laurieU sketch challenge #128

did this card for laurieU's challenge over on a shade of blue, see her challenge here. i knew that i wanted to make a faux layer using the masking technique and sponges, turned out great and saved me some paper!

recipe:
ink- SU Llace
paper- SU Ppink, Bblue, Wwhite, and Wwasabi
stamps- SU "she's all that"
accessories- sponges, CB die (used Llace direct to paper on embossing), wasabi ribbon, sakura glitter pen (for top of cake)

fun sketch, thanks laurie!

photo distressing

found some old pictures of my youngest after bath time, she used to just love to be naked!

i have seen lots of cool arrows lately and have been wanting to try one out, so i did! took a piece of chipboard (the kind that comes in the back of packs of papers to keep them from bending, they're like a bonus in the pack of paper!) and freehanded drew an arrow. over and over i drew the arrow until i got it to look half decent, then used craft knife to cut it out! covered it with DP, sanded the paper, attatched some ribbons, whala! is that how you spell it?!

saw the photo scratching in a magazine lately and wanted to try that for a photo-distressed look. i took a thumb tack and scratched the edges of the photos downward to the edges. i rubbed walnut ink on the scratches, then dabbed the ink off with a cotton ball. i gave you a close-up of the edge of a photo so you can see it a bit better. i really like the look it gave my photos!

ingredients:
paper- SU scrap pack, lined notebook paper, cardboard (tore it open and used the insides outward for the photo corners), brown packing paper (for title mat)
ink- jim holtz walnut distress ink, SU Cchip
stamps- SU 'baroque motifs' & 'headline alphabet'
accessories- chipboard, misc. ribbons, SU spriral (for the notebook paper) & tab (for the journaling block under the middle photo) punches, sizzix flower dies w/ my cuttlebug (sanded the edges, used dimensionals to pop up the diffrent layers), big green brad, sanding blocks (used on all DP). used misc. chalks on edges of photo mats for soft distressing.

well, today was the first day of the rest of my life. and it went well! thanks for all the well wishes! have a great day!

birthday card from a friend

i came back from hawaii to find this sitting on my craft table.
the friend that i made that bella birthday card for (the st. paddies
day card) watched our house for us while we were gone, and he
tried his hand at card making all in the name of a friends birthday.

i am super impressed with this card! he got out my stuff (including the CB, see the flower?!), used what he wanted, added elements and framed the CS. he even cleaned the stamps and put them back! he used a glitter marker on the inside.

definately A for effort! thanks rob, you're great! did i mention that while we were gone he got our hot tub in place and in working order?? that's a SUPER birthday gift! thanks rob, you're the greatest!

picnic at the park

finally got a couple of minutes to spend with some old photos and here's the outcome.

we went to a local park to have a picnic a year or so ago. we got some sandwiches from arby's for our lunch, took some bread to feed the ducks, played on the toys, went fishing, and d'Ete even found a "boy" friend!

all paper is DCWV, used CB for diecut circles. ribbon pulls on top right photo for journaling panel.

sorry i've been pretty much non-exsistant lately. well, for over a month now. i can't believe i'm busier now than during this last holiday season! hawaii in less than a month!

DD has a bday party to go to today and i have some new CB kids dies that i've been wanting to try out.

recipe:
paper- CS is SU Wwhite, DP is DCWV
ink- SU Wwasabi & Ppink
stamps- SU "happy everything" & "a little birdie told me" (for the hat) and the little starburst one is by judith
accessories- DB dino die, SU scallop punch & marvy scallop punch, paper piercer, ribbon & thread, corner rounder punch (for scalloped edges on DP), sakura glitter pen (on starbursts), and clear stickles (on hat).

thanks for your patience with my lack of posting... this is the first time i've even used my home computer in over a week! i've been checking mail and stuff at work, which makes for a long day as i have so much mail to catch up on!
so i've been working out for over 4 months now, and guess how much weight i've lost!!! are you ready for the big number??!? one pound. one (1). yep! in the last four months, i've been working out at least 4 times per week, i even went on a liquid only diet for 2 weeks (when my tooth was acting up), and that's it! one lousy pound! and i really don't want to hear all that about "muscle weighs more than fat", or "you're probably just toning". rockashawna to that one little pound!

the answer to the last trivia question, "what was the last name of the family that adopted Emmanuel Lewis' character on webster"? well, their last name was Papadopolous! that was a tough one!

and now for the new trivia... i'll make this one easy, to make up for the last one =D
what was the name of Michael Knight's car on Knight Rider? good luck & have fun!

i finally have some time, i just want to keep creating! i know that if i stop, i won't get another chance to until the end of january (i have a work meeting this coming weekend and my oldest daughters birthday is the weekend after that).

card recipe:
paper- i got one of those little $1 scrap pack from joann's, all paper is from that pack, (except the Wwhite that the image is stamped on) it's not quite big enough for the standard sized card, so i made pink sides.
ink- black stazon, Ssky
stamps- image is 'rubber stampede' and sentiment is from 'rubber soul'.
accessories- pink organza ribbon, colored w/ pastels & blender pens, sponged on Ssky ink to Wwhite panel, cuttlebug bubbles embossing folder (then sanded the embossed panel), and paper piercer.

have a super monday!

SC155 (split coast challenge)

so here's my take on the split coast stampers challenge #155 (click here to see challenge).

CB is Wwhite, all other papers are DCWV. punched large window SU punch in the black denim paper that i also ran through the cuttlebut with the heart embossing folder then sanded.

i recently visited mels blog and she reminded me that you can doodle with your glue pen then add glitter and what not. so i scribbled on my black squares with my sakura gel pen then used black embossing powder over it for some shine. used gel pen on hearts, too, then added some SU dazzling diamonds glitter (this looks so much better IRL).

card recipe:
paper- DCWV
ink- SU Bblack, jim holtz 'fire brick' distress ink
stamps- heart is from $1 bin @ michaels, 'valentines' is from rubber soul
accessories- red ribbon ($1 michaels), heart cuttlebug embossing folder & sand paper, heart eyelets, SU dazzling diamonds glitter, black embossing powder, sakura gel pen

well, it's been longer than i would have liked.... for my last day off (do you have any idea what it's like to not get two days off in a row? makes life REALLY hard! especially when you have kids!)
DH & i went snowboarding while the girls were in school. when we got home, OUCH! we haven't been since last season, and due to holidays and the flooding here, i haven't been working out as much as i should have been. how old do i sound, "my back is KILLING me!" it's a good thing that i got a new and ultra comfy craft chair for christmas! hope you all have a great week!

i'll have to remember to change the settings back to "normal" sized photos, not these HUGE ones! i changed it to make sure you could see the super cute clipboards and forgot....

well, other than being sick, trying to enjoy the holidays, and trying to sleep, this is all i've done since last you've read & i've typed. =)





first card recipe:
paper- DCWV DP, SU Wwhite CS
ink- stazon black
stamps- SU "vases in vougue"
accessories- cuttlebug swirly flower embossing folder, wire, heart punch, craft knife

second card recipe:
paper- TAC DP, SU Wwhite CS
ink- SU TWteal, jim holtz distress ink
stamps- SU "small sayings"
accessories- sizzix flower die, button, wired ribbon, sand paper, cuttlebug circle embossing folder, decorative scissors.

have a great rest of the week! i know i will, our annual company christmas party is tomorrow! i even FINALLY got myself a 'little black dress' to wear. i've always wanted one of those for my closet!

head start on valentines

decided i wanted to do something with hearts, so thought i'd get a head start on my valentines cards.

CB is black, used DCWV papers (pink w/ hearts, dark denim) and corner rounded the right sides. used cuttlebug hearts embossing folder then sanded. used cuttlebug heart template in black and pink, then layered. stamped "i love you" (from SU '06-'07 winter mini set "love matters") in versamark and embossed with snowdrift powder and pink glitter. tried to do faux stitching w/ white gel pen around the edges, i really don't like it. used wide pink organza and stitched black ribbons on the side to tie it together.

have a great weekend!

more panties!

since i got these stamps (custers last stamp), i have wanted to put the undies on a "clothesline". and here we are!

papers are DCWV, used cuttlebug swirl embossing folder, then sanded. used crop-o-dile to punch holes in CS and thread hemp twine through to 'hang' the undies with some cool purple mini clothes pins. used some purple grosgrain & light purple (would that be considered lavender?) organza under sentiment for that extra umph.

well, they opened the freeway today, maybe it won't take me 2 hours to get anywhere any more! hope all is well with you and yours, have a great weekend!

just riding along

got a new stamp! she's a cute chick on a bike! my kinda biker babe!

she's from 'great impressions', i stamped her in stazon black and colored her with my sakura gel pens. used scallop punches to punch her out and mount.

simple card, really. papers are from a small DCWV stack, used cuttlebug swirl embossing folder on top layer. added some pretty lavender organza for even more prettiness.

well, it took me almost 2 hours to get to work today (i live about 25 miles away and it usually takes about 25-30 minutes). i keep hearing these horror stories from customers, employees, and friends about how this flood has damaged not only their property, but their lives. to see some pictures of what we're going through, click here. that is a photo of the freeway (the medians were pushed out of place by the water), the heart of our small community. also, the main way to get from portland OR. to seattle, WA. with the freeway closed for 20 miles, almost everyone in the northwest is being affected by this disaster.

we're ok, meaning our family is safe and our home is un-touched. we do, however, have no wal*mart (AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!) for at least 6-9 months and have had to find alternate means of commute, resulting in HUGE time consumption.

it's very unfortunate that this happened so close to the holidays. it's difficult to want to help the ones who need it now, because it's more than just the kids, homeless, and less fortunate families, it's a whole community. please pray for my little area of the world, desperation already seems to be setting in for some.

have a great week, i hope you are all safe and dry!

scrap pages for christmas

so my mom came over today and we spent about 3.5 hours
working on some pages for a book for my little sister. she got
married this last summer and at her wedding, she had me make
a collage of photos of them together, my mom make a collage of
her growing up, and his mom make a collage of him growing up.

we decided that for christmas, we'd put all the photos into books
for them so they can actually store them, share them, and don't have three huge collages just hanging around.

we got all the pic's of them together put onto 5 two-page layouts. all papers are from DCWV stacks. each layout has a pull-out tab
(SU punch) so she can journal for the photos.

for embellishments, we used ribbons, buttons, my sizzix flower
die in my cuttlebug, silk flowers, and for the last page, snowflake
stamps w/ SU ink.

well, that's pretty much what i did today. i was suppossed to work
today, but due to floods, almost all local businesses are closed,
including mine. i'll try to take some photos of all the flood damage
(i heard our local wal*mart has 4 feet of water inside!) when i
have to go back to work tomorrow, that is, if i can get there!

hope you all have a great rest of the week !

a book just for me!

so i keep making stuff, and loving it, and giving it away. the other day was really tough, i felt like crap, internally. you know those days you think you're not worth much? well, i had one of those. they seem to come more often the older i get. then something happened. i got a compliment. from a stranger! that meant it was unbiased and most likely, actually the truth! i decided to make myself a book to document these great little moments that seem to fade so quickly from the mind so that the next time i "have a bad day", i can pick up my book and remind myself that it's not that bad.

i got this little journal book from the $1 bin at michaels. i covered the front and back with this awesome pink and brown (LOVE IT!) paper from DCWV. leaves are from some flower arrangement that i took apart. i found other pinkish papers and ran them through my CB w/ my flower sizzix die for the flowers and topped it all off with that great big pink button. i threaded it with hemp twine to try to tie in the brown. the "j" is SU chipboard that i covered in some other pink paper and got some great ribbons to go around the top of it.

know what i love even more? the fact that my little book has a lower case "j". just the way i like my j's!

have a super night!

happy birthday card

well, better late than never, right?! this is for my newest (the second and last) brother-in-law (his birthday was in mid-october. it wasn't bad enough that he's so new, none of us knew when his birthday was, but when i found out, i made and kept the card!).

this card is one of my newest favorites! <---i think i say this about 90% of the cards that i make. i can't help it, i finally have some self confidence in my hobby!

i'm really not sure quite how long this card took to make as it was one of those that i started, walked away from, came back to, left again, worked a bit on it, then had to go some where, then came back to it and finished it. kinda hard to guestimate the completion time of a project like this.

CB is WW, used SU solid CS and DCWV patterned paper (ran patterned stripe paper through cuttlebug w/ swirl dry embossing folder, then sanded). all paper is ink distressed (NQNavy). Cake is a cuttlebug die, star is from michaels, used oval scallop punches, and circle punch for corners. used lots & lots of dimensionals.

i'll mail it tomorrow... wait, i think i've said that before... man is my sister going to be upset! but then again, she is my sister. she should totally know from past experiences that it takes me FOREVER to mail cards out!

Have a great weekend!

"then came U" scrapbook page

so everyone in my house has been sick for days, and we haven't been up to much. i had two days off in a row and felt like crap for both of them. i layed around the house watching the new drew carey "price is right", rented "marie antoinette" (i don't know how to spell it), ate crackers, and worked on this page.
all papers are DCWV , except the notebook paper.
--found a new technique for age distresing paper! tear the piece that you will be working on and put (i poured a small omount into a small cup and used a paint brush to "paint" it on) a small amount of lemon juice on the edges. use heat gun on edges of paper to dry the juice, instant distressing!
the flowers are from my sizzix die used w/ my cuttlebug, added dimension to them by curling the edges with bone folder, layered w/ dimensionals, used
buttons in the centers. wanted the pregnancy pic. to take center
stage, so that's the only pic you can see without taking them out of
their little holder. on the back of all the pic's in the holder is journaling about that certain picture.

my daughter is 5 1/2 now and i am just doing her first pages. about 3 years ago now, our computer got messed up and we lost all the pictures that we had. our daughters birth, our wedding, every holiday in between for the last 3 years, we lost. my mother had some pictures that had been laying in hiding, when she found them, i got such a great gift! i can now scrap these little hidden moments!
if you store your pictures on your computer, please, please, please copy them to disk every now and then! take it from me, you'll be SOOO sorry if you don't!

take care and have a great weekend!

halloween cards

so i started out with the intention of making halloween party invitations and got side tracked! i came up with these three cards, in the order that they are liked by me. since i thought i'd be making lots of cards, i went to michaels and bought several blank note cards (for $1 and they came with envelopes) to use as the card bases.

this ones ok, without the pumpkin it would make a cute thanksgiving card. used SU CS (Ppie, Bblack, and Wwhite). used SU stamp set "trees three" from 06'-07' winter mini. all inks are SU (Cchip, Ppie, Ssaffron, Oolive, Mmoss, Rred, and Ccelery). pumpkin is a $1 michaels stamp that i stamped in stazon black and watercolored w/ Ppie ink, adhered w/ dimensional. over stamped SU "script" & "print pattern" and put "jeepers creepers" near top ($1 michaels stamp). used corner punch on top and embellished with pewter brads.




this ones a little better. used SU CS Bblack & Ppie (used cuttlebug to dry emboss swirl pattern then went over it w/ sponge & back ink). patterned paper is from a dollar store pack that i picked up. stamped house ($1 michaels) in stazon and used blender pens & pastels to color. punched out with oval scallop punches and embellished w/ gel pens & black glitter puffy paint (you can't really see it in the photo, it's on the right side of the house on the black CS). stamped "boo" ($1 michaels) in versamark and used "snowdrift" embossing powder to make it pop.



and this ones my favorite. it turned out so well! used SU CS Bblack & Ppie (used SU set "fresh fillers in black ink for background), and punched the corners out for effect. black strip down the middle is textured black CS and i used white gel pen around outter edge. used patterned paper ($1 store) w/ SU scallop punch under white square punch (rounded the corners on two, ink distressed one w/ eggplant, one with olive, and one with pie, used black gel pen to embellish outter edges). characters are $1 michaels, stamped in black stazon and cut out. black scalloped strip above and below characters is SU (used corner rounder to get the scalloped edge). "boo to you" ($1 michaels) is stamped in black and went over w/ black embossing powder, stamped on Ppie SC that's layered on black. used orange eyelets to help the purple ribbon ($1 michaels) to go under and around the card. all CS is mounted on dimensionals.

if you have learned nothing, visit your local michaels! LOL, they have some great $1 bins!

hope you all have a great rest of the week!

my take on a "chunky" card

this card has been sitting on my craft table for at least 4 days. i have moved stuff around, held different ribbon up, got out several sheets of papers, then today it just clicked.
card base is black (SU), paper is from whimsy collection (TAC). ribbon & lace are both cheap-o finds from misc. thrift stores. leaves are from fake flower bouquets that i also got at the thrift store (great find! take apart all of the flowers in the bouquet and use on your cards!). i made the flowers (also using TAC papers) with my brand new sizzix die, "flower layers #3". ---that's definately the best thing about the cuttlebug, you can use different machines dies with it! both dies & brass dry embossing templates! for more info on using the cuttlebug with non-cuttlebug stuff, click here.
ANYWHO... i used my SU corner rounder punch (take off the base) for the scalloped edges, then ink distressed the edges with black ink & a sponge.
hope you like, have a great day!

home tweet home

my aunt came up from portland this week with some gifts for me. my other aunt used to be a demo for stampin' up! (back in '88) and gave all of her stamps away when she quit. well, my aunt still has a HUGE box of stamps and decided to give them to me.
this stamp is from '85 bu SU. i stamped it in black stazon and colored it several different ways. i used water color pencils w/ water color brushes and with my SU aquapainters; used pastels w/ blender pens; used water color brush w/ ink pads. after it was colored, i tore out the image and ink distressed w/ SU Cchip and sponge.
background is from my "i have no idea where it came from" stack and i used my script embossing folder w/ my cuttlebug, then sanded and adhered to card base.
it needed something else so i used hemp twine on the side and silk flowers w/ sanded pewter brad in the center. this is not usually what i'm into, but i really like the way it turned out.
enjoy and have a super day!