storm. I saw this challenge at Inspired By:

LOVE the stripes and, of course, the blue + red + yellow. Then I rummaged in my OMG I STILL HAVEN'T USED THIS pile and pulled out my unopened My Mind's Eye Christmas washi tape, then my card just happened (here it is again):

The yellow washi is from Trendy Tape. The MME washi pack had a black roll with it, but I opted to use my Dymo labels as the black. The layered paper is SU Bermuda Bay, and it matches the blue tape here much better than it does in real life. Yes, dear readers, this could be the first time in history my inability to work my camera has actually made the card look better. I'll take it.

I've added some Distress Stickles to some of the larger snow flakes, and my Stardust glitter pen on the smaller ones, and also on the snowman's arms and the tops of his layers.

And last, but not least, I opened my Heidi Swapp Neon pens I bought forever ago and have never used, and used the orange one on his nose.

Wow, I'm 2 for 2 so far this year on Christmas cards. Let's see if I can keep it up. :)

ETA: I'm also linking to this week's Snowman challenge at Shop Pumpkin Spice. (Hi, June! *waves*)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: When I put together the products lists, I'm constantly amazed at how much s-crap we use on one card. No wonder this hobby is a money pit.

Products used:
Penny Black - Frosty (SSS)
Queen & Co Trendy Tape - yellow (SSS)
My Mind's Eye All Is Bright washi tape pack
Nestabilities small classic and scalloped ovals
Heidi Swapp Neon pens (SSS)
Copic B0000 (for the shadows)
Sakura Stardust glitter pen (SSS|EH)
Distress Stickles - Rock Candy (SSS|EH)
Corner Chomper 1/4" & 1/2" (SSS | EH)
Neenah Solar White card stock 25 sheets (SSS | EH) ream (SSS | EH)
Memento black ink (SSS | EH)
Teflon bone folder (SSS | EH)
Dymo labeler

Playing

I cleaned. Well, no, that's a lie, although I did clean the bottom half of the window over the cabinets in The Captain's Quarters so Bobra has a better view of the birds, but other than that, I mostly moved stuff around. I've been listing a bunch of stamps for sale on my For Sale page, and I found some more on the floor (leave me alone) and went ahead and listed them, too. In the process of cleaning looking through that pile of stamps, I found some I'd forgotten about (about which I'd forgotten), so instead of working on some of the challenges I printed off, I used those stamps and some already cut-into papers so I could use them up, and then I could put the stamps away. That counts, right??!

Longest. Sentence. Ever.

This is what I made:

I had cut into that piece of 29th Street Market paper, and in my new "if it isn't a rectangle, don't keep it" mode of Scrap Management, I cut the remainder of the piece into four 4x5.25 pieces.The back of that paper is a dark, dark grey, so I used some quarter-sheet remnants of SU Basic Gray as layers.

I chose a roll of blue washi tape that's pretty close to the blue in the paper, then I pulled out my trusty color wheel to find a color to coordinate with the blue. That orangey peach is what I ended up using.

Now, about that cat. The stamp set and coordinating dies are from Clear & Simple Stamps. I first cut the shapes out of Vanilla, then stamped the cat and colored one with a Copic. DUMB. How about if you want it tan, you stamp it onto tan card stock? Duh. I like these a lot better.

I made three of those and one of the owl:

This guy was stamped on Vanilla and colored with Copics. The tree branch was cut from a scrap of textured brown I found on my desk.

For both of these, I used black Stazon to stamp the sentiments onto the washi tape. I love the smell of black Stazon. I even had to re-ink the pad. :)

Okay, NOW I'm going to tackle a few challenge. I'll be back soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used:
Clear & Simple Stamps - Little Critters
Clear & Simple dies - Little Critters
Memento black ink (SSS | EH)
Washi tape - peach is from Freckled Fawn, not sure about the blue
Copics: E25, YR20, Y11, YR02, E31, RV14
Copic Multiliner pen .03 (SSS|EH)
Memento brown marker (SSS|EH) This is a set, but I got mine singly.
SU Basic Grey card stock
SU Naturals White card stock
Misc speckled Kraft card stock

That Sucks

When I first saw this Paper Smooches set, I knew I needed it, if only for the vacuum cleaner and That Sucks sentiment. I know, I know, it breaks my 50% rule*, but I did it anyway. Finally, last night, I finished this:

I love this sentiment. I do. This all started with that washi tape. I had a pack of 3 rolls still unopened, and that needed to be corrected. I decided to do that pattern where the tapes are applied at an angle in two different directions, much like this pattern I first fell in love with from the old OWH blog. Of course I'm using washi tape instead of paper, but still ...

Here is one of the OWH pics so you can see the design of the uncovered base:

My first challenge was how to get it straight. Paper is one thing - you'd just line 'em up in a paper trimmer to get a straight edge, but I was using raw washi tape. Here is what I did to get it even:

I put a piece of card stock on a diagonal across my card stock and applied the washi tape. Then I ever-so-lightly trimmed along-side the card stock with my craft knife:

and I magically had a straight line:

Then I just used that line as my guide for placing the tapes in the other direction.

One thing I learned as I was playing with the tape is the striped tape is not black. Nope, it's brown. Not that this revelation changed my life or anything, but I felt I needed to share.

Here she is again since I've been blathering so:

I decided it was all too much and needed to cover it up, so I used my new Lil' Inker Designs Instant Camera Die to cut out some white card stock to break up all that tape. After I stamped and colored the images on the inner piece of the die, I edged it with some SU Barely Banana ink and a sponge dauber to give it some contrast and make it look like a picture. And because I have miles of the stuff, I added a brown twine bow.

Speaking of which, I'm selling 20-yard lengths of my new 7 colors of twine in my Etsy shop, in case you don't want 400 yards of each color like I got. I really do need a keeper.

In other shameless commerce news, I've updated my For Sale page with some Spellbinders dies and some SU Hostess sets I'm selling.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's raining and it's perfect sleeping weather. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

* 50% rule: When buying a stamp set, you must like at least 50% of the images or you can't buy it.  This has saved me tons of money over the years, and I've almost never regretted it, but every once in a while I cave.

Products used and not linked below: Lil' Inker Designs Instant Camera Die, Marianne Designs washi tape, SU Barely Banana ink.

InLinkz.com

March VSN, Part Second (and Last)

Wow, what a rush! I had such a blast playing the VSN challenges this weekend. Thanks to all who joined the fun!

I thought I'd show you a few more cards I made for the various challenges. The first Saturday challenge was to make a girly birthday card. Girly? Me? Sigh. So I did what I usually do in this situation and went into my stash of Webster's Pages papers and chose some that did all the work for me. I mean, when you have a 45-minute time limit, you look for all the help you can get!  I couldn't decide, so I made two:

They are the same except for the paper. I had a few feet of lace from the fabric store, and I wove some SAB ribbon through it. The sentiment was stamped on a separate piece of Webster's Pages paper and cut out. TWO cards in under 45 minutes. Whoot!

The next challenge was a SPRING Mnemonic challenge, which was to use something for each of the letters in the word SPRING. Here is my card:

and here is my list:

S = Sketch (MFTWSC56 from Jan 25th)
P = Poppy card stock
R = Ribbon
I = Ink
N = Nestabilities circle (I cut the poppy DSP with it)
G = Glitter pen (it's in all the red circles on the flower DSP)

This one really makes you use some creativity. You may recall I've made a card just like this but without the ribbon or glitter. I needed an R and G, so I changed it up a bit. It's totally okay to CASE yourself.

Next was a challenge to make a card with a critter that hops. Well, my brain mis-fired and I took the word 'hops' and made this:

Get it? Hops? Beer? Yeah, I even apologized to the hostess for twisting her words.

The next challenge I did asked us to use rolled flowers on our cards, so I made this:

That was some minty green ribbon I have that I declared a perfect match for the Brilliance ink I used for the circle under the rolled flower. I scrunched some more of it on the card to balance out that twisted sentiment. :)

And last, but not least, I made this card for my OWN challenge, which was to use something curly and 3D:

This paper is from a Memory Box pack (minuet, I believe) and again, it did all the work for me. I made that button (yes, I did), and then twisted some of the 12 miles of craft wire I have through the holes, then wound them around a toothpick to curl them. Lookie:

Someone will surely lose an eye.

Will I go back in for more? I might! Then again, I might cook dinner first, then decide if I'm carded out for the weekend. But YOU should DEFINITELY play. You have until 10 pm Monday to upload your cards. Actually, you have forever to upload them, but the official deadline for VSN is Monday at 10 pm.

In other news, I had The Ladies over to buy my 12x12 papers, and although they did a FINE job, I still have too much left. Therefore, I'm selling it in bulk. I've filled Medium Flat Rate boxes with paper. Each one holds at least 200 sheets and I'm selling them for $30 + shipping, which is $11.95 for that size box.  I've added a tab at the top of my blog called "Buy My S-crap! Please check it out and let me know if you're interested. Thanks!

And thanks for stopping by!

Lego Birthday

Some time back I saw a card* with Lego's made from card stock, and I filed it away in my brain to try one day. Today was that day. Okay, this past week was that day, as I made them over the course of the week. I only put them on a card today.

Here's the card I made:

 I went with traditional primary Lego colors and made those from card stock remnants. Each rectangle is 1" x 1 3/4", and there are five of them in each stack. The circles are stacks of three 1/4" circles punches. Here's one up close and personal:

I went with remnants of paper from the SU Big Top Birthday for the background, a piece of old old old SU Royal grosgrain ribbon, and a banner and sentiment from Lawn Fawn. I think it's kindof a fun kid card. Look for it soon in my Etsy shop. :)

I think I'll go back and play some more. Thanks for stopping by!

*I've since lost track of the post that inspired me, and all my searching efforts have come up with a bazillion "lego" links but nothing resembling a hand-crafted greeting card. If you find one, please let me know so I can link to it. Thanks!