A super quick card

I just HAD to make a card! It felt like forever! And this weekend has been a looong haze of pain and medication. I have an appointment tomorrow with a new hand specialist, so I am hoping that FINALLY someone will be able to help me!

I checked out Beate’s weekend sketch on Friday and didnt think I’d get to it this weekend. But I made myself get up today and do it between doses of percocet. She seems to have a thing for circles……I do not. And I would have LOVED to use my new nesties, but I dont have circles, only rectangles and ovals. Sooo, I pulled out my coluzzle.

This is a quick card, with little involved so my wrist and hand wouldnt hate me. It’s a 5.5 squared card and it’s all pretty straight forward.

I really thought I would like this set more than I do. It’s cute and all, but I dont reach for it very often. Oh well!

I ordered my new SU! spring and summer catty’s today….wooooooo hooooo! I cant WAIT for a new catty! I am so DONE with Christmas and I cant wait to see that HUGE section replaced with new stuff! Not to mention new hostess sets!

And Im impatiently tapping my fingers for my free set to ship! I have no idea what it looks like and the waiting is killing me! I want to at least see what I’m working with!

Oh, and thanks to Lauren Im placing an order with the UK site for Elzybells. I feel a lot better spending $$$ on sizes that I actually like. One’s that you can color! I cant wait to get them, they are sooo cute!

Anyway, Im here…..resting….still. I have to be up and around tomorrow for my Dr. appt so hopefully I’ll get to an SCS challenge! Hope your Monday is great!

Fabulous white flower

Last night the girls had a slumber party at my Mom’s house which gave Sean and I some much needed time together. We spent most of Saturday running errands, then came home to eat and play ‘Guitar Hero 3″. That game is so much fun and totally addictive. I got in a little more play time today when Sean took the girls to see their Great Grandma. If you have an Xbox then I really suggest getting it, it has great tunes from the 60’s through today. Good times!

After I played guitar hero today, I decided to head downstairs and get working on my Thanksgiving cards. I had already decided NOT to send out 40 but keep them to our nearest and dearest and those who would appreciate it the most. I tend to want to send cards to everybody, but I know this isnt necessary. Not everybody cares about getting a card for every Holiday, and I shouldnt feel obligated to do it either. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  I made this card for our closest relatives and friends. It went by fairly quickly and Im very happy to have that checked off my long, long list of “to do’s”!

And now for Beate’s weekend sketch! I really wasnt sure where this card was going, just that I wanted something simple and using my white embossing powder. After watercoloring all those Thanksgiving cards, I didnt want to color anymore! So here’s what I came up with:

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of mellow moss CS cut and folded to standard size, I stamped the cherry blossom-ish flower in mellow moss ink randomly.
2. Next I cut a piece of close to cocoa CS at 4x 3.5
3. Then I cut a piece of rose red DSP to 3 3/4 x 3 1/4 and stamped the large flower in versamark ink. Then embossed it with white embossing powder and adhered that to the cocoa base.
4. Next I put 3 rhinestone brads in the center of the flower and the adhered the layers to the card with dimensionals.
5. With rose red ink, I stamped the sentiment onto shimmery white CS and cut around it. Then used the ticket corner punch.
6. This was then mounted onto mellow moss and then close to cocoa, both just cut around to make layers and adhered with a dimensional on one side and adhesive on the other to offset the raised layer.
7. Finally I adhered some antique pewter hodgepodge hardware to the bottom of the sentiment.

SIMPLE, QUICK and pretty EASY! That DSP gives a lot of detail without any stamping. And I really like the white embossed flower on top of it.

Im finally catching up on my sleep and soon Im getting ready to make a vietnamese sandwich with dipping broth. It’s a cross between a vietnamese sandwhich and french dip. I got 2 new cookbooks this past week and this one is from “Veganomicon”, so you guessed it…..it’s vegan. Im excited to try it. I LOVE dipping sandwiches, and so does SEAN! If it’s super good I’ll post the recipe and maybe if you are feeling adventurous you’ll give it a shot!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Fabulous flowers-SU
CS: mellow moss, rose red DSP, shimmery white, close to cocoa-SU
Ink: mellow moss, versamark-SU
Accessories: white EP, dimensionals, rhinestone brads, pewter hodgepodge, ticket corner punch

A slice of cake

It’s Friday and time for another Weekend Sketch from Beate! My mom finally came home from Alaska on business late last night and took a very eager Ava to her house to play this afternoon. My mom left on Sunday and we had to explain that she needed to sleep 5 times before Grandma would be home. Of course she would say “Im tired, I need to sleep” hoping that it would speed up time. So at long last they were reunited! :)  And with Audrey napping I got to play!

Can I just say how much I LOVE this set???? I think you might be able to tell, I’ve been using it a lot lately! Who could have thought that cake would be so much fun or so versatile!? I made a fantastic (If I say so myself) pattern on this card with the scrolling sentiment box. LOVE IT!!!

This is a ‘Z’ fold card and Beate has a tutorial on her blog, so I wont get into the details of cutting. But I’ll share the decoration!

1. I used pretty in pink as the card base and on the left side flap I stamped a pattern with the scrolling sentiment box in pretty in pink ink.
2. Then I cut a piece of papertrey’s white CS to 2.5 x 3 and stamped the cake layers in creamy caramel. Then I inked up the icing with rose red and chocolate chip and stamped accordingly.
3. For the flowers on the cake I stamped in white craft ink then covered it in clear EP and heat set it. The leaves are in almost artichoke.
4. The centers of the flowers on the cake have small pink swarovski crystal set in them with glue dots.
5. On the top right and bottom left I stamped the small flowers again in pretty in pink ink, and leaves in almost artichoke. I dotted the middle of the flowers with pink liquid pearls.
6. And then I stamped the “Wish” in chocolate chip ink on the bottom right corner and mounted it on a piece of chocolate chip CS cut to 2 3/4 x 3 1/4 and set it aside to dry.
7. Using the large flower I stamped a wavy pattern on the right side of the card with pretty in pink ink.
8. I then used my paper piercing tool to make holes and feed rhinestone brads in the center.
9. Next I used my photo corners punch to punch out two sets in chocolate chip and pretty in pink CS and layered them. Then I stamped the small flowers in pretty in pink ink onto the pink layer. I adhered this to the bottom right of the card.
10. Finally I adhered the layered cake image to the card with some snail adhesive.

I just really love this set, it makes things so, so pretty! And hopefully if I have energy after hitting the eliptical machine tonight I can put together my project idea using this set! Lets just say it involves a special little tool that I finally used and realized how awesome it is! (No, not the ever popular nestabilities…..Im waiting for those to be in stock at PTI)

The DEETS:

Stamps: Piece of cake-papertrey
CS- pretty in pink, chocolate chip-SU white- papertrey
Ink: creamy caramel, pretty in pink, always artichoke-SU
Accessories: Paper piercing tool, rhinestone brads, liquid pearls, swarovski crystals, SU markers in rose red and chocolate chip, photo corners punch.

Hello Allison, its been a few days!

A little love

Yesterday I posted some pictures of my resin project and today I can finally show you what I’ve been up to! Hooray!!! I know you’ve all been so excited.

First let me tell you quickly about my date night last night. We went to Michaels and got my supplies as well as a super cool paper ornament kit from K&Co. While we were there Sean said to me, “This is a SWEET date!”. He was kidding of course. Then we had some dinner and went to the MAC counter at Nordstrom, again a sweet date for him. But finally we ended up seeing “30 days of night”. It was the most intense vampire movie I’ve ever seen. I havent read the novel it was based on so I cant compare but it was a great scary movie. It was definately worth the cost of the tickets.

Ok, so my frame. I realized as I was making this that it looked like Beate’s weekend sketch, so I’m throwing it in there too. I originally made it for the celebrate MFT day on MFT’s forum on SCS. This also happens to work for the wood challenge from a few days ago, so it’s a triple threat! LOL!!!

General instructions and details:

1. I started by getting a $1 frame from Michaels, paint and ribbon. I simply took some paper scraps of pale plum and perfect plum to match the acryllic paint. The paint I matched to the ribbon I found since they didnt have a huge selection of satin chocolate ribbon.
2. I painted the frame in the pale plum color and the picture mat (it came with a piece of glass which is set aside for soldering into jewlery) was painted the chocolate brown.
3. Once the pale plum color was dry I sponged the large open flower stamp with the perfect plum paint and stamped it onto the bottom 2 corners.
4. I used a rub-on transfer for the word “Love” as the sentiments from the set were just too small for the large frame.
5. I adhered 2 of my resin gems that I made yesterday to the centers of the flowers.
6. Then I stamped the small heart in stazon brown at the end of the word ‘Love’.
7. I stamped the open large heart in perfect plum classic ink onto pale plum CS and cut around it.
8. To adhere the ribbon I used red sticky tape and wrapped a small piece around the outside of the frame, then wrapped a second piece around the chocolate mat.
9. Then I adhered the cut out heart to the mat with more red tape.
10. Finally I made a bow and adhered it to the left hand side of the frame and held it in place with glue dots.

If you were to make this without the resin it would be a pretty quick project, about 90 minutes since the paint dried so quickly. And if you would like to learn more about resin I have a complete tutorial on it with a permanent link on my sidebar. You can also click HERE if you want.

Hi Allison!

Next I’ll show you the fun gift set and necklace I made!

Paper cake

It’s Friday and time for another weekend sketch challenge from Beate! And wouldnt you know I was able to make one on Friday!

I decided to use my new Papertrey set, “Piece of cake”. It was so fast, simple and pretty! I love this set and I know it’s images I’ll use for years to come.

I used lime stickles on the flower centers to bring some green into that plum cake. And I was pleased with the DP matching the daisies on the cake and the flowers I used for the background. Good job, I said to myself!

Oh, and a quick resin update! The clear has hardened so I’m really happy and positive that I’ll be able to have those two projects made tomorrow! I had to mention it, sometimes my resin wont set and then it’s sad. And I was especially worried today with all the rain and cold weather, but my lamp trick is working!

Happy creating and I’ll see you tomorrow with my finished resin projects!

Whimsy wasabi

Since all the supplies were laying about, I thought I would make another card. Just a little different.

The DEETS:

Stamps: Garden Whimsy-SU
Ink: purely pom, wild wasabi, regal rose-SU
CS: wild wasabi, purely pom, cutie pie DP, white-SU
Accessories: tag corner punch, ticket corner punch, paper piercer, magenta stickles, dimensionals, sherbet ribbon

Beate’s garden

Today is Friday, so that means it’s time for Beate’s weekend sketch! Her layout this week was fairly simple, but it also left the door wide open for fun! I decided to use two  of my favorite sets, “Garden Whimsy” and the fabulous ‘Tres Chic’. And a color I tend to shy away from, wild wasabi. I also made the card a 4 1/4 squared size which is something I dont normally do and I think it worked really well for the layout.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of wild wasabi CS cut and folded to 4 1/4 squared, I used the corner rounder punch on the top and bottom right side.
2. Next I cut regal rose CS to 4×4 and stamped it with the Tres Chic stamp in purely pom ink. Then I punched the corners with the ticket corner punch and sponged the edges with purely pom ink.
3. I adhered the rose CS to the card then added 4 silver brads in the corners.
4. Then I cut a piece of wild wasabi CS to 3 1/4 squared and used the cutter kit to distress the edges.
5. Next I cut white cardstock to 3×3 and stamped two tulips in wild wasabi and purely pom. Then I stamped the large ladybug in regal rose. I also stamped a seperate butterfly in regal rose, cut out the body and head (not antennae) and used a dimensional to adhere it to the CS.
6.  Then I used my ticket corner punch again on the corners.
7.  I colored in the white CS with my copic marker that matches soft sky, BG10 Cool Shadow .
8. Finally I adhered the white to the wasabi and then used dimensionals to adhere the layers to the card.

I hope everyone has something fun planned for the weekend. I get to go to the gym, again! And then I need to hop over to the beauty supply store as Im dangerously low on product and then hopefully to Michaels to get some ink’s and storage for all my clear stamps I have rattling around!

Howdy Allison!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Tres chic, garden whimsey-SU
CS: wild wasabi, regal rose, white-SU
Ink: wild wasabi, purely pom-SU
Accessories: corner rounder punch, ticket corner punch, silver brads, copic marker, sponge, cutter kit.

Finally! A Beate weekend sketch!!!

It’s been several weeks since I got to play with one of Beate’s weekend sketches! I hurt my back, then we painted and now I finally had some time to play.

My new set from Flourishes, ’sweet treats’ came on Saturday and I couldnt wait to ink it up! It has 30 stamps to create the most wonderful tower of treats! It reminds me of afternoon tea with all the pastries, cakes and sandwiches. It also took my SU inks really well, mostly working on the first stamp.

I stamped some of the images twice and popped them on dimensionals, and the fluffy white yummies are merengues!

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of chocolate chip CS cut and folded to standard size.
2. Next I used a piece of DP from eclectic paperie, “winnies walls” and cut out half a circle with my round coluzzle. Then I cut out the next largest circle in purely pom CS and layered the two together, then adhered it to the card.
3. I then stamped the tower in stazon black onto white CS and cut out around it and used the ticket corner punch on the four corners.
4. Next I stamped bon-bons, cupcakes, and treats onto the tiers. Then I also stamped them again onto a piece of scrap white. I colored the images in with my SU markers and then used dimensionals to adhere them ontop of some of the yummies.
5. I added some frosting swirls with my white signo gel pen ontop of the chocolate bon-bons and one of the cupcakes for vanilla frosting.
6. For the cherry and strawberries I used real red and always artichoke markers and inked the stamp directly then stamped again onto a scrap piece of white CS, then cut them out and adhered them with dimensionals.
7. Then I added some Christmas red stickles to the cherry and some crystal stickles to the pink frosting on one of the cupcakes.
8. Next I adhered this to purely pom CS and then I trimmed around it to layer the image, and added magenta stickles to the four corners. This was adhered to the card base using dimensionals.
9. Using pink grosgrain ribbon I made a small bow and adhered it to the top of the tower of treats.
10. For the medallion I used the tab corner punch with the “winnies walls” papers, then I punched a 1 3/8 circle of purely pom ink and adhered it to the tab. Then I stamped the sentiment in purely pom ink and cut it out with the oval coluzzle.
11. Finally I sponged purely pom ink around the oval, then chocolate chip ink and adhered it to the layers, then finally adhered that to the bottom right corner.

I’m really trying to resist making Audrey’s 2 year birthday into an afternoon tea party and sending out invitations using this set. I know realistically it’s more work then I should make for myself, but I LOVE this set! It’s just so much fun making all those yummy treats!

Please enter my giveaway for my free “Love you to pieces” set if you havent already, there are a few days left before I draw a winner!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Sweet treats-Flourishes
Ink: stazon black, purely pom, chocolate chip-SU
CS: chocolate chip, purely pom, white, -SU “winnies walls” DP
Accessories: dimensionals, Christmas red and crystal stickles, pink grosgrain ribbon, SU markers, white signo gel pen, ticket corner punch, tab corner punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, round and oval coluzzle.

Hi Allison!

Fall sketch

First let me say that I am in LOVE with shimmery white CS! I have not bought it before, I never understood why I would want it or need it. But after watercoloring on it as compared to plain white CS……..there is no turning back! This stuff is FABULOUS! And, it’s much cheaper than copic markers, so I dont think I’ll be buying those after all!

It’s Friday, which means another Beate weekend sketch, and now that I see this card, I see that I totally mucked it up. I did NOT follow the sketch………..bummer. Wow, I completely missed a layer between the bottom and my main image. Hmmm, must have been the whining dog upstairs and the toddler itching to stamp butterflies at my side! I’ll just have to make another one this weekend.

And on another note, let me say this about my card. As much as I love the shimmery white CS…….I hate the way the card looks! I had such a hard time figuring out that bottom layer, and when I decided to use DP then it added to the problems because I couldnt find the one I liked! So, I guess it works out that I need to redo this card.

If you would like to know how I made it……..

1. Starting with a piece of chocolate chip CS cut and folded to standard size. I stamped the diamond pattern from ‘All in a row’ around the edges in chocolate chip ink.
2. Then I cut a piece of ‘fall flowers’ DP to 4 1/4 x 2 1/2 and adhered it to the page.
3. For the main image I stamped it onto shimmery white CS with stazon brown ink. Then I used my aquapainter and classic inks from the earth elements family to color it in. I added a bit of soft sky around each image because the ammount of white was a bit stark.
4. I then cut around the image to size, layed it onto a piece of pumpkin pie CS and cut that to size and distressed the edges.
5. Then I layered that onto a piece of soft sky CS, cut it to size and distressed that.
6. Next I took a piece of pumpkin grosgrain ribbon and chocolate taffeta ribbon and cut them the same length, layered it then wrapped it around and knotted it on the front.
7. Finally I placed the main layered image onto the card with dimensionals.

The DEETS:

Stamps: Thoroughly thankful, all in a row-SU
CS: chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, soft sky, shimmery white, fall flowers DSP-SU
Ink: stazon brown, and nearly every color of EE classic ink and soft sky ink-SU
Accessories: distresser tool, aquapainter, pumpkin grosgrain ribbon, chocolate taffeta ribbon, dimensionals.

A quick card

Yesterday I had my xray and they found nothing wrong, which is good. But at the same time, there’s still no explaining why my back is hurting. So I went to get some accupuncture done and that single time has made the biggest difference! The Dr. was able to get rid of ALL of the pain between my shoulders, and greatly reduced the pain in my middle back. I have another appointment for accupuncture on Tuesday after my training session, and the accupuncturist is actually located at my gym. Which, I dont have to tell you how convenient that is.

Anyway, so today I wanted to make a card. I was inbetween doses of meds and wanted to hop downstairs a bit. I have 3 swaps that Im in. One is a demo only swap for Christmas cards, another is a glitter swap and the 3rd I just signed up for today is a swap with the new Papertrey Christmas sets! So much fun! But I havent made any yet. Although, since Papertrey JUST released last night I cant really make any until they come.

So here is an idea that I may use for one of the other two cards, I like the layout but I’m not crazy how the glitter turned out. And there is a weird little spot in the middle of my snowman that Im not fond of. There is also some clear EP on the poinsettia image, although it doesnt show up in the picture, it’s a nice touch IRL. I decided to use Beate’s weekend sketch as my starting point.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of old olive CS cut and folded to standard size. I used my corner rounder on all 4 corners, then sponged in old olive ink and then again in chocolate chip ink. I then stamped the snowflake from ‘perfect presentation’ in old olive all over the front and set it aside.
2. Next I cut a piece of chocoalte chip CS to 3.5 x 3 and used the open argyle from ‘all in a row’ around the corners in chocolate chip ink.
3. Then I cut a piece of real red CS at 3 x 2.5 and sponged the edges in real red ink. Then I used my distresser tool around the edges.
4. After that I cut a piece of old olive CS at 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 and used my ticket punch on the edges. Then I sponged in old olive ink and then again in chocolate chip ink.
5. Using the snowman stamp and versamark ink pad I stamped it onto the old olive. Then I used heat and stick powder and red SU glitter. I adhered this to the red CS, punched with my 1/16 handheld punch and added pewter brads. Then used dimensionals and adhered it to the chocolate chip CS.
6. Taking my 5/8 inch red grosgrain ribbon, I wrapped it around the bottom of the card and adhered it in place with some snail.
7. Then I stamped the poinsettia image in real red ink onto white CS and cut it out with my 1 1/4 circle punch. While the ink was still wet I poured some heat and stick onto the image, then heated it and put some clear EP onto it and set it again.
8. I then punched out a 1 3/8 inch circle and adhered the two together.
9. Next I used my scallop punch with chocolate chip CS and then used my paper piercer on each scallop. I then added some sponging around the edge with chocolate chip ink. And then adhered the layered image to the scallop.
10. Finally I adhered the layered scallop to the cardfront with dimensionals and the layered snowman to the cardfront with snail.

And there it is! My medication will be kicking in any minute and then I’ll be out! I hope to make another card tomorrow and then be in full crafty action by Monday! I hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend.

The DEETS:

Stamps: Perfect presentation, all in a row-SU
CS: Old olive, real red, chocolate chip, white-SU
Ink: old olive, real red, chocoalte chip, versamark-SU
Accessories: sponges, dimensionals, pewter brads, heat and stick powder, clear ep, red glitter, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 circle punches, 1/16th handheld punch and scallop circle punch-SU