Had you checked out all the online wheelin' and dealin' going on this weekend? I did - at least on some of the scrapbooking offers out there! So, here's a quick post with a link to enable you all ... 'til midnight, or in some cases later ... compliments of the kind folkes at Craft Critique!
I just returned home from today's make -'n- take at Karen's, and it'll be no surprise to my buddy Kim nor Joann as to which card's posted this afternoon, I'm betting! I loved this one the moment I spotted the snowflake Cuttlebug background and colors - they're my favs! This color combo is thought of more as a country color combo, methinks, and it's one I prefer over the bright, more traditional "Christmas" green and red combo. We stamped the single stamp with some studio g green and used a marker for the red-brown acorn, then stickled the berries. I popped my focal stamp up on dimensionals, tho' the class sample wasn't. The class sample also used stickles on the snow background, which looked awesome. This would be a nice card to mass-produce for Christmas, don't you think?
I'm no artist, but I occasionally try to be one while at work! I attempt to draw a series of animals ... yep, you guessed it ... a hippo, bird, and sheep ... as my standard happy birthday greeting on joint cards. Well, I purchased some animal stamps while at the Great Lakes Mega Meet this past spring while with some friends, one of whom had a birthday this past week, so these stamps finally got inked! I used Flower Soft for my first time too.
Happy Thanks giving, all! I hostessed our family get- together today, and both my local sibs, a niece, and my Mom were able to attend. My older brother will be in town over the weekend so we'll get to see him too, but it didn't work out for him to stop over today.
My cousin's birthday was this past weekend and I'm posting her card early thru the miracle of modern science (ok, that and Google's timed post option), but I've delayed its post date as I'm mailing it late. I don't think I've seen Robin since she got married! BAD cousins! My sister and I flew together to VA where they lived then and joined the celebrations with my folkes, who I believe drove over earlier for an extended stay. Methinks they had their pop-top camper conversion van then, but I recall we all stayed at a hotel intended for guests.
This sweet package is available only 'til 10 p.m. EST today ... so run, don't walk, to check out Donna Downey's sponsor giveaway, compliments of the kind folkes at Coordinates Collections!
The kind folkes at incompetech provide free online "graph" paper ... and a whole lot more! Think background DP! Check out their site and experiment - you select different dot weight, grid spacing, radius multiplier (just play around here - it's fun!), different output paper size and colors, and it'll generate a PDF of your output. Me likey! You will too!
Here's another class project from October's stamp camp w Mary. I've no deets except that it's mainly SU product, is a small (approx 3x2") bag made from Choco Chip card stock ... but I DO have this t'riffic poem to share (enjoy!):
Just a quick "heads up" to let you know that Crystal's got blog candy in a big way ... and if I don't win it, I think one of my blog readers should, so head on over by December 9th, her wedding anniversary!
I stopped by one of my local stamping stores a few weeks ago after seeing a similar acorn on the Web and thought I'd e-mailed myself the link to give credit where credit's due ... but now can't find that e-mail. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most, y'know?! This cutie is made using a couple die cuts - I folded the lighter card stock in half and used a large uppercase "U," and I folded the darker card stock AFTER using a labels die. It may be hard to see the clear stamp next to the card - it's another squirrel, this time part of a Hero Arts set, holding out a heart, and I used the Kitchen Sink's "nuts about you" sentiment on the inside of the card. Right now it's buried within a group of Sudoku puzzles next to my DH's favorite chair.
Today's after-school project was stamping some winter-y cards with my eldest. He made 5 cards in the time I took to make one, LOL! Truthfully, it was just fun watching him - he was SO determined! I don't remember now where I'd ordered this stamp set - somewhere online, I recall tho' - as well as some crafty supplies to make my own paper molds. Hey, maybe I'll get to THAT this year too!
Hi folkes! Here's a cute scrapbook page from this past Saturday's make -'n- take at Karen's - where a few friends and I are winding down a series of two 6x6" scrapbook pages we've been meeting to make every other Saturday. You could make a similar turkey page using punches, but these are made with a combination of punches and die cuts. Cute, eh?! The opposite facing page was green with the brown stripe and the word "November" in a cute scripty font from another die set.
As it got closer to Thanksgiving, and continuing on to Christmas, my Dad used to answer the phone and / or greet OR leave folkes with "peace." I'll probably always make a special card for my Dad tho' he passed away 5 years ago in early November, and picked up this "peace" sentiment from stampingfreak.com back in '07 (aka Gina K Designs). So, here's Dad's clean & simple card for '09!
This birthday card was my fav project from Saturday's class at Karen's, where I've stopped with friends every other Saturday the past few months. We've been working on a 12-week project, making a 2-page 6x6" scrapbook spread themed on a different month each weekend, along with 2 mainly unrelated cards. Fun projects, the next class will cover December and we'll be thru with the year. I'd picked up a small 6x6" scrapbook at Hobby Lobby to contain all my pages, and will do a wrap of the months' scrapbook pages when we've finished the year.
Here's another inchie card for today, this one using all 5 stamps from my latest Inkadinkado mini clear stamp set, Nativity. I don't recognize the store price sticker so methinks I'd picked this set up from the last Mega Meet in Novi MI, held this past spring. A few friends and I hit that the last couple years. We went after work yesterday to a Great Scrapbook Events scrapbooking and stamping show in Birch Run. I spotted a couple items on my wish list and picked up some more scrapping supplies and a few stamp sets. I'm hoping to ink some up tomorrow!
A clean & simple card for today, this one's based on the CPS141 sketch and uses a new Inkadinkado clear mini stamps I'd picked up recently. I like silhouette -type stamps lately, and this one inked up very nicely with my chalk inks. Earlier I met for breakfast with a stampin' bud, took in a stamping class, then booted out of there to work an open house at the university where my day job is (insert shameless plug here for Kettering University). I'm relaxing with a cup of coffee now and will make this a short post as I usually catch up on my banking on Saturday mornings and didn't yet today ... so take care and have a t'riffic weekend, all!
Another card from last night's stamp camp w Angie, this one uses a couple blues that I didn't make note of and brayering technique. I'm brayer-challenged; I'd picked up a brayer more than a year ago and I don't think it's seen ink yet! Even tho' I stamped and embossed the images a bit too soon after brayering, I'm still pleased with the results. We brayered the lighter color blue background over a circle placed over the card to get the moon effect, then lightly sponged a darker color blue around the moon to make the sky more dusky (izzat a word?!).
I'd not played with these shimmer paints before, but I quickly became hooked! We used the Frost White shimmer paint to coat the blue card stock, then the Platinum to add some snowflake and swirl stamps, added some bling and mounted the card stock. I loved all 5 cards from tonight's stamp camp with Angie, so had my DH pick out which was posted tonight!
Today's card is a simple red, white, and blue one as it's a federal holiday in the U.S. and we're honoring men and women of our armed forces. In keeping with Veterans Day tradition, President Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, saying, "While it is important and proper that we mark this day, it is far more important we spend all our days determined to keep the promises that we've made to all who answer this country's call."
How time flies when you're having fun, eh?! It was a pleasant drive in to work today, listening to NPR talking about the changes Sesame Street's undergone thru the years. We left off at the 7th change and I'd meant to tune my PC to the show when I got to work, but got distracted and forgot ... I hope I can catch a repeat of the show.
My hybrid card today uses one of my latest CTMH stamp sets - Grateful Hearts. I don't recall now where I'd first spotted this printable but it's available in both color and b&w versions from the kind folkes at Everything Creative's Etsy shop. Today's is a quick card; I simply printed the printable's color version on ivory card stock, mounted it on chocolate chip, popped that up on ivory card base, added a couple little sentiments, and voila! Easy peasy. I'd meant to do more stamping today but instead we did some much needed cleaning - the guys tackled the leaves outside, while I tackled some of my piles inside. I'm a hoarder and had started a pile of magazines behind my end table next to my fav chair in the living room and I've got to admit it was getting pretty large. Some hit the recycle bin and some are headed in to work with me tomorrow. I occasionally drop some mags off at a break room at work. Then there's the pile of "to do" things that had grown on my PC table. I'm glad to report that both piles shrunk considerably today!
Here's today's make -'n- take project from when I stopped at CAM with my youngest on our way to errands at Barnes & Noble and Best Buy. I've got this stamp set, but that's about it by way of deets today! The scalloped circle and leaves are from die cuts and I distressed the edges with some chalk inks before using glue dots to adhere the leaves to the card, then bent them slightly so they'd appear to be more "in flight."
There's only a few online mags that I devour religiously. This one, Sheetload of Cards, provides not only sketch layouts but tips to efficiently mass produce those sketches - a t'riffic idea for Christmas (or whatever holiday, for that matter) cards. This month's issue is now available - see the November '09 issue at this post - and they also have a link on their blog to the archive of past issues. Check 'em out! This month they're offering a FREE printable quotes file, folkes!
Another class project, this one's sweet in more ways than one! It's filled with chocolate Hershey kisses! Easy peasy and oh, so cute! Thanx for the slick idea, Mary! Don't you like the snowflake presentation? Two of the same punch assembled in a peppermint twist fashion to match the cute DP. Me likey!
