Friday, March 30, 2012

You Did It!

I've had graduations on my mind, since my son will be graduating from his Doctor of Chiropractic program on Mother's Day, after 4 years of grad school.  I thought I would try out my new graduation stamps from my Unity Kit of the Month.  I embossed the hats in gold to give the effect of a gold tassle, and mounted them with pop dots.  I am entering this card in the Unity KOM Sketch challenge, following this sketch-

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Pink with Black and WOYWW

I love the combination of pink and black, and thought that this stamp with the sentiment designed right in would be pretty with pink flowers on a black card background.  This was a quickie to make, and I was thinking I could stamp other sentiments on plain cardstock and put different words over "adore" to get more use out of it.  I am entering this in the CAS-ual Friday challenge, using a pastel and black, the CPS # 258 sketch, and also the Flower Challenge at Lily Pad Cards.


Here's my workspace, looks like a big mess, I didn't get a chance to tidy up, and didn't want to miss being part of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, so you are seeing it in a very disorganized state.  That is my makeshift photo set up (a cardboard box and 2 sheets of colored paper) that I use to take pictures of my cards for my blog. Just finished taking a photo of the card at the beginning of the post.   Luckily I have great light coming in the window, so I don't have to use my Ott light that often.  To see some other fun desks, stop over at Julia's Stamping Ground.

Thanks for stopping by.  I so appreciate your comments!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Pennant Party

Quick post today, off to a friends birthday party, where I heard there might be dancing!
Just received my kit of the month from Unity, and wanted to play with the banner stamp.  I stamped on the light blue first because it looked like the sky to me, then on some different patterned paper.  I cut those individual pennants and added them to the card base, and finished it off with some ribbon and buttons.  Cute!  This goes along with the Shabby Tea Room Challenge #106, Pennant Party using light blue, dark pink, green and white.
Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Love is the Thread and WOYWW #146


You had a peek at this card on my table last week, and I finished it off today.  It has a sweet sentiment from Unity Stamps, and to stay with the sewing theme, I loaded it with buttons.  I'm entering this in several challenges, which I have listed at the end of the post.  I also made another version with a spool instead of the hearts.

I finished off a bunch of cards in the last few days, I feel very satisifed when I have a big pile of completely done cards in front of me. 
Those manila folders on the right are mini sized ones, about half the size of regular folders, and in my never ending quest to try to get more organized, I am using them to store stamped images that need to be colored in, mounted on cards, etc.  I bought a whole box of folders for $1.00 at my favorite bargain store.  We'll see how that works!
Stop by Julia's Stamping Ground to see more creative spaces, because it is Wednesday, and we're showing them off.

Challenges
Paper Players #87 CAS with buttons

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Just Saying Hi

This new stamp set, called Newspaper Tulips,  came a few weeks ago from Hero Arts, and I finally had time to work with it last night.  After seeing all the beautiful tulips at the bulb show last weekend, I had lots of color inspiration to work with.  I decided to make a general "hello" card to post today, but I also used this stamp to make some birthday and sympathy cards.  I colored the tulips with markers, and then stamped them, distressed the edges with my Distress Inks, and embossed some lines around the edge of the pink matt using my score board.  I made the pink matt  paper by spraying the light pink paper with Smooch Spritz Spray.  The patterned paper is from My Minds Eye, and I love the 2 shades of green.  The ribbon and button are from Stampin Up.

I am entering this in the Shabby Tea Room #105 Spring is Near challenge with this inspiration photo.  The requirement was to use 3 of the colors in this photo and a technique called dry embossing.


and also Crazy for Challenges C4C128 with was a really easy one with week,  make something and include the color green!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you will leave a comment, I love hearing from you.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A Peek at Spring and WOYWW #145



This week I've been working with some of the photos I have taken over the past week.  Tom and I took a trip to the Smith College Spring Bulb Show in Northampton over the weekend, and we both brought our cameras.  It was so uplifting to see all those blooms!  This year's theme was inspired by Dutch scenery, and when we first entered we saw a sea of shades of blue and purple tulips and hyacinths surrounding a windmill covered with fabric that had blue and white Delft scenes.  The fragrance of the bulbs was so wonderful, I felt like I was back in my garden again.



There were many varieties of tulips and daffodils, including these burgundy beauties,


and these unusual ones with very jagged edges.


Everywhere we looked, there was something new to see.

I was able to get a shot of myself in a silver gazing ball just for fun.  It was a great day.
So it's Wednesday and you may be wondering what is on my workdesk.  Besides the remnants of unfinished cards, you can see some new Prima flowers, and a new card design I'm working on that has a spool of thread on it.  Of course my Twinking H2O's are near by, along with some May Arts ribbon that I am going to design a project with.

When Tucker stopped by earlier, he tried to take a drink out of my watercolor water jar.  He was not in the mood for posing, though, so he is a bit blurry.

Have a great week, and if you want to see more creative workspaces, stop by Julia Stamping Ground


Monday, March 12, 2012

I Miss Seeing You

I enjoyed playing around with these fun stamps from Unity.  I love the retro look of the glasses, and wanted to combine them with the sentiment.  After stamping them directly on the patterned paper, I decided they were a little plain and needed some more interest, so I decided to stamp them again on  colored cardstock that I had sprayed with Smooch Spritz Spray.  I just cut out the lenses and glued them on the card front, so now I have a pair of "rose colored glasses".   The patterned paper already had lace printed on the cardstock, it was part of a jounaling tag page, and I thought that was just enough embellishment for this card.

I am playing along with CASE Study #81, and this is their inspiration photo from their website. On my card above, I decided to stay with the black and white color scheme, which is really different for me.  That's what is so great about these challenges,  they get me to try new styles/color combos/sketches, and approach cardmaking in a new way.


Thanks for stopping by, and I love to read your comments.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Thank You


This pretty card with the pear image over the French script was made with  a Stampin Up set.  It could be used for many different occasions, but I thought it was nice as a Thank You card.  I painted the image with my Twinkling H2O's and blended the colors as I added them to give a mottled effect..  I finished by spritzing some Smooch spritz in it to give extra dimension.


I am entering it in the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: A is for Apricot, because it goes with the fruit theme, and the colors of the pear  is similar to that of the apricot.  Those apricots look so delicious!

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Bird Tag




I was so happy to be invited to contribute to the tag making blog called Tag Tuesday.  I had made a few tags over the last few weeks to go along with their themes, and a few days ago the blog owner asked me if I would like to join them as one of their regular blog contributors.  The theme this week is "Birds", and if you have been following  me for a while, you know that I love bird related stamps, and use them frequently on my cards.  Here's a detail of the one I made for this week.


You can read more about how I made it here at Tag Tuesday.  I hope you'll stop in there and check out all the creative tags.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Happy Baby


I haven't made any baby cards in a while, and came across this cute stamp from an old Stampin Up set and got inspired to make a few.  I colored the baby in with my markers, and found some bright patterned paper with some bold polka dots that fit a baby theme perfectly.

The CAS-ual Friday challenge CFC42 is to make a baby project, so here it is!

Thanks for stopping by!

Layouts and Hands

WOYWW# 144
This week my desk has a pile of unfinished scrapbook layouts.  I went to a scrapbooking crop a few weekends ago at a local scrapbook store, and I got quite a few layouts almost finished.  I usually save the journaling until the end when I go to a crop, because I like to print the jounaling on the computer later at home.  This pile just needs some finishing touches.  At the top of the pile is a page I made that includes photos of my son and his girlfriend running their first marathon in Burlington, Vermont.  It was quite an accomplishment for them, and I found some great paper that has numbers scattered all over it.  I am going to add some directional arrows and journaling to finish it off.

The other project for me this week was to take photos of "hands" for my photo assignment class.  It was amazing to see what the other members of my class shot photos of.   They ranged from posed hands making hand shadows and petting dogs to hands on statues and clocks.  I wanted to take shots of working hands, and had a great opportunity at the school where I work.  Some of the students in the third grade are taking violin and cello lessons in an afterschool program, and I got permission to take pictures during their lesson.  The stringed instruments had such beautiful colors and curves, and the students hands were in very graceful poses as they played together.  This was my favorite photo, hope you enjoy it. 


If you'd like to see more creative desks, check out Julia's Stamping Ground.  It's a fun place to visit every Wednesday.