Aloha!

Aloha Friends! 

Greetings from sunny Oahu!  In case you haven't been following the blog, I just moved here from Virginia with my husband.  He's in the Army and is pursuing a surgery residency at the military hospital.  We've been here for a week now, and, boy, has it been a whirlwind!  We are currently staying in a hotel, which is equally wonderful and challenging!  Fortunately, we were able to find a house within a few days of being here, but, unfortunately, it won't be available for a few weeks.  So, I'll be livin' it up in Waikiki until then!  I was able to pack a few of my essential stamping supplies in my suitcase, and my sweet mom mailed my Big Shot to the hotel, so hopefully I'll be able to create a few cards in the coming weeks.  Plus, I hear there are some great stamp stores around here, so I'm definitely going to be checking those out!  This post is going to be a little picture heavy, but I thought I'd share a little bit of what I've been up to this past week: 

Beautiful Waikiki beach with Diamond Head in the background.  The hotel is right next to the beach.

Waikiki in the evening.

We drove around the island this past weekend and stopped at some of our favorite spots. 

Matsumoto's Shaved Ice-- always crowed, but always delicious. 

Green Tea Special for me, which included green tea shaved ice, vanilla ice cream, and azuki beans!  Yum! 

Mokoli'i.  It's also called Chinaman's Hat.
Apparently you can walk to the island because the water is so shallow.
That will be for another day!

A double rainbow!  The first one we saw.

So that's a little bit of what I've been up to!  It's just beautiful here, isn't it?

And if you can bear with me a little more, I have a card to share: 

I used silver, white, and blue embossing powder to create the background of this card.  As it melted, I took a heavily inked stamp (with VersaMark) and made an impression in the hot, melted powder.  Kinda fun, actually!  The stamp is from the Interlocking Backdrops set by Lawn Fawn.  I then finished the card with some strips of card stock with banner ends to ground my sentiment (PTI).  The word is die cut from cork cardstock.  

I wanted to play along with this week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge, which is to create a project with banners or flags.  I used little banners to ground my sentiment. 

Thanks so much for visiting today and an even big thank you if you made it through this long post!

-Lizzy

Thanks

Hi! 

Today's card is my second entry for this week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge.  It's a BIG one and a fun one too!  The objective is to choose a row from the tic tac toe grid below and make a clean and simple project. 

I chose to use the middle column: kraft, bling, emboss.  Here's my card: 

This one-layer card was made using PTI's Mini Blooms stamp set.  I stamped the grouped flower images in white pigment ink and re-stamped all the elements in colored dye ink.  The sentiment is heat embossed in black.  I finished the card off with a little bling and rounded the bottom corners. 

Just as the card says... thanks so much for stopping by! 

-Lizzy

Faux Chipboard

Hi! 

Long time no see!  I've been eyeball deep in finishing course work for my last semester of grad school, so my crafty time has been a little lot limited lately :(  BUT, it's the home stretch, so that's something to be thankful for! 

Anyways, I wanted to play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: use chipboard in a clean and simple project.  

So, I seemed to have missed out on the whole chipboard trend, because I don't actually own any...  But, I made my own faux chipboard out of layered cardboard, so I think I still achieved the chipboard look.  Here's my card: 

I'm in love with PTI's Irresistibly Ikat stamp set.  It's fast becoming one of my favorites!  I stamped the pattern alternating with aqua mist ink (PTI) and soft cantaloupe ink (Hero Arts).  After I finished stamping the panel, I stamped the envelope pattern (Hero Arts) in white pigment ink over the ikat pattern.  It's a bit hard to tell from the picture above, but here's a close up: 

I thought it added a nice bit of texture to the card.  I used the Bountiful Banners die and stamp set (PTI) for my chipboard element.  The banner is pretty thick, so I think it achieved the "chipboard" look: 

Lastly, I finished the card off with a few sequins. 

That's all for me today.  Thanks so much for stopping by! 

-Lizzy 

Winter Wonderland

Hey Everyone! 

It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and think about making a card, so I was happy I had a few spare minutes to do that today :)  It's my last semester in graduate school, so it'll be a busy last push, but it'll all be worth it.... to make make more money to spend on stamps ;)  Hah! 

Anyways, today I wanted to join in the newest Lawnscaping Challenge: Winter Wonderland. 

I thought it would be fun to make a wintery scene for this card: 

I started by inking the background with a few distress inks to create a light to dark color gradient.  Next, I spritzed the background with perfect pearls spray to give the card a sparkly, snowy feel.  I then cut some snowy hills out of white paper and used my paper crimper to give the card some texture.  The critters are from Lawn Fawn (winter bunny, making frosty friends), which I colored with copics and cut out.  The sentiment is also from Lawn Fawn (let it snow).  After adhering all the pieces, I added a few finishing touches (stickles to the scarves,  liquid appliqué to the base of the tree and sentiment to look like snow, and a button with some gray lawn trimmings). 

Here are a few close ups: 

And one more to get a feel of how sparkly it is: 

The card ends up measuring 9x3, so winter bunny could have a nice, long sled ride :) 

I'm also going to link this up to this weeks CAS-ual Friday's Challenge: long and short.  The objective is to create a card that has one long side and one short side.  

Thanks for visiting today!  

-Lizzy 

Thanks

Hey Everyone! 

With the holidays over, I thought it would be fun to put away the red, green, and glitter (...like that will last long!) and create a clean and simple card.  Today I wanted to play along with this weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenge: create a clean and simple thank you card.  

Who doesn't need more thank you cards?  Here's my card: 

The stamp set (In Bloom) is from Papertrey Ink.  I think it's so pretty and I was excited to finally be able to use the matching dies thanks to the new big shot (Thanks, Mom!)-- see we're going for a "thanks" theme with this post!  I stamped the flowers with wisteria wonder ink (SU) and colored it with a purple copic marker.  The leaves are stamped in Field Greens mid-tone ink (Hero Arts) and also colored with copics.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches (Simply Said) and is stamped in early espresso ink (SU).  After die-cutting and coloring the flowers and leaves, I glued some directly on the cardstock and used different sized foam dimensionals to create different layers for added dimension.  Lastly, I rounded the top corner to help balance the card. 

Since I used my new die-cutting machine, I'm also going to enter it into this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge: New Something. 

Thanks for visiting the blog today!  Hope everyone has been more productive than these two--as you can see, Bear and Audie are hard at work!  Quality control and creativity my foot.  If they keep this up they're being demoted--to chief executive lazy bones (my husband is presently fulfilling the role).

-Lizzy :)

Quick Christmas Card

Hello! 

Today I made a quick, simple Christmas card.  Here it is: 

It took me 8 minutes and 47 seconds.  As such, I wanted to enter it in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: create a CAS holiday card in less than 10 minutes.  They've teamed up with the 10-minute craft dash for this challenge-- hence the 10 minute time limit! 

I used lily bee paper and die cut some snowflakes from PTI.  The sentiment is from the Believe stamp set from PTI.  I arranged and glued everything together, added a button and a red gem, and was done! 

I'm also entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Christmassy. 

I'm off to Christmas Eve service now.  Hope you're enjoying the evening! 

-Lizzy

Santa Card

Hi Everyone! 

Can you believe it's almost Christmas??  This year has just flown by, but, before it was over, I wanted to make another Christmas card!  I thought I would try for a clean and simple look and enter it into this weeks CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: create a clean and simple project in less than 10 minutes!  You read correctly-- 10 minutes!  They've teamed up with the 10-minute craft dash for this fun challenge! 

 Okay here's how it went: 

I had the idea for the card in my head and gathered all my supplies... and it took be 9 minutes and 32 seconds!  Whew!  Just under 10 minutes! 

I used the Believe stamp set from PTI for the santa and little dove (plus the matching dies) and Think Big Favorites #20 stamp set for the sentiment.  I die cut the santa and the dove on white card stock and colored both with copics.  I also added some white enamel accents to Santa's trim-- see: 

The sentiment is stamped in gumball green ink (SU) and I finished the card by rounding the corners at the top. 

I'm also entering it into the Paper Crafts December 2012 Gallery Challenge on Flickr. 

That's it for me today!  I'm off to make some Christmas poppers, which I'll share probably tomorrow on the blog.  Thanks for stopping by! 

-Lizzy 

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #77

Hi Everyone! 

It's been a pretty busy week, but I wanted to squeeze in a bit of time to make a card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: create a clean and simple masculine project.  

This one was tough for me!  Masculine cards are always a challenge, and to add the "clean and simple" bit made it ever harder!  

Here's what I came up with: 

It's a boy birthday card!  I created the background with distress inks and used Stampin' Up! inks for the balloons.  The balloons are from Papertrey Ink (Heart-2-Heart #2).  The birthday sentiment is from the same set and is embossed in black.  Oh, and the balloons have some lime baker's twine. 

Hope your week is going well!  Thanks for stopping by! 

-Lizzy

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Entry #2

Hi Everyone! 

I thought I'd enter another card into the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: KRAFT ON. 

Here's my card: 

This card features a kitty and moon stamp from Rosie's Roadshow and a square stamp from Stamps by Judith.  I paper-pieced the kitty and moon to add some color to the card.  The sentiment is embossed in black and the card is finished with some brown baker's twine and outlined with a black pen.  

Thanks for visiting today! 

-Lizzy