More Simple Cards

My family does not share my love for elaborate cards. So in making gifts for them--I have to keep that in mind. Simple and "sendable" cards. For my Sister in Law, I am making a collection of cards and here is a sampling.

As you can see there is not much variation in the layout and that the embellishments are kept to a minimum. I think they will be something that she can use.

Also, here is a little Christmas card for you. The card is Real Red--I do not photograph this color well. sorry.

Snowy Penguin

I would like to think that I make new mistakes (you know, because I learn from past ones)...but today, that is not the case. I need to remember to walk away from card/project and then come back and see if it is still *right*. Today, I didn't do that. I posted the card as soon as I thought it was *finished*.

And guess what???

It WASN'T finished.

Card at first look:


















Card at second look:

Okay, I admit the differences are subtle--but they make a difference IRL. The penguin body is shaded and shadowed with a light grey pencil in the second card. Also in the second card there are clear heat embossed snowflakes above the penguin.



*sigh*

I thought about editing the photo on SCS--but last time I did that there was problems. Live and learn. :D

BTW--does anyone have any publishing hints about how to get pics and text to line up properly in blogger???

IT SPINS!!

My nephew is a budding artist--and as the DCP (designated creative person) of the family, it is my job to encourage this passion.

For Christmas I am getting him a set of 36 Prismacolor pencils, a sharpener, and a plastic eraser. And since he lost many of the 12 I gave him last year--A pencil box for them to go in.

He is just 10 but this is what gets him going. He even did drawing (with the encouragement of his camp counselor) for his summer camp talent show!

Anyway, back to the project.

It is a remote control holder from the unfinished wood products section of Hobby Lobby. I didn't know it was a remote holder till I looked it up on the HL website (Crafts Etc). I saw pencil holder when I first saw it and never saw anything else.

I sanded it, spray painted it matte black, and decoupaged it with the patterned paper. (Also from Hobby Lobby). Then it was embellishment time.

I used a lime green patterned dp from BasicGrey and some retired weathered and worn dp from SU! The letters in *LIFE* and *NiKoLaS* are die cut (after adhering the dp to some chipboard). The other lettering is stamped. The *ART* is stamped with Bravo Burgundy Craft ink then I waited a few minutes before heat embossing it with black embossing powder. The result is an uneven and distressed look.

The entire project has a few coats of spray acrylic sealer. I figured since it was going to a 10 year old--it needed some protection.

I am pretty happy with the way it turned out!!

Are you YOUR family's DCP??? What creative gifts do you have planned for the folks on your list? I would love to hear about or see them!!

You help me with the holes on my gift list--and I will help you with yours!! Deal???

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you are having a blessed Thanksgiving. How cool it is to set aside a day just to remind ourselves how richly we are blessed and to give thanks and praise to God for our blessings!!

This year I am not cooking. We are celebrating with our church family with a community dinner at church. This is SO apropos since our family and our church family have been through some trying times these last six months. We need to come together and celebrate how faithful and loving God has been through it all.


THANKFULLY I was not asked to cook. (I think the fact that I bring packaged foods to every church dinner was a BIG hint that this is not an area that I am blessed in). I designed and assembled the centerpieces. Sadly, no stamping or papercrafting was involved. Just a tiny little budget! I made these for around $2 a piece (thanks to some AWESOME deals at Hobby Lobby and Michaels)
The pails are from the Floral dept at Walmart. In the bottom is about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of Great Northern Beans (dry) that dh won at a couple of running races. I cut apart several silk flower bouquets and put 5-6 stems in each pot (held in place by the beans). The sticks are bamboo skewers hot glued to mini clothespins. They are to hold *blessings*. Guests are encouraged to write down a blessing and put it on the clothespins (that is what the green pads of paper are for.) Voila--a centerpiece.

I hope today finds you in a pool of blessings--and perhaps you may be blessed in the counting of those blessings.

And THANKS for stopping by!!

Featured Stamper!

The Featured Stamper for the FS Challenge is my good friend Shelly (aka Papermoon04 on SCS). I am so totally geeked!!!! Not only is she a fabulous paper crafter and stamper BUT she is also one of the most encouraging people online!!


I tried to CASE her card *A New Love* from the series of cards about a French girl named Marie. (see the entire series HERE).

I did not copy the monochromatic color scheme, but I did try to copy the shabby chic/romantic feel of the card. It was great fun reproducing the elements.

Materials Used:

• Stamp sets: Martha Stewart Alpha, Brenda Walton Frames, SU! Noteworthy;
• Papers: DP's by Anna Griffin, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa, and Die Cut card by DCWV;
• Ink: Various Fluid Chalk Inks by Clearsnap
• Accessories: Ticket corner punch, brad, charm, ribbon, scallop oval punch, gold ep, foam tape:

NOTE: I got new rubber from Starving ArtiStamps yesterday (See link at the right). I am almost done with my first card. I hope to post it soon!!!

HINT: It uses one of the FABULOUS new background stamps!

Big Brother's Birthday!

Tuesday is my brother's birthday--we celebrated it on Saturday. It was the first time in 11 years that I have been with him to celebrate it.

He has a good sense of humor so I thought he might appreciate this crab surrounded by his friends. The claws are half popped up to hold the gifts. The shrimp and the small clam shell are also popped up.

The more mustard panel is spritzed with pearl ex and is VERY sparkly IRL.

I enjoyed coloring this with PrismaColor Pencils because I could get some subtle coloring especially on the shells. It is hard for me to do that with watercolors on small areas.

Materials Used:

• Stamps: Crab and Co. (SU!)
• Ink: StazOn Jet Black for stamping, Ruby red, More Mustard, and Cool Caribbean for sponging (SU!)
• Paper: Ruby Red, More Mustard, Cool Caribbean, Taken With Teal (SU!) White (Georgia Pacific)
• Accessories-Star Punch (Marvy Uchida), 3/4" circle punch (SU!), Pearl Ex (Jacquard), PrismaColor Pencils (Sanford), Low odor mineral spirits, Craft wire, Stampin' Dimensionals

Sleeping Baby

Just a quick post!


One of the little girls in my preschool Sunday school class became a big sister last week, so this card is for her.

This layout is from CPS #39 .

Materials Used:

• Stamps: David Walker-Sleeping Baby
• Paper: Designer Paper-Karen Neuburger, White and Certainly Celery from SU!
• Ink: StazOn Jet Black
• Accessories: Prima flowers, PrismaColor pencils, Die cut machine, Sizzlet die, stickles, Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I am off to visit my mom since I am a Hunter/Pigskin widow. Time to do some Christmas shopping while Grandma plays with the kids. (BTW--My house is sweet smelling--whew!)

Thanks for stopping by!

My new Starving ArtiStamps are on the way!! Stay tuned!!!

SO BLESSED!!

Today started out stinky---literally STINKY!

I woke up at 1:00 am to a stinky house. A skunk had let loose under our home. YUCK! Not the best way to start my day. I was cranky and a bit bitter. However, we have started a no complaining rule in our house. So, I was forced to find the blessings in this day:

--I have a home to get skunked
--The bedrooms and the bathrooms are not stinky (so our clothes are not stinky)
--We have zoned heating so I can turn off the heat where it stinks and air out the house without freezing the bedrooms or wasting electricity
--The dog did not get skunked
--It is unseasonably warm today (supposed to get to 60F) and sunny
--The skunkiness is on the opposite side of the house from my stamping stuff
--DH's stinky running clothes don't smell so bad (in comparison)


Then I got online this morning and two of my stamping buddies (Shelly and Judy) had a challenge: A card with "So Very _____________", with no flowers, and using the colors Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky (which I substituted Cool Caribbean since I am Sky-less). So that inspired this card with even MORE blessings:

--I have so many stamps that there are ones that have not seen in in MONTHS (true for all the stamps used on this card)
--I have friends to stamp *with* (though they live FAR away)
--I have plenty of clothes to wear to keep me warm while I am stamping (it is 45 F in the house)

So, here, finally, is the card.

It was inspired by CPS #39. Not sure if I took too many liberties with the bottom and the ribbon, or not. But it is a great sketch to work with! The zipper pull also says *blessed*.

Materials Used:

• Stamps: Zoofari, So Very, and Polka Dot & Paisley by SU!
  
• Ink: Dark Brown Fluid Chalk Ink, Certainly Celery, Cool Caribbean


• Paper: Water Color paper, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Cool Caribbean


• Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayon (Chocolate Chip), Watercolor Brush, Dimensionals, Sm. Corner rounder, Ribbon, Zipper pull ,
  

Thanks for stopping by--Have a BLESSED day!

So Thankful!

We we very blessed by folks during Pastor Appreciation Month. So you know what that means....Thank you notes. (Remember you can click on the picture to veiw it larger) Since I need quite a few, I went with a simple layout for them. I colored the images while dh and I went to NYC last weekend for the marathon. (You can take colored pencils on the plane in case you wondered.) The leaf shape I punched out of the sticky part of a Post-It note and then used a sponge dauber to ink over the leaf mask. So easy but a fun element! (and easy to repeat for many cards)

Also, I am thrilled and thankful to announce that I have been invited to be a Guest Designer for Starving Artistamps. I am not exactly sure what that means yet. Although, I do know that means fresh rubber!! Their latest releases are very exciting!! You should check them out!!

Materials Used:

• Stamps: Vases in Vogue and Give Thanks by SU!
• Paper: DP (unknown); Old Olive, Kraft and Chocolate Chip CS by SU!
• Ink: StazOn Jet Black; Old Olive and Chocolate Chip by SU!
• Accessories: Post-It note, Dusty Miller punch by Family Treasures, Ribbon, Distressing Tool

Thanks for stopping by!!

A CASE of Friendship and Coffee

My friend Judy made a cool card today. Unfortunately--I could not get it out of my head to make something original---so with her permission I CASE'd the card completely (except for the stamps). HERE is the original card.





Also, I used this opportunity to participate in the JBWW challenge. The challenge was to make a phrase using handwriting or computer. (Not a stamp). So continuing in the spirit of being totally un-original.... I case a stamp that I do NOT have. (this one)

So basically, I really wanted to stamp today--but I didn't have a creative bone in my body (I have been out of town for a few days). SO I case'd. *sigh*

Materials Used:

• Stamps: Coffee and Tea Cups (Hero Arts)
• Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Ruby Red, Cool Caribbean, Garden Green, (SU!)
• Ink: Ruby Red, Cool Caribbean, Garden Green (SU!)
• Accessories: 1-3/8" square punch (SU!), Stampin Dimensionals, Black Pen, ribbon,

Perhaps tomorrow will produce something a little more original.