Whirlpool of Imagination

Polka Dot Giraffe

I am in my fourth and final week of card class camp. It flew and I am so sad to see it end. I have really loved the color combos and technique videos ~ it's definitely restarted my creative spark this summer.

As today is Monday, we have a new color combo to work with.

                                                 

Here's my first card for the challenge....

I am starting a week of baby cards. I didn't plan it that way but I have a bunch of baby cards to show so I might as well make it a theme week.

The patterned paper from Scenic Route I found matched the color combo exactly so I was super excited to find it. I originally planned on using the stripes on the other side but nothing looked just right to me. I flipped it over and was immediately drawn to the circles.

The giraffe is from Papertrey ~ it's die cut, stamped and pop dotted for dimension.

The sentiment is from River City Rubber Works.

And now I need to go clean up the disaster that is called my studio. This card may look simple but oh boy, it made one gigantic mess!

Have a great day.

The Blue Truck Rides by Again

Yep, it's that time of year. One of my awesome clients needed a birthday card for her brother with the blue truck stamp. Note to self.....I think I need more truck stamps.

Anyway, this is either year three or year four with this truck. I make a point of not looking at what I've made in the past so I'm not influenced by previous designs. Here is what I came up with this year.

I have been itching to use this patterned paper from Papertrey Ink so I've finally put it to use. The truck is from River City Rubber and the sentiment is from Gina K.

I've gotten out of doing all that many layers so it was fun to throw a bunch together on a card for a bit of a change. I still love my CAS but once in a while, I need more than one or two layers!

Have a great night!

Cross Sympathy

Well, summer vacation has started this week and I can count on one hand the number of minutes I've been able to get in my studio and stamp. That would literally be, 5 minutes. I see the summer is going to do a number of my productivity!

Recently, I had the sad occasion to make a sympathy card (sadly, that is happening all to often lately). The gentleman who passed away and his wife are originally from Ireland so I wanted something with a celtic feel to it.

This cross was made with a metallic green paper using one of the Spellbinder cross dies. I decided not to layer because this alone gave me the feel of a Celtic cross. The sentiment is from River City Rubber Works and stamped with hunter ink (Stampin' Up).

I'm off for another summer filled day. I think I need to start stamping at night......

The Blue Truck Strikes Again

Don't you just love challenges? I have a customer who asks me every year to make a birthday card for her brother who owns a blue truck. Since I only have one truck stamp, I use the same stamp every year. The challenge is to create something totally new each year.

I make a conscious effort to not look at past year's cards. I kind of know in my head how they basically look and I don't want to mess with the mojo by looking at them too much before I sit down to the create the new one.

Here's what I came up with this year....

The truck image is from River City Rubber Works and this year I stamped it with Stampin' Up night of navy ink. The sentiment is from Papertrey and stamped with navy ink also. The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up.

Simple, but that's the creative place I am in at this moment. I like it.

Time for a Remake

Sometimes I like to take older card designs and freshen them up just a bit. Today I have one of my favorite techniques on a redo - split negative stamping.

This stamp is a great one from River City Rubber Works. I precut the cardstock layers, used versamark to ink up the stamp and stamped it onto the dual color layer. I then embossed the white cardstock with black embossing powder and the black cardstock with white embossing powder. The trick is to lay down the powder fairly quickly but after that you have a bit more time when it comes to heating the powder.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, I think and is stamped with Memento tuxedo ink.

And to show you how much of a paper collector I am, this paper is EK Success blue jean wash paper dated 2002!

Gorgeous weather this weekend made this the perfect card to showcase. Hope you have a wonderful night!

Red Flag and Lady Liberty

Happy Veteran's Day - a HUGE thank you to all our service men and women, past and present for their service. And thanks to their families who sacrifice as well.

This week is conference week which means the kids get out early all week. This also means that stamping time is at a premium so the cards will be quick and easy to create, as that's all the time I've got.

 

In keeping with today's holiday, I went with a patriotic card. This image is from River City Rubber Works and stamped with real red (stampin' up) ink. I then sponged blue around the edges (another SU ink but I can't remember which blue). I added some meridian blue Swarovski crystals to finish off the block and there's my 5 minute card for the day.

I hope you all had a great day - tomorrow I'm sharing a quick sympathy card.

Blue Birthday Truck

Happy Friday! I had planned to make this post last night but I got the chance to hang out and talk with Meg just girl talk. She doesn't always want to do that anymore so I took advantage of it and we spent my computer time chatting. It was time totally well spent!

So today you get my masculine card instead. This card was a customer request. She asked for this truck in blue. Beyond that, I had free rein.

I like using kraft cardstock (a lot) and decided it would pair nicely with the blue. The truck is from River City Rubber and it stamped with Palette Prussian Blue ink. The sentiment is from Spunky Stamps and uses the same blue ink.

The patterned paper is from Bo Bunny and is called Walnut Stripes. You don't need a full explanation for this card.

I am still having a tough time believing that June is really here. I think its partly due to the chilly temperatures, the rain and the three weeks we have left of school! This weekend we celebrate my mom who just had her birthday yesterday. Oops - I need to go make her a card! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

I want to look pretty......

I left you hanging there on Monday!! Instead of blogging Monday night, I did this......
                                                                                   
Mo just bought himself a fire pit so we got it going and roasted marshmellows and made s'mores with the kids. And once the kids went to bed, we just relaxed by the fire. It was a nice way to wrap up a holiday weekend.

Monday I did get a little bit of crafting in although it was in quick spurts. Meg was marching with the town's girls lacrosse league in the Memorial Day parade so I thought I'd make a quick ponytail holder for her.

These are super easy to make (especially when you have a stash of ribbon - see, THAT'S why I bought all that ribbon!). This ponytail holder uses three ribbons so I cut out seven 6in. strips of each color of ribbon (21 total strips) and then just tied them around the pony O. The 21 strips fit perfectly around the entire length.

I've made these with Meg's friends before - its a great project for kids.

And just to continue with the jazz up your outfit theme, I made a quick pin. I stamped this stamp from River City Rubber Works onto shrink plastic with red Staz On ink. Using my heat gun, I shrunk it down to size. Then using my glue gun, I glued a pin back to the back of the image. Quick and easy project.

I spent a little time coloring at lacrosse practice yesterday so I'm going to get cracking on using those images on some new cards. Have a great day!

Are you wearing green?

Happy St.Patrick's Day!! I think I am officially corned beef out! Today we spent the day at the Irish Club having lunch, guinness (well, not me - yuck - I did have a Bailey's though) and another nice day. The weather cooperated and it was positively spring-like here. Hope you have a good day today too.

Today I decided to go with a grungy card rather than the cute cards I've been creating lately.

This sentiment is from River City Rubber and is stamped with SU hunter ink. I then dirtied up the sentiment block and the cream layer below by dry brushing it with an Aspen Green acrylic paint. Byond that, the card just consists of a bunch of layers.

May the words of this blessing find their way to you. Have a great night!

Shamrock Fairy

Have you seen the new stamp company Paper Makeup Stamps? I first heard about them on Splitcoast and of course HAD to click the link. Go on, I know you want to click it. These fairy stamps are awesomely cute. I ordered a few to give them a try. They are red rubber stamps with nice deep etching and give a wonderful clear stamped image. I liked the first one so much, I've already pre-ordered the new fairy's coming out next week!

My little fairy is stamped with palette noir ink and colored with a combination of prismacolor and copic markers. Because I never know what color to do hair, her hair is colored with a pc pencil and blended with baby oil (I'll show some pics of this later in the week so stay tuned Barbara). I also used a Sakura gelly roll metallic pen for parts of her outfit and her wings. Her hair and the shamrock have just a tiny bit of spica pen on them for extra sparkle.

The sentiment is from River City Rubber Works. The layout here revolves solely around my nesties, which include the label dies with the sentiment.

A note about card size.....95% of the time I make A2 cards (5.5 x 4.25). On this one, I wanted the entire focus to be on my fairy so I cut this down just a wee bit. The final size is 5.5 x 3.5 inches.

And a little PSA: Along with other yearly checks, don't forget the skin doctor. A skin check is quick and easy but oh, so important. Can you tell that today was my yearly check? And thankfully, I'm clear for another year. I think about my teenage years and all that tanning and I shudder to think about it! That's the end of my lecture - have a great day!