Whirlpool of Imagination

More for Mom

Woohoo - I'm on a roll for Mother's Day with a second example all in the same week. It's nice to know that I don't always procrastinate.

I have been busy using Verve Visual stamps again. All stamps used in this project are from Verve.
The flowers are stamped with palette noir ink and colored with copic markers.
Copics: G09, YR16, YR18

The flowers were cut out with one of my nestibilities and I used fire opal Swarovski crystals for the corners.

The light is at the end of the crazy schedule tunnel. I just need to get through Saturday and I can relax on Sunday. I am so looking forward to a day without any responsibilities! Hope you day is a good one.

Let the Gift Season Begin

Having kids this time of year means gifts, gifts, gifts. With everything ending, it's time to show teacher appreciation. Last Sunday was Meg's last CCD class and Miss Procrastinator herself (yep, that's my official title) waited until the very last minute to finish these up. Picture me Sunday morning, running around getting everyone ready for church and trying to pretty up these packages at the same time. We made it in time but it was a but iffy there for a while.

I've used this kind of gift set before but decided to change up the colors this year. This jr legal pad cover  comes from my own measurements. If anyone is super interested, I have posted the measurements before but I don't remember when so I can't be super helpful and provide a link. If I find it, I will come back and edit with a link.

The cross and sentiment are from Papertrey Ink and stamped in navy ink (Stampin' Up). I added a Swarovski crystal for the center of the cross.

The patterned paper is from Heidi Grace. These are your standard size junior legal pads and I did add a bit of cardstock to the top of the pad in the same blue as the base just to make things match throughout.

Here is the complete gift set. I used a basic blue patterned paper and decorated the RSVP pen (I find the thinner the paper, the easier this is) to go with the pad. Both went into a plastic bag with a back enclosure. I used my circle nesties to create a little tag. I first ran the dark blue through, not completely through the whole nestie so I could create the tiny card. The tan circle is also a nestie and the blue circle is from a SU punch. The sentiment is from Papertrey and stamped in navy.

The flower was a total afterthought out of necessity. Originally I was going to tie pretty ribbon around the package and hang the tag from that so I had punched a tiny hole through the top of the tag. I then realized I didn't have time to fiddle with all that so I plopped this little flower over the hole and attached everything to the packaging.

One set of gifts down....I'm not even going to count how many more!

Gearing up for Mother's Day

I am a procrastinator. Well, sometimes I'm just swamped and if its not something that is needed within 24 hours, it gets put on the back burner. Other times, I just procrastinate! When I saw today's CAS challenge at Splitcoast, I decided to think ahead. With Mother's Day fast approaching, I told myself that I'd get on the ball and have these cards done ahead of time. (It didn't hurt that this meant I got to play with some of my fun new stamps from Verve Visual).
 
The challenge was to use a scrap of ribbon. Since this panel is pretty narrow, it literally took just a scrap to make the little knot.

The stamps are both from Verve. The flowers are stamped in pomegranate (SU ink) and the sentiment in navy (SU ink). I knew I wanted to use one of my deckled nestie rectangles so I measured out the size of that and then cut my white panel accordingly. The navy panel itself is pop dotted for a bit of dimension.

My crazy weekend may be over but this week is scheduled to be hectic too. BUT I do have crafting plans so I will be showing up this week. Hope your day is a good one!

Like a Duck

It's been a few days since I've posted - my schedule has been super busy this week. I feel kind of like a duck. You know how they are really calm on the surface but below the surface their feet are paddling like crazy. Well, my feet are paddling like crazy but I don't feel quite so calm at the surface - flailing there too. But I took a few moments in the studio to keep my sanity.

I must be psychic - pink and brown cards was this weeks bella challenge - of course by the time I found out I was too late for the challenge!

This card started with my paper. I decided to go through my paper and pick a pretty piece. I chose this cool one by Basic Grey (Classic Sultry). Then the stamp and so on.

Bella is stamped with palette noir ink and colored with copic and prismacolor markers. Her hair is colored with a prismacolor pencil and baby oil.

copics: E00, R32, R37, E19
pc markers: sand, brick white, cool grey 10%
pc pencil: black raspberry

The center of the flower looks like a pretty pearl in this picture but it is a regular brad. I'm sorry I don't know the color - I don't keep the packaging for my brads.

I think I need to make some coffee myself and then I'm off and running again. This morning Conor has baseball and Meghan has lacrosse. After lunch is Conor's birthday party with his school friends and then its off to my mom's this evening for a family dinner. Hope your weekend is a good one!

Flower Notecards

Happy middle of the week! Well, if April showers bring May flowers, then we are going to have a riot of color around here in a few weeks. At least the grass is getting nice and green!
I had some notes I had to send in to school today and realized that I didn't have any new notecards to write on so that was my project for yesterday. And going with the April showers theme, the notecards have flowers on them this month.

Both flower stamps are from Verve, but they are from two different sets. I stamped them both with palette noir ink and colored them with copic markers.
Markers used: V12, V15, G09

I was in a purple mood so that's what I picked but I may do up some more of these in a bunch of colors to celebrate spring.

Here is a bunch of them I worked on while Meg was doing her homework.

Super busy week this week - I can't believe that it is already Wednesday. Hope your week is going well. Have a great day!

Baby Boy Blue

Today is my favorite challenge day of the week - the CAS challenge at Splitcoast. This week we had to use kids bedding as our inspiration for our card. I decided to go with the Limealicious bedding set (Isn't that an awesome name for a bedding set? Had to use it for that alone).

I did not pay attention to the design of the bed set but rather used the color scheme to inspire this card.

I picked up some really cute Elzybell stamps a few weeks ago so I decided to ink up this little one. He is colored with copic and prismacolor markers. I have questions sometimes about which supplies were used so I will try to be a bit more specific.
copic: E00, (need to check the green #)
pc marker: light cerulean blue

I used paper from NRN design and a sparkly brad for just a little pizazz.

Rain, rain for the next few days but dare I say it? We may see temps in the 70's by the end of the week - woohooo. I'll take a little bit of rain if it means a weekend of sunshine! Have a great day!

More Happy Mail

Phew, I just finished a round of blurfing. I visited every blog in my three blog groups - awesome work everyone!! Last night I crashed early so I have nothing new to show you. But I did pull out some cards I've received over the last month so you too can enjoy my pretty mail.

This great bella card is from Siobhan. I have this image but I always use greens with it. I really like how Siobhan used totally different colors and I really like the layout (a layout I could never pull off myself but looks fabulous in person when someone else does it!).

Alrighty, lousy photography here. This card from Lisa is absolutely gorgeous in person. So sorry Lisa that my picture does not do it justice at all.

This sweet card is from Tara. I debated back and forth for ages on getting this set but never did. Its cute cards like this that make me wonder why I didn't.

Hope you all are having a great weekend. Mother Nature is giving us a great Saturday (that way we won't be so bummed with the Sunday that is being forecasted!). I'm off to enjoy the day!

Art Tree

Happy Friday! Mo took the day off and we went on a day trip with the kids to one of my favorite places - Newport. Mo and I have a weekend away every year to Newport and we always say we'll come one day with the kids and picnic and fly kites and make a day of it. Well, today was the day. It was a great day (if a wee bit windy) and I'm tired and probably off to bed early. But I have a card from yesterday to show you.

All the stamps from today's card are from Paper Makeup. They not only have their wonderful fairies but some pretty neat other stuff as well.

To make the background, I took a glossy piece of cardstock and 91% rubbing alcohol. I combined the alcohol and key lime reinker (CTMH) on a felt pad and dabbed it all over the cardstock. I then added breeze reinker (CTMH) to the same felt pad that had the key lime and alcohol and continued to pounce away. The background you see is my final result.

Then I stamped the tree with Stazon Ink. The sentiment is stamped with palette noir ink and punched out with the SU oval punch. I finished it off with some dew drops/rain drops (don't know which) and decided to call it a day as I'm all for simple.

I was hoping to blurf a bit but I might call it a night instead. Have a great weekend!

Orange Frame Girl

In honor of the sparkling sunshine today, I have a nice bright card.

I really like this little frame girl from Stamping Bella. She reminds me of Meghan.

I colored her with copic markers and I tried to make her hair a "dirty" blond (just to change things up a bit) using prismacolor pencils and baby oil. And I added just a dab of stickles to the center of the flower.
The sentiment stamp is from the larger mixed messages set from Papertrey. That's a really great set of sentiments if you were looking for a range of sentiments. And the larger size is really nice to work with.

The stripes paper is from KI Memories and the polka dots are from Papertrey.

I went back and forth on this design. I had the polka dots to the left side of the card but I always do that layout so I decided to center things up for a change.

Spring break is moving along - finally some sunny and (semi) warm weather has brightened things up quite nicely. I'm off - need to be ready for Idol results. Have a great night!

Birthday Trees

Well, we survived the first day of vacation week. Luckily, Mother Nature has decided to have mercy on me and send plenty of sunshine my way. Getting the kids outside for a while does wonders for us all!
Today I was able to sneak down into my studio for a few minutes so I thought I'd do the CAS weekly challenge at Splitcoast. Today's challenge was to make a momochromatic card (and we were allowed to use a neutral color as well).

I haven't used my Stampin' Up trees in a while so I decided to pull them out. I stamped them onto cream cardstock with chocolate chip ink (SU). The sentiment is from Fontworks and is stamped in chocolate chip is well.

Easy peasy - a quick 5 minute card.

I'm off to do a bit of stretching - have a great night!