6.30.2014

So Happy

...after a beautiful weekend, culminating in the celebration of one of my adorable niece's baptism! I'm just popping in today with one of those "old" cards.

This card is so pretty in real life - I used Twinkling H2O's on the feathers, which make them shimmer a bit, and then I also used gold glitter embossing powder for even more shimmer!


A little bit of woodgrain texture...


The gems are actually white opaque Michaels gems covered in gold nail polish.

I've got an early plane ride to Texas to catch tomorrow morning, so thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Strathamore
Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Mini Blooms", Hero Arts "Sundrifter Love This"
Ink: Versamark, Stazon, Twinkling H2O's
Other: gems (Queen and Co), nail polish, embossing powder (Hampton Art)

Tools: heat gun, Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impressions plate, Cuttlebug

6.23.2014

Oh Ship!

If you didn't notice, I'm changing up the look of the blog (again).
I wasn't quite satisfied with the way the last template I used was preforming (I personally dislike "read more" blog posts), so I decided to throw it out.
I also wanted to try out my web design skills, so what sad mess you see here is actually hours of me struggling with Illustrator (which I've never used before), Photoshop, Blogger, and mostly, my own super slow and annoying laptop.
Hopefully the design, while simple, is decent enough to last me for a good while - at least until I actually learn how to use programs better. ;)

The card today is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes - I forgot to link up with the friends challenge, so I hope it's okay I'm linking up to this challenge) and the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (I ought to use this more - my patterned paper!)


This Naughty Nautical stamp set is hilarious - perfect for masculine cards, and fun too!


Some pretty Maggie Holmes paper made the ombre "waves" easy, sewed a border, and then topped it off with the simply stamped image.

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Maggie Holmes "Flea Market"
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp "Naughty Nauticals"
Ink: Stazon

Tools: sewing machine, scalloped scissors

6.21.2014

Some pointy arrows

Just popping in with a new card featuring some pointy wood veneer arrows - I honestly couldn't think of a better blog post title.

This card is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (friends) and the Monday challenge (anything goes)


Using the Inside and Out Sayings stamp set - I love all the cheeky accompaniments to the main sentiment, such as the one for this one; "okay, I can, but it would be super boring."
A lot of sentiment stamps look really nice, but some of them seem pretty redundant, so I feel kinda silly giving out the cards with them on it.
Which is why I'm hoping Simon Says Stamp will come out with a second Inside and Out stamp set. *cough cough* ;)


These arrows were inked up in Versamagic and Brilliance inks, then heat embossed with some clear embossing powder to make sure that the ink didn't rub off.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and have a great weekend!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamp: Simon Says Stamp "Inside and Out Sayings"
Ink: Brilliance, Versamagic, Versamark
Other: embossing powder (Hampton Art and Martha Stewart), gems (Michaels), wood veneer (Studio Calico)

Tool: heat gun

6.17.2014

Thanks so much

..for all your sweet words on my last post! I'm glad you enjoyed the Altenew stamp set as much as I do, and for those of you who haven't been able to get your hands on it yet, it will be worth the wait, I promise you. ;)

Anyways, I'm popping in with an "old" card today - I have a ridiculous amount of drafts gathering dust right now. I used to write up posts as soon as I had taken pictures of the card, and then just post when I needed to/felt like it, but since school started last fall, I just couldn't keep up.
So the fact that I have around 200 written drafts (combined with the cards I never wrote posts for) should give you an idea of how many cards I haven't blogged yet.
It's pretty ridiculous.
My plan is to post an older card every other blog post - it's fun (for me, at least ;)) to look back to only a year ago and see the differences in my cardmaking style and photography.


A clean and simple one-layer card - the coloring of the truck was made possible by Tim Holtz Distress Ink markers. Just as a tip, using the markers works better on rubber than on clear stamps - I don't know the science behind it, but the ink just seems to cling better and not pool up on rubber.

Thanks for stopping in and have a great day!

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Cardstock: Strathamore
Stamps: Hero Arts "Past Times"
Ink: Tim Holtz





6.13.2014

Go bigger

... with some layouts! *gasp*

I'm on the Pinkfresh blog today sharing some layouts, so, please be merciful - not only am I an inexperienced scrapper, but I'm also very inexperienced at taking pictures of the layouts! (struggling with some serious admiration issues right now for the rest of the Pinkfresh DT's amazing photographs ;))


{note to self - don't use neutral colored backgrounds for your page until I get better at taking pictures}

Being an inexperienced scrapper, I wasn't totally sure what do for my color scheme, so I decided to pull the colors from my friend's pretty dress.
First, some gorgeous peach and mint washi tape and a couple veneer hearts...


...then some super fun veneer arrows...


...and of course, an enamel frame for the photo, and a drop sticker to finish everything off.


For my second layout, I decided to take it easy on myself and print the photo black and white. ;)


I used some cute little enamel stickers from Way to Home to give the photo additional framing, and notice those pretty gold birds? I actually punched those out from the gorgeous gold packaging for the alphabet letters I used below!


I used the super pretty orchid gold foil letters, and then another die cut out of the packaging for the heart. :)


*Phew!*
That wasn't too painful after all, eh? ;)
Thanks so much for stopping in today and have an awesome weekend! 

6.12.2014

Back home

...from a short but fun trip to Nashville with some friends, to visit the Nashville Dominicans. :)

I'm really excited about the two cards I'm sharing today, and I was planning on going on and on about the amazing stamp set I used to make them, but honestly, I'm still kinda loopy from twelve hours of driving, so I may have to save it for another day.

These two cards are for the Simon Says Stamp Stencil challenge, the Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes, Paper Crafting Magic Stencil, NBUS Anything Goes, and the Fusion Card challenge.


The set I wanted to gush about is the Altenew Painted Flowers (which appears to be sold out on their website again - good for them!) 
This set is pretty much one of my stampy dreams. 
YUMYUMYUM.

I had a really hard time putting it down, so basically I made four variations of the above card in two days, and here is just one of those variations. 


For both cards, I masked off the sentiments (using them as a my stencils) using die cut washi tape, but for this second card, I also impressed the dies into the cardstock, in hopes that the ink wouldn't bleed so much when I stamped over the mask. I don't think it helped much, but I think it added just a teensy bit of legibility, which is the only straw I have with these cards.

Of course, I couldn't have made either card without the Mama Elephant Inline Letters dies or the Paper Smooches Quote Tag dies, both of which are pretty much my die-cutty dreams.

Mmmm, dreams...dreams sound good.

Thanks for stopping and God bless!




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Cardstock: Canson, Core-dinations
Stamps: Altenew "Painted Flowers"
Ink: Distress Ink, Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink
Other: washi tape

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Inline Letters dies, Paper Smooches Quote Tag dies

6.04.2014

What to do

...I've been getting a lot of things done this week, now that I'm finished with summer classes, but I've gotten to the point where I only have a few things left to do, and those are the things that I'm really dreading.

So, in an effort to make myself feel productive (without actually getting anything done), I'm writing this up and sharing a cute little card for this weeks Lawnscaping challenge...


...using some heat embossing.


I used the new, super cute Chit Chat stamps and dies, along with the Gnome Sweet Gnome stamps and dies. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit obsessed with coordinating stamps and dies, plus, the Chit Chat bubble dies are definitely dies that could be used by themselves (oh, and this is definitely not me trying to justify my recent, rather large stamp/die purchase...;))


I thought it was fun how the button I used above the gnome happened to have the name "Ralph" on it. ;)

Anyways, thanks so much for stopping in, and I hope you have a more productive day than mine is turning out to be thus far! ;)

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamps: Lawn Fawn "Chit Chat" and "Gnome Sweet Gnome"
Ink: Versamark, Distress Inks, Stazon
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Other: buttom, string, vellum, embossing powder

Tools: heat gun, Cuttlebug, My Favorite Things Framed Greetings die, Lawn Fawn Chit Chat and Gnome Sweet Gnome dies