Whirlpool of Imagination

Just Being Silly

Remember how a few days ago I said I didn't really feel sick and was getting better. I was wrong.

I should say that I'm not super sick but I didn't get better. I did my best to fight it off but ended up this weekend having to go in for antibiotics. I'm hoping in a day or two to be back to my regular old self. So today is a silly post day.

First, a discovery.......

PUMPKIN SPICE KISSES!!!! These little candies are sweetly delicious. I love all tastes pumpkin/cinnamon/fall-like (I'll even drink Octoberfest beer and I normally am not a beer drinker) and these little candies top my list of goodies at the moment. The best......pop one of these in your mouth and take a drink of coffee. Yummmmm.

Second, some creative kid work....

I came upstairs the other night and this little guy was sitting on my bedside table. It turns out that Conor wanted to make birthday Ian get into the Halloween spirit. He took a Halloween hat from another set (Papertrey, I think), glued it onto Ian, cut out the whole thing and then colored it. Conor is six so I'm thinking he did a pretty good job with this!

I went on a bit of a shopping spree this month so I'm hoping to get myself back into the studio and get back to stamping. Hope you have a great day!

Ten Years!!

Today is a special day in the O'Shea household - it's my ten year anniversary. Amazing how time has flown but definitely in a good way. Mo took the day off from work and we had a really nice lunch out together.

Now here is my Halloweenie card that I mentioned earlier in the week. This sketch is inspired by this week's Splitcoast CAS challenge.

The cat and sentiment are both from Papertrey Ink. They are stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink. The patterned paper is also from Papertrey.

I'm still coughing but it's more of a nuisance more than anything else. I sound a lot sicker than I actually am! Here's hoping you have a fabulous weekend. I think we are in store for gorgeous weather and I am looking forward to each and every moment. Have a great day!

Autumn Leaf

Today I'm going with the super short entry. This card is one of those fast cards that can be produced quickly and are useful when you need something in a hurry.

The leaf is from Stampin' Up and is stamped with chocolate chip ink. The sentiment is from Gina K and stamped with dusty durango ink (one of this year's SU In Color inks). I added a bit of patterned paper from Papertrey Ink, rounded the bottom corners of the card with a corner rounder and all done.

I am truly getting better but I seem to get coughing spells at night and so sleep is spotty. I'm fading fast here tonight so that's the reasoning behind this quick post. Hope you have a great night and I'll be back tomorrow with something Halloweenie. Later!

Spooky Scraplings

I will admit it - I have never made a scrapling before. After today, I want to know WHY I haven't tried these cute little cards. For those of you who don't know what a scrapling is.......it is a teeny tiny card made with various scraps of cardstock. I am in a sort of Halloweeny mood so I thought I'd pull out some new stamps and give these a whirl.

Here is the first little cutie. All stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms (I've been on just a bit of a Halloween stamp buying binge). She is stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink and colored with markers.

Prismacolor markers: cool grey 60%, black

Copic: E00, E37

The sentiment is also from CHF and the paper is from Basic Grey (Off beat line).

This is the biggest one of the three measuring 5.5 in x 1.5 in

My little vampire is stamped with momento black ink and colored with markers.

Copic: R46, E00, Y15

Prismacolor: black

The paper is from Black Market Paper Society (Ebony & Alabaster - Singin' in the Rain) and I used plain old rhinestones for the bling.

This one measures 4.25 in x 1.5 in

Here is my third project for the day. This little guy is also stamped with Momento black ink and colored with markers.

Copic: E00

Prismacolor: cool grey 20%

Just to spruce this one up, I added ribbon, a button and rhinestones.

This one measures 4.25 in x 1.5 in

And here are the three of them together. I accidentily on purpose made them two different sizes (well, I made the girl first purposely big and then accidentily cut the vampire one on a smaller scale. I liked that idea and made the mummy smaller on purpose). These are now sitting on top of the desk in my dining room where they will stay for the season. I think it's time to do a little decorating, don't you?

Hope you have a fantastic day!

Pink Thanks

A friend saw the little girl thank you notecards on my blog and asked me to make a set for her daughter but in pink. I set aside some time recently to work on them.

As a reminder, these are an A2 sized flat notecard. The little girl stamp is from Pink Cat Studio. She is stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink and colored with copic markers.

Copics: E00, Y13, RV17, RV21

I used a pink (02) spica glitter pen for the earrings and hair holders.

The sentiment is from Elzybell and also stamped with the Momento black ink.

And here is the set of 20 that she asked me to make. Phew - and I thought having Meg do 6 thank you notes would be challenging!

My cough is going strong and keeping everyone up. Well, keeping me and Mo up, the kids sleep through anything. I have high hopes that I'm turning the tide though - it's got to get better soon, right??

Have a great night!

Pink Wedding Cake

I went to school this afternoon to pick up two kids and all I came home with was two backpacks. Both kids ended up with spur of the moment playdates so I have a bit of blogging time on my hands!

Today is another wedding card for you. This wedding is pink and brown themed so that's the why I chose these colors.

  This cake image is a digital stamp that was offered for free (I don't remember by who - if you go to Splitcoast's digital download section, you will see the thread). It was printed with a hp Laserjet printer and colored with a pink (02) spica pen. The tray is colored with a copic (C00) markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and stamped with chocolate chip ink. I added some light rose Swarovski crystals for a bit of sparkle because you know I cannot resist.

My allergies are holding steady but no worse so that's a plus. Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Silver Wedding Bells

The scourge of September has arrived - ragweed. (along with mold and grass and about a million other things I'm allergic to). September is one of my worst months for allergies so I'm not the most chipper (or creative) at the moment. But I finally got myself together and uploaded the card from last week's wedding.

Remember, the wedding invitation was basically white and grey/silver so that's the colors I went with on the card.

The wedding bells image is from Stampendous. I stamped it with embossing ink and then heat embossed the image with silver ep. The sentiment is from Papertrey and is stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink. The crystals are Swarovski and the shapes are made from nestibilities. A simple card considering the amount of time I spent fiddling with it!

I think I'm dubbing this the week of the wedding. I have a least one more wedding card to show you tomorrow and I'm playing around with other images I thought I'd originally use for this card.

I'm off to Conor's soccer practice (oh yeah, outside with all my allergens) so I need to skedaddle. Hope you have a great night!

Simple Thank You

Good morning. The rain has finally arrived after the weathermen hemmed and hawed all week about it. It's kind of a bummer it came today since Mo and I are going to a wedding tonight. I was hoping for nicer weather for the wedding couple. Ah well, Mother Nature likes to keep us on our toes in New England.

When I started making this card, I had this week's CAS challenge from Splitcoast on my mind. The challenge was to use dimension on your card. Now, with CAS, I seem to be forever pop dotting one of my layers so this challenge was a no brainer for me. Imagine my surprise when I checked out yesterday's Ways To Use It challenge (it was to use RED) - I had gotten two challenges done without ever realizing it!

Today we are going digi. This image is from Whimsie Doodles. I printed it off on Papertrey white cardstock with a hp Laserjet 4200 printer and colored the image with copic and prismacolor markers.

Copic Markers: B00, B02, G14, G09, E29, YR68, Y38

Prismacolor Markers: crimson red, brick white

The sentiment is from Papertrey and stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink. I am planning on going through my sentiment stamps to look for tiny sentiments that could go in the place of the thank you. I find this image pretty cheerful and good for many sentiments.

I am struggling a bit with the wedding card I need for tonight (I know, last minute and all). I think I may have figured something out so I'm off to work on it. Have a great day!

Halloween Witch Hat

Wednesday already - wooohoo! Having Monday's off sure makes the week fly by. My back is a teensy bit better, thanks to those who offered suggestions. I have been using the ice and stretching, stretching, stretching. Today I'm still in an orange mood but this time it's for Halloween.

Can I tell you how many ways I tried this layout? I almost threw in the towel altogether! I started with the image and sentiment (both are from Papertrey). I stamped them with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. And lo and behold, I realized these circles are the PERFECT size to punch out using Stampin' Up's  1-3/4 inch circle punch. My life just got easier! Now I need to go back and see what other PTI circles work with this punch. The scallop circle is a nestie.

The patterned paper is also from Papertrey - that I figured out I wanted to use pretty quickly. It was the orange layer that had my stymied. I tried everything from scoring to embossing to patterned paper. It was just a tad too plain on its own but finally (FINALLY) I lit upon the idea of dry brushing some acrylic paint over the layer. So I pulled out my black paint and had a little fun. It gave my background just the little something it needed. After that, the card construction went quickly and I can say I got something achieved today after all.

It's almost bedtime so I need to be off. Have a great night!

Tangerine Birthday

With September here, I've been gravitating towards the oranges. You know the browns and the mustards will be next. I really like working with these color combos - something about them makes me feel good.

This one is all about tangerine. It's a little bright for strict fall colors, but I'm moving in the fall direction.

Today it's clean and crisp for you. The image and sentiment are from Stampin' Up and stamped with tangerine tango (SU) ink. The orange layer is a piece of Core-dinations cardstock (I think ember glow - it was hard to find the color info). The cardstock already came with a canvas-like texture and look so this was another quick card.

Quick is good right now - I did something to my back so sitting/standing/laying down (you get the picture) has been tough. I'm becoming great friends with the foam roller and doing lots of stretching. I'm hoping to feel a bit better tomorrow to get some blog visits in. I miss checking out my blogging friends.

Have a great night!