Feeling chatty...

...today, so be forewarned. ;)

Sharing my very first ATC - I had fun making it, using THIS Hero Arts adorable digital file, THIS HA sentiment stamp, and some delicate little HA pearls.

I combined all three Hero Arts challenges in this ATC - flowers, ATC's and colored pencils. The flowers come from the little flowers I punched out with an old, long forgotten dollar store punch, and then centered with Hero Arts pearls. The ATC part, well, that's kinda obvious. ;) And the colored pencils I used were watercolor, so after I colored them in, I went over with a tiny, tiny brush with a tiny bit of water. Makes the color pop and makes my lazy coloring look way better. ;)

My little sister noticed me making this, and asked why I was making 'a mini card?' So I explained ATC's to her, and she asked if she could make one too.
Here's her first one...

And she LOVED making it, which surprised me! I'd already tried to interest her in cardmaking several times, but she just never got really into it. She loves mini things though, which is why I'm guessing she had so much fun with these ATC's. :) She made yet another, but the pic isn't ready yet, so I'll save that for another time.
Meanwhile, a peek of our backyard. I take my card pics on the deck in the back, and against the wall there are these flower bushes. Well, it was getting pretty loud around there with insects and butterflies, so I walked on over to take a couple pics.

The butterflies wouldn't let me get close, but those bees didn't mind at all!

I also wanted to share some of my latest shopping pick-ups;

Emma's Shoppe - been wanting this one FOR-ever! Made a card today with it - I think this collection is my fave from Crate (trumping Restoration) as it fits my cardmaking style perfectly. I'm not girly at all when it comes to anything else, but with papercrafting, I just can't resist adding as many pretties together as I can. :)

 

Portrait - this wedding/anniversary collection is perfect timing, as there are two weddings coming up that are very close to me. My brother in June, and then, three weeks later, my sister in July. As I'm also one of the bridesmaids for my sister, and she'll be moving down to Texas with her soon-to-be-husband after the wedding, I want to make an extra EXTRA special card for her. So though this collection isn't the wedding colors for her wedding, it will still help inspire me.

You may not know this about me, but I looooove chocolate milk (as in, really love it!), and my love of cows follows this. So as soon as I saw the sneak peek for the set a week or so back, I knew exactly what the image was and that I was getting it asap!

Cute farm animals? Like. Adorable cow? Love.

I've gotten a lot of new product the past week, so I'm not finished showing you all my new treasures. But I'll spare you from having to go through all that...until another post. ;)

So, my congrats to you if you made it all the way to the end of this post without skipping (though I don't really blame you if you did ;))!!

Thanks so much for stopping in, and I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Forever

Another April CARDS pub to share today - I've got a lot of new things to show you, but still haven't got around to editing the pics, soooo, they'll have to wait. :)

I'm obsessed with taking a single Websters Pages bloomer and nestling a small rose up with it...looks so yummy. :)

Lately, I've been trying my hand at graphic designing (or what my idea of it is, anyways), since I'm going to try majoring in it. So I got some pretties from Pugly Pixel (Lisa convinced me to go over there with all the lovely things she used from their blog), and played a bit with them.
My poor attempt at a blog banner...(because I am in desperate need of a cheap blog makeover)

...ah well, guess it'll have to wait until I have more time, a faster computer, and a better understanding of how to work these editing programs (couldn't figure out for the life of me why some of the images came out with gray stuff around them and some didn't!)
Anywho, hope you're having a great day and thanks so much for stopping in! :)

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Card recipe
Cardstock: Unknown
Patterned paper: October Afternoon "Fly a Kite" and "Thrift Shop"
Ink: Colorbox
Flowers: Prima, Websters Pages
Image: Making Memories
Half pearls: Kaisercraft
Other: twine, embroidery floss, doily

Tools: trimmer, adhesive, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, scissors

A tiny bag

...to share with you today. Gotta get this in for the Waltzingmouse challenge, thus the second post in two days. ;)

I left the little tag blank because I'm not sure yet where I want this packet to go...

This really is quite a tiny bag - the first one I made could easily fit four packets in, while the two in this bag are quite comfortably snug. I'm not sure which is the right size - we got a new printer, so the template came out smaller. I made it a teensy bit smaller so it would fit on my 8x8 October Afternoon paper (I am determined to use at least one sheet of each design!).

And one more thing about the bag, just because I'm feeling chatty tonight. ;)
The circle label uses some yummy Martha Stewart ink I picked up at Big Lots for $2. Two measly bucks for six inks - love a bargain! ;) And stamping with this pigment ink made me remember how smooth and luscious it is - I've been using Distress Inks for pretty much everything lately, so this is a nice change of things. :)

Anyways, hope you have a great weekend, and thanks so much for stopping in!


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Project recipe
Patterned paper: October Afternoon "Fly a Kite"
Stamps: PTI 
Ink: Martha Stewart, Ranger Distress Inks
Other: May Arts crochet trim

Tools: trimmer, adhesive, scissors, printer, Glossy Accents

Sweet friend

Just stopping in to share another CARDS pub...

 

Adorable owl from Hero Arts - I haven't pulled this set out much lately, now that I think of it. Guess I need to change that, since there are some adorable images in this sweet set. :)

 The whole ribbon treatment looks easy, but it was a pain for me to make sure that the angles were all the same and stuff. Still, it looks cute. :)

That's in for me today - I hope to be back soon with another little project. Till then, have a lovely day! :)



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Card recipe
Cardstock: Bazzil
Patterned paper: K&Company
Stamp: Hero Arts, Inque Boutique
Ink: Colorbox
Ribbon: Hug Snug
Button: Joanns
Other: thread

Tools: trimmer, scissors, adhesive, foam squares

Thanks

...for stopping in here, even though I'm such a bad blogger at present. :)

Just sharing a card today made for last Saturdays Hero Arts scramble, which I hosted. There were TONS of amazing entries - I was so excited! 
Anyways, here is my sample, using some Twinkling H2O's I received as a Christmas present - sadly, I've been so busy, I've only pulled those gems out a couple times.

The image is really quite shimmery in real life. The butterflies were punched out of a metallic paint sample I've had for a million years, so they're shimmery too.

Thank you for stopping in today and enjoy your day!

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Card recipe
Cardstock: LSS
Stamps: Hero Arts "Wildflower Bouquet" and "Be happy"
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink "Walnut Stain"
Pearls: Recollection
Other: yarn, Twinkling H2O's

Tools: trimmer, adhesive, scissors, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, MS punch

Thinking of you

Long time, no blogging! ;)

I enjoyed my break, and made some nice little pretties in the process - I'll show you them sometime, once I get caught up in the 73 drafts I have gathering dust in Blogger right now. It's ridonkuluos how much I have to share with you!

This post was quite an old draft - all the way from August, when CARDS asked me to be their featured designer for April '11 (a BIG thanks to CARDS!)
I was expecting lots of new CHA products and stamps to come in so I could make cards with new product for the issue, but wouldn't you know it, nothing arrived until the day after I submitted my cards. :P haha

I had to stamp onto the reverse of some patterned paper I had because I was all out of quality white cardstock - this substitute works really well, unless you need white cardstock for a base...than, not often.

Anyways, I have a lot to catch up on - hope to stop by all my friends blogs as soon as I can find the time.

Thank you for popping in! :)

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Card recipe
Cardstock: Bazzil
Patterned paper: Girls Paperie, Basic Grey, DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts "Tree, Birds and Messages", and "Thinking of You messages"
Ink: Colorbox
Ribbon: American Crafts
Other: thread

Tools: trimmer, adhesive, sewing machine, scissors

A bloggy break

...just cuz making invitations for my sisters wedding, planning her bridal shower, working on SSC and GCD Studio assignments, finishing school up, working, playing volleyball with two teams, helping my brother with his wedding, and all the other little things of life are, well, kinda stressing me out enough as it is.
Plus, I need a break from the computer itself - I hate staring at this screen so long - it gives me headaches at times, and I'm not sure if it's affecting my eyesight a bit as well.
When I get back to blogging (which hopefully won't be too far from now), I'll have loads to share with you - actually, I do right now, but just not the time to do it.
So, see ya in awhile!
Hugs!
Clare

I care

Been busy with some dt assignments this week, thus the absence.
Now I'm just popping in here quickly to share a card that was published in the April CARDS.
A sweet story behind this card -

I had been wanting the Crate 'Restoration' line so badly, but my wholesaler wasn't able to get it for a long time as it was sold out (in October!). Then one day I got a surprise package in the mail from sweet Theresa, filled with lovely trimmings, bobbles, and, a 6x6 'Restoration' pad!! I was so excited and so grateful! :)

Instructions: Go shabby.

Haha, how about these instructions lately? Shabby cards, to me, are always just putting a lot of lovely bits together and somehow making it not look too overwhelmed.

Anywho, thanks for stopping in today, and have an beautiful Sunday! (hopefully it's sunny where you are - we've got rain and cloudy skies, after a gorgeous yesterday)

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Card recipe
Cardstock: LSS
Patterned paper: Crate "Restoration"
Stamp: Hero Arts "Thinking of You messages"
Ink: Distress Ink
Ribbon: Seam binding 'Aqua' HERE
Flowers: bloomer by Websters Pages, mulberry flower by Michaels (Remembrance)
Half pearls: Michaels (Remembrance)
Other: Doily available HERE, thread

Tools: trimmer, adhesive, scissors