For the Boys

This week the My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club challenge is "It's All About the Boys".  I don't know about you but my stash is sadly deficient of masculine cards so I'm game for this one.  I picked the "Who's that Geek Guy" stamp set because this guy could be my husband.  Mine might even have that t-shirt. 

Another challenge this card was made for is the Just Add Ink "Just Add Blue" challenge.  They want you to know that besides being Breast Cancer Awareness month October is Anxiety and Depression Awareness Month.  If you know someone is depressed don't shrug it off, encourage them to seek professional help.  Mental health problems such as depression are as real as physical ailments and often need to be treated by a physician to be cured. 

So here's the deets:
stamp - MFT "Who's That Geek Guy"
ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Ranger Stained Walnut
paper - Georgia Pacific cs for the image; Warsau cs blue mat and card base; Basic Grey "Skate Shoppe" collection dp
Miscellaneous - Queen and Co Grass Green pearls; copics; the Cat's Pajamas twine; computer charm from acharmingplace.com

Here's the challenges:
My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club MFTWSC10132010 -It's All About the Boys
Midnight Madness #75 - the sketch (how are you all, sorry I haven't been howling much lately- moving messed with my routine)
Just Add Ink #39 - Just Add Blue and optional send the card as a RAK to someone you care about so this will go out to my husband who has stayed behind while my daughter and I have moved.  He's missing us and we miss him.  Hopefully he'll be joining us soon.
Paper Cutz #63 - Anything Goes
Play Date Cafe #51 - colors pale blue, beige, pale mintish green
Simon Says - Easy no Cook Recipe Challenge, 3 embellishments (twine, charm and pearls), 2 dp, 1 image
L'il Red Wagon #50 - Something Old/Something New, the paper is old and the pearls are new
Papertake Weekly - 3 of a kind (the bars behind the image)
Tuesday Throwdown - Create a card with 3 elements - again the bars

Even More Pink

I may be hitting the pink wall.  Nah...I got a million pink cards in me.  But can you stand it?  This one is for the Cat's Pajamas.  This week the challenge is a photo inspiration.    The photo is of a lovely pink and white striped mug.  I picked this stamp of PJ serving up a piping hot drink to play up the mug aspect but instead of coloring the mug with stripes I opted to use a soft green for the mug and picked up the stripes with the Stampin' Up "Pink Pirouette" dp on the card base.  PJ's apron is pieced with a co-ordinating dp from the package which was also used for the square elements behind the image.  

The soft green looks so sweet with the pink, so I pulled a pastel green out of my stash (lord knows how I ever found it, and of course I already forgot where I put it away), and I pulled some green and white twine to tie the charm (I do know where my twine and charms are, I do love my charms and I love how they look tied with that twine).  I also used a variegated Sulky green thread to sew the dp to the card stock.  

So here's the deets:

Stamp - the Cat's Pajamas "A Cuppa"

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black for the image; Ranger Weathered  Wood sponged around the edge of the image

Paper - Georgia Pacific cs for the image; Warsau cs for the base and mats; Stampin' Up "Pink Pirouette" dp

Miscellaneous - copics; Heidi Swapp bling; clip; ribbon; the Cat's Pajamas twine; love charm; inverted scalloped nestibilities

Here's the challenges:

The Cat's Pajamas - photo inspiration (pink striped mug)

The Cat's Pajamas - Customer Blog Hop Challenge

Paper Cutz #63 - Anything Goes

The Pixie Cottage #40 - sketch and stitching

Simon Says - recipe 3 embellies (ribbon, charm and bling); 2 dp; 1 image
Fab 'n' Funky#44 - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy (hot chocolate! and it's got some Peppermint Schnapps in it!)
Tuesday Throwdown #21 - create a card with three elements
Pile It On - Things in Threes (three bling in each square; three elements in the design)
Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to click the pink ribbon on the sidebar before you leave.  I do hope you'll come back again.

Still Thiking Pink

FREE!!!!  Did I get your attention.  How would you like to be able to make this card for free.  OK, you do have to supply your own card stock.  Thanks to the girls at Shirley's 2 Girls you can get the bra image for free.  AND the ribbon template is also available for free on Design Team member Melissa's blog.  How great is that! 
I love the way this little card turned out.  I wanted to keep it simple but you could get all crazy with that bra.  Did you ever see the Vicotoria's Secret bra that was covered with real bling.  I saw it a couple years ago around Christmas time.  I cannot imagine anyone buying it or for that matter wearing it but it was something to behold.  I haven't bothered to do a search for it but I imagine you can find a picture of it on-line if you search a little.  But I digress...The girls have posted the image of the bra on the challenge blog (click here) for anyone to grab.  While you're grabbing the image don't forget to make a note of the e-mail location (thegirls@shirleys2girls.com) so you can send a pic of your card.  They are going to make a slide show of the cards they receive.  I can't wait to see what you all make.
Don't forget that if you use Melissa's template to give her credit.  Thanks Melissa, I love it.
Lastly, don't forget to click on the pink ribbon on my sidebar.

First Bite

Usually when doggies bite it's not a good thing but when it's a vampire doggie on a card it's just dang cute.  This vamp is a digi image "First Bite" is from Shirley's 2 Girls where you can find lots of Halloween images.  And since they're digital you don't have to worry that you won't get them in time to use them for this Halloween.  They'll be in your e-mailbox in two shakes of a vampire doggie's tail.  You can get a start on your cards by making one for this week's S2G challenge.  The girls have given you a sketch and put the twist of "black and white" on it.  A little birdie (Georgia, I'd never rat you out) told me you can add a little color.  Thank goodness because there's a little bit of the inside of the doggie's cape showing and we all know that no self respecting vampire would own a cape that didn't have a red lining and I just have to make sure you see that it's red. 

Since you gotta get a little creepy when you're making Halloween cards I decided to make the circle element on the card a spider's web. I like to place charms on my card, for this card I took a bee charm and wrapped it up in black and white twine in the hopes of making it look like ithe bee was trapped in the web by a spider. The dp is a spider web, it's cut out with inverted circle scallops Nestibilities to look like a web.

This card was made on a black card stock base.  If you use a dark colored base you should take the time to finish the inside off with a lighter piece of card stock.   For this one I used an EK Success bat punch on the bottom, looks cute and goes with the bats in the image.
If you need some more inspiration hop over to the Shirley's 2 Girls challenge blog, the rest of the design team has been busy brewing up Halloween fun for you.  Don't forget to link up your project on the challenge page, you could win a S2G digi image. 

Here's the deets:

Stamp - Shirley's 2 Girls digi "First Bite"
Ink - HP printer; Memento "London Fog" sponged around image
Paper - Georgia Pacific cs for image; Basic Gray "Eerie" collection for dp
Miscellaeous - May's Ribbon; Blue Moon Tokens bee charm; Nestibilities; copics; the Cat's Pajama's twine

Here's the challeges:
Shirley'2  Girls - sketch, use black and white (a little color is OK)
Simon Says - Easy No Cook Recipe - 3 embellies (ribbon, charm, twine), 2 dp; 1 image
L'il Red Wagon #50 - Something Old (the paper is from last year, for that matter so is the ribbon and charm)/Something New (the image)
Wee Memories #26 - Halloween
Tuesday Taggers - More than 2 legs???
Going Gray GGSC30 - Make it 3D (the charm, and the image is popped up)
Cupcake Craft #112 - Scarey Creatures (he's very cute but he's a vampire!)

Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed your stay and will come back again.  Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon - breast cancer really is really scarey.  You can help wipe it out by a mere click.

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Another two weeks have rolled around so it's time for a "Cooking It Up With Katie" challenge.  Katie always gives you a recipe.  This week it's embossing, sticker and leaf.  She'll have a jazzy way of saying those three items so you really have to go over to her site to check it out and while you're there you can see what the rest of the design team has created.  Their work is worth the visit. 
So for my card I dry embossed the brown layer.  It's a shame that you can't see the wood grain in the photo, in real life it's faint but it's just enough to add a nice touch. 
The base of this card was made with Bazzill card stock and instead of putting a ribbon through the slider sticker I used a piece of that card stock.  The word on the slider is "remember": 
Put your thinking cap on, grab a stamp and put something together.  You can link your project up on Katie's blog and if you're lucky you'll be the winner. 
One of the other challenges out there this week called for using a song title for inspiration.   That's the "A Hazy Shade of Winter".  The lyrics go " Time, time, time, see what's become of me, while I looked around for my possibilities, I was so hard to please...Look around, the leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter" This stamp reminds me of that song and I had it playing in my head while I was making it (and while I'm posting it).  It seemed appropriate,and  it made me melancholy. A feeling that I associate with fall.   Maybe if I were living in a Northern state with a chill in the air the feeling would have lasted but going out into the bright sunshine and warm Florida temperature put me back into a "hot fun in the summertime" mood. 

Here's the deets:
stamp - Shirley's 2 Girls "Fall Chair" digi image
ink - HP printer
paper - card base Bazzill cs; brown cs Nicole; orange cs Stampin' Up; image printed on Georgia Pacific cs
miscellaneous - Making Memories "5th Ave" colorboard stickers; Hero Arts Gem Stones; copics; stickles; EK Success border punch

Here's the challenges:
Cooking It Up with Katie #33 - embossing, sticker and leaf
Paper Sundaes #39 - A change of seasons
Stamp Something - Something punched
Allsorts Week 73 - Inspiration from a song title (A Hazy Shade of Winter)
Cupcake Inspiration - Photo Inspiration - a yummy cupcake iced with fall colored flowers and a dragonfly on the top,
Stampin' B #79 - Fall card
Charisma Cardz #40 Autumn colors

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again.
Click on the pink ribbon before you go, it's good for all of us.

More Thinking Pink

I hope you like pink, I do, cause thinking pink is gonna keep coming at you this month.  I know I have a card or two more in me so keep coming back.  Just in case If you've been raised by wolves; recently revived from a coma; defrosted from an iceberg or for some other reason are unaware of what's happening in the world, here's an announcement you shouldn't miss.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I'm happy to see lots of people in blogland are getting the word out.   Alma over at the Cat's Pajamas is having a Think Pink Customer Blog Hop challenge.  You can click here to check out the details.  So I pulled out one of my favorite penguin images so I could participate.

 

Here's the deets:

Stamp - the Cat's Pajama's "Good Friends"

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Ranger Scattered Straw

Paper - Georgia Pacific cs for the image; Warsau cs for the card base; Basic Grey "Porcelain" collection for the dp

Miscellaneous - Recollections Pearl stickers; the Cat's Pajamas twine and buttons (there's three of them layered together); popcorn charm (there's a close up, cause they are so dang hard to see in the most photos); copics; scraps of ribbon and lace; Nesties

Here's the challenges:

The Cat's Pajamas - Think Pink Customer Blog Hop and challenge

Sweet Stop SSS77 - sketch

If the Shoe Fits FF#50 - Don't Stress - Distress

Raise the Bar #39 - Use pink

Stamptacular Sunday #80 - BFF (the penguins are BFF) Buttons, flowers (in the dp) and use the word "Friend" or "Friendship"

Pile It On #40 - Things in threes (3 dp; 3 buttons; 3 penguins; 3 fibers- ribbon, lace and twine)

Stamp Something- Something Punchy (nesties)
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #104 - Distressing
Totally Papercrafts #37 - Buttons and Bows
Paper Playtime #19 - Ribbon, Buttons or Rhinestones
Just Add Ink #38 - Just add bling and pink

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again.  Don't forget to click the pink button on the sidebar before you leave.

What Do You Hate?

Brussels sprouts, liver, modern art, the mean kid who said something hurtful to you or, God forbid, said it to your kid.  Without hate we couldn't have love.  Me, I can tolerate Brussels sprouts once a year on Thanksgiving, no thank you to liver, I like modern art, that kid who was mean to me I've forgiven and I was no angel, but as far as the one who was mean to my kid I hope there's a special place in hell for that little punk.  Hate is strong, and it's negative so I try to rid myself of hate, except for that punk, and I do a pretty good job of it except for one other thing.  I hate Cancer.  No matter what your race, religion or political beliefs are I think that's one thing on which we can all agree.  Let's hate cancer together and let's rid the world of it.  It's Breast Cancer Awareness month so spread the message and do whatever you can.  One very simple thing you can do is click on the pink ribbon on my sidebar.  When you get to the site put it in your favorites and click on it everyday.  The world will be a better place. 
We're all in this together.

So here's the deets:
Stamp -  MFT "Think Pink"
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Up Pink Passion
Paper - Georgia Pacific cs for image; DCWV cs for mats; Warsau pink cs stamped with the pink ribbon to make my own dp
Miscellaneous - Taylor's Tiny Twinkles; Martha Stewart Hydrangea border punch; copics, Marvy 3/4" circle punch; EK Success 1" circle punch; MFT ribbon
Here's the challenges:
Mojo Monday #159 - Sketch
Raise the Bar #39 - Raise the bra (use pink, cancer awareness)
Going Grey - Think Pink with tiddly inks

BOO!

If you're like me and you just  love Halloween then you must be having a lot of fun walking through the stores.  I cannot believe how much is available for decorating, wearing and eating.  Used to be, you needed a lot of imagination and crafting abilities to have a big Halloween.  Now you can buy everything, but for crafty people it's still fun to make stuff.  I took a stroll through the big blue box this morning and just loved all the stuff I saw.  There were jars with marshmallow heads in them, they were a riot, trays of body parts, and plenty of creepy stuff. 

While I was browsing I was looking for something with a circle element for my Shirley's 2 Girls project.  What caught my eye was the Gummy Bear jar.  The lid is the perfect spot for the Masked Dog image (available here).  Since the image is digital I could make the image the correct size.  I also made a smaller version to hang as a gift tag (I just happen to know someone who just happens to love gummy bears).  The twist for this week's challenge is to use "boo".  One of my favorite punches is an EK Success "Boo" punch.  I used that to replace the brown ribbon around the lid.  Of course if you make one of these you can just put a matching ribbon on the jar.  All I had to do was print out the images, color them, and cut them out.  I used a variety of different colored stickles for the dots on the wreaths.  Put a purple eyelet on the small tag,and strung it with twine.  Punched out the boo border glued it to a small strip of card stock and glued that to the lid's edge. 
It's a quick and easy project and the jar looks so much better now that's it's been altered.
So that's my project for this week's Shirley's 2 Girls challenge, what will you make?  If you need a Halloween image you can pick one up at the S2G store, if you need some more inspiration then visit the site and see what the other design team members have made.  I got a preview and I can tell you, it's worth checking out.  Once you've finished it don't forget to link it up, you could win a fun digi image. 

Here's the deets:
Stamp - S2G "Masked dog" digi
Ink - HP printer
Paper - Georgia Pacific cs for image; Warsau cs for border
Miscellaneous - copics; stickles; the Cat's Pajama's twine; eyelet

Here's the challenges:
Shirley's 2 Girls - use "Boo"
City Crafter week #25 - Hooray for the Holidays!
Paper Sundaes #38 - Something from Your Stash (the eyelet on the tag is ancient)
Fab 'n' Funky #43 - Use a digi image
Sweet Stampin' #46 - Punch It Out
Simon Says - Halloween

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again. By the way, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so it would be a good thing if you click on the pink ribbon on my sidebar.

Lovin' from the Oven

It's time for the Guest Designer challenge at My Favorite Things. This month it's a color challenge to use Raspberry, Lime Green, Aqua and Yellow is optional.  For my entry I decided to make a recipe card holder. It's a pink acrylic clothes pin which I picked up in the dollar section at Target. You can use to hold other things like samples at card swaps, make a bunch and use them as place cards on a table. It would be a nice hostess gift at a pot luck if you included the recipe for the dish you bring.

For this image there is a lot of paper piecing using Cosmo Cricket "DeLovely" paper.  The only parts that are colored with copics are the background, flesh and wooden spoon.  And even though the flesh is colored the arms are paper pieced too.  The inside of the bowl is covered with glossy accents.  There Liquid Pearls around her neck and an applique flower to dress it up a little. 

All the deets and the challenge are already covered so for now I'll just remind you that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Click the pink ribbon, it's free, fast and easy and will do some good for your karma.  If you have a blog why not add the ribbon to it. 

Trick or Treat

Here's a quick post for the Wednesday Stamp Club on MFT.  This week the theme is Let's Play Dress Up.  I've been itching to inch up this little guy since it arrived in my mail box and finally got to it today.

I'm in a rush to get this posted because I am working with a new camera, a new computer and new to me software.  I am in a tizzy trying to figure out what I'm doing.   The only thing I can do with no problem is write this post so after I list the deets and the challenges I am off to try to learn me some stuff.

Here's the deets:
stamp - MFT Pure Innocence "Honey Bee"; Disney Alphabet for sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black for image; SU Pumpkin Pie for sentiment
Paper - card base unknown piece of reddish orange card stock; green cs Warsau; dps K & CO Halloween Specialty pad; MFT perfect panel cs for image
Miscellaneous - The Cat's Pajamas twine; MFT banner die; pumpkin charm; copics; stickles; buttons; cord elastique; Nellies Multi frames;

Here's the challenges:
MFT Wednesday Stamp Club -Let's Play Dress Up
Fussy and Fancy - sketch
L'il Red Wagon #48  - Make Your Own Embellies (not sure this counts - I made the banner)
Simon Says - It's Autumn
Pile It On - Cute and Charming
Paper Sundaes - #37 - Things with Wings
Paper Cutz #61 - Use 3 dps
Stampin' for the Weekend #48 - Autumn Inspiration
Let's Ink It Up #3 - Use your favorite stamp and use a charm
Stamptacular Sunday #78 - Season's Change use fall colors

That's my Shamey

This week, the last week of "Critter" month,  the girls at Shirley's 2 Girls asked me to make a card with "Best Furry Friend"  and the twist is to use Purple and Orange.  My kitty kat Shamus is orange and purple is my favorite color so that was an easy request  to take.  I just went looking for some purple paper.  Have you noticed that just about everything I post includes the phrase "I went looking for..."  Yeah, well, scrap stuff still doesn't have a place to call home.   I'll get around to that...eventually, but I digress. 
It's Twisted Thursday and as I said the twist is to use purple and orange.  Grab your favorite critter image and whip something up.  Enter your creation by linking it up on the Shirley's 2 Girl challenge blog and who knows, maybe you'll win.  Some body's gotta win.  Need more inspiration, the design team always have something great to show, so again, go check out the S2G blog for some idea.  Don't have a critter image, there's a link to the store on the challenge blog and you can find plenty of adorable digi images there.  And since they're digi it won't take long to get, you'll be printing and coloring in no time.
For my card I put my efforts into coloring the digi image with copics.  The dp is from DCWV Glitter Stack and the little piece of yellow card stock is a DCWV scrap.    The kitty has a little bit of orange stickles on him and the woman has a little bit of yellow stickles in her hair, like highlights.  The yellow stickles were also used for the flower centers.  Easy Peasy and pretty cute.  I love to make cards with lots of layers but I've been experimenting with getting back to simpler cards.   Quite frankly, I can't figure out which style I like better.  So what I've found out is that I just like the way homemade cards look, doesn't matter how intricate and fancy or how plain and simple, I like them all.

Now for those of you who are nosey like me, and you know who I mean, I'm posting a pic of the real Shamus and me.  Can you tell that he's trying to get away from me the card looks pretty much like the real kitty.  Now if I'd been thinking ahead I would have worn my purple tee shirt, that would have been perfect.

So here's the deets:
Stamp - Shirley's 2 Girls "Best Furry Friend" digital image
Ink - HP printer
Paper - dp DCWV  "Glitter Stack";  Georgia Pacific card stock for image; yellow scrap sc DCWV
Miscellaneous - copics, Prima flowers, stickles
 
Here's the challenges:
Shirley's 2 Girls - Critters, twist use Purple and Orange
Creative Card Crew - Bloomin' Marvelous - the more flowers the better (even my dp has flowers)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you will come back again.

Friends

I whipped up this card, actually I whipped up six of them, using the Shirley's 2 Girls digital image called "friends".    My design team buddy Gina started a thread called "Spotlight Sunday" over on SNR.  Every other Sunday she's going to spotlight a different category of stamps to use in her challenge.  So for the first challenge all you need to do is use a stamp or digi from the "Attitudes" section.  

This image reminds me of my old work place.  I really miss all my buddies and need to send some notes out, that's why I made so many.   It was a lot of fun to color and while I was coloring I was remembering how much fun I had with the "gals".  Sometimes we'd go out for dinner, or we'd shop.  At lunch time we could run out for a mani-pedi.  Sometimes there were house parties.  We were close to NYC, half an hour away so it was easy to pop into the City to see a show and get a bite to eat.  And of course there was always just yakking during the work day.   I don't miss going to work so much as I miss seeing my friends...

So here's the deets:

Stamp = Shirley's 2 Girls digi "Friends"; sentiment Art Impressions

Ink - HP printer; CTMH cranberry for sentiment

Paper -pink  Warsau cs; Georgia Pacific cs for image

Miscellaneous - copics, Queen and Co pearls; Stampin' Up corner punch

Here's the challenges:

Spotlight Sunday - Use and S2G Attitudes image

Shabby Tea Room #29 -  Pearls and Pastels

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you''ll come back again.

She's Sassy

This week at Cooking it Up With Katie we're getting Sassy.  Well, we're being sponsored by Sassy Studio.    Most of us are pretty sassy all the time.  Katie always has a fun recipe to try, this week she wants you to use a digi image (hint, you can get a Sassy image), use yellow and sparkle. 
Yellow is always cheery on cards (not on me, I look awful in it).  So I paper pieced the chair with a yellow print, gave the sassy gal a yellow shirt and blond hair, and added some yellow bling for the sparkle. 
I really enjoyed this working with this image and I kept myself entertained trying to figure out what put that contented look on her face.  I don't think that cup of cocoa put that peaceful look on her.  I had a few idea but the one my twisted little brain settled on is that she just read the results off her EPT stick.  I'm not saying what the result is, but she sure does look relieved.  Remember, I'm easily amused.
Go visit Katie and make a card for her challenge.  Link it up there and you could win a prize.
So here's the deets:
Stamp - digi image "Cocoa" from Sassy Studio
Ink - HP printer; Ranger Scattered Straw
Paper - Best Occasions card stock; Stampin' Up "Delicate Dots" dp
Miscellaneous - Queen and Co Sunflower Yellow  rhinestones; Spellbinder's Labels 9 nestie; Sulky thread
Here's the challenges:
Cooking It Up with Katie - Yellow, sparkle and digi image
Crazy for Challenges C4C56 - Bling
Charisma Cardz #38 - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll come back again.

Halloween Lights

These  are the cutest  little Halloween decorations.  I can say that for sure because they are sitting on my dining room table looking absolutely adorable.  I'm using them as luminaria but you could use them as goodie bags for your favorite trick or treaters.  One of the best things about them is that you can make them for next to nothing and you can make them any size you want. You probably have a sandwich bag and you can pick up this image in the Shirley's 2 Girls store for next to nothing.  It's digital so you don't have to wait long to get it and when you get it you can make it as big as your printer will allow.   Imagine how cool it would be to use a bag from the food store with a huge image.

It's still Crittertime at Shirley's 2 Girls challenges.  This week the twist is "SPOOKY".    I was  asked to use the" Hallow Scream" digi image.  This is right up my alley.  The minute I saw that kitty I cracked up.  He's looking for trouble, I have seen this look on my cats and it is inevitably followed by a crash and some form of clean up.    It's such a cute and easy to work with image.  It would be great on a card or invitation.  It would also be nice as a pin, you can find directions to make the pin in the post below.

Take a good look at the photo, can you notice that the one on the right is colored slightly differently.  I did that on purpose.  Every now and then someone asks me about copic markers, which I happen to like.  But they are a bit of an investment because you can't have just one, and in the case of copics it's not about obsessiveness, in order to work with them you need a good selection of colors and that can get pricey. Tthe image on the bag on the right is colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I don't use OMS or Gamsol.  I just color with the pencils.  I think the bag with pencil coloring looks as good as the bags done with copics. Here you can see that you can get similar effects with both mediums.  So if you're like me you will be going out to get whichever you don't have.  Don't be surprised if you see me post something made with crayons.  I just like to slap down color.

Now go pick up your favorite coloring medium, get a digi image from S2G and make something spooky.  Need more inspiration, well go check out what the rest of the design team has done.  Don't forget to enter your creation for a chance to win a digi image.

Don't forget to join us over on SNR for some digi fun.

A Happy Birthday pin

At  Shirley's 2 Girls  it's Twisted Thursday again.

birthday card with pin

This week the twist is birthday.   I'm sure you can use a birthday card for someone so why not make one and enter it in the challenge by linking it up on the Shirley's 2 Girls challenge blog.  You could win a couple digi images. 

The girls asked me to make something with the Domino's gift image.  It's such a cute image I was happy to oblige.

 Say hello to Domino, isn't she a good doggie!  If you love her as much as I do you can get the digital image here. 



inside of card with pin attached to cardstock popped up on dimensionals



So let's say you're strapped for cash  or you're just cheap and you  need a birthday card and present for your bestie best friend.  She knows you make cards, she probably loves everything you make and will be thrilled if you make her a present.  So how about a pin, you know costume jewelry.  Isn't that a dumb name, it's not a costume, that's for halloween.  This pin is something she can wear all year.  Of course you could make a pin for halloween,  just choose the appropriate image and follow the general idea of the instructions

So here's a lesson on how to make a pin using the S2G digi image "Domino's Gift".  You can click on any of the pictures and be able to see an enlarged image, but I didn't do a very good job of focusing. 

What you need

An image – If you choose to use a digital image you have the added benefit of making the pin in the size of your choice. Print out a few. You will use two images to make the pin and it’s always nice to have an extra image ready in case you are unhappy with something as you go along, such as a color choice (I’m sure you never make mistakes…) Sometimes I just make several of an image at the same time, especially at the holidays because they make great grab bag presents.

A small piece of black (or any color you like) card stock for the backing, this adds some stability and strength to the pin.

A jewelry pin, you can pick these up in most craft stores.  They come in different sizes and finishes.  I pick them up in small sizes because I usually make small pins.  The finish doesn't matter to me.
Coloring and decorative mediums. You can use pencils or markers. I’ve made these with copics as well as Stampin’ Up markers. Colored pencils will work. You may like to put sparkles on the pin which gives a nice effect (be careful a little goes a long way). Today I am going to use some stickles on the wreath/border aroud this image. (This image would be really cute for a Christmas present).   These directions include the numbers of the markers I used for this particular pin, but you can use any colors for yours.  If you're not sure how to substitute  colors,  pick colors that you like or pull colors from the designer papers you will be using to make the card.  Have a light and dard shade of each color, use the light color as the base color and shade with the darker one.

Glossy Accents (Ranger product) or Crystal Effects (from Stampin’ Up). I’ve used both products and they work exactly the same. I’ve never used UTEE but I’m told it works too

A plastic work mat or a piece of waxed paper is helpful – especially if you like the finish on your work table.

Time - Parts of the card require drying time, you can't rush this.  So don't wait to the last minute.  You can make this in a night, but you will need a few hours.  

Let’s get started.

When coloring it’s best to start with your lightest colors. For this pin the background is B000 Pale Porcelain Blue. Then color around the dog’s edges with B00 Frost Blue. I’ve gone over that edge a couple times to give it some definition. 

Color Domino with Y21 Buttercup Yellow, shade his left side with a thin line of Y26 Mustard. Go over the area where the colors meet this will provide a shaded look and eliminate the look of an outline. To make it look like a curly haired dog use a fine pointed marker to make some squiggley lines on his fur. For this doggie I used Stampin’ Up Mustard. Repeat this color scheme on a second face – this is the one that will show. The second face will be placed over the base one and will give it a little extra dimension.

Color the present with B01 Mint Blue and shade the lines with B02 Robin’s Egg Blue. Repeat this on the second image, again this is the one that will show.



affix the image to a slightly larger piece of cardstock

 Rough cut the image and glue it to a piece of black card stock and then cut it out. You don’t have to go crazy cutting out the uneven edge you can cut it out with a circle punch or some other cutting tool. Of course if you do cut out the uneven edge, it doesn’t have to be perfect. No one will know what it’s supposed to look like ‘cept me, and my lips are sealed. Iin my case I do have to cut out the uneven edge the way it was designed as perfectly as possible (I recognize my illness, and if you have to do it perfectly I understand)  Cut out the second face and present.  PUT THEM WHERE YOU WILL FIND THEM.  They are little and will disappear on your desk if you don't make them stay in a special spot. 

If you like to sign your work, now would be a good time to do it. Flip over the base image, keep in mind that you will be adding a pin to the back and sign it in a place that won't be covered by the pin.

Place stickles on the large white dots on the wreath. I used turquoise stickles, I like the way they look put they don’t stand out a lot so think about that when picking the color you will use. Now put this on the side and let it dry. Stickles WILL make a mess if they get a chance, so let it dry. Use the time to make the card you’re going to give with the pin.  

Once the stickles are dry you are ready to put on the second face and gift bag. This is when you will want to be using a plastic work surface or waxed paper.  Go find the face and bag (did you put them where you could find them or did you let them take a walk, if they're walking now would be a time those extra prints would come in handy)  Starting with the face and gift bag spaces cover the image with a thin coat of Glossy Accents. Put the cut out pieces on top of their base images and cover the second image with Glossy Accents.  There will be a just a little space and even though it's very thin, that little space does add something positive to the overall appearance.  Use the tip of the bottle to spread the liquid around.  Continue covering with the Glossy Accents until the entire surface is covered.  This would be the time to put on the clear sparkle, remember if you do use them, use them sparingly.   If the Glossy Accents went over the edges when it is dry you’ll be able to gently pop it off of the waxed paper or plastic sheet  without damage to the pin or your table. Again you will need to let it dry, it takes at least an hour, depending on how thick you put on the Glossy Accents.   If you already made the card, now you could make a little box for it, or a gift bag. 

When the front is dry flip it over and coat the back with Glossy Accents. Place the pin on top of the Glossy Accents, in the center about an inch from the top. Allow to dry.  In this photo the Glossy Accents have just been applied, they'll even out a little as it sits and they will dry clear.

Once it's dry your pin is ready to wear or give away.

I hope these directions were clear, please let me know if something didn't make sense.

Here's the deets:
Image - Shirley's 2 Girls "Domino's Gift" digi image
Ink - HP printer
Paper - for the card base SU kraft; scrap of black card stock; Georgia Pacific for the image; dp DCWV the Pet's Stack
Miscellaneous - Copics; jewelry pin; Crystal Effects; stickles; May's ribbon; TCP twine; charm; Michael's rhinestone stickers

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again.

A Fancy Fold

Yikes a fancy fold!  This week the recipe challenge at Cooking It Up With Katie is to  use a fancy fold, autumn and embossing.  I don't usually bother to do anything more than a simple fold so this was a real challenge for me.  A long time ago I made a card with a swinging piece and I loved the way that looked so I went back through my blog to find it because I knew I put a link to the directions in the post.  Yeah me!  I won't make you go back to look for it, I'll just give you this link to the directions.  Turns out that making a "flip flop" card is pretty easy and the real challenge for me was the embossing.    I adjusted the size of the card a little so that the image would fit in the piece that flips but otherwise I followed the directions in the Splitcoast tutorial (that's where the link will take you).   The two small pictures show you what the card looks like when it's laid flat.  This type of card makes a great invitation, where I've put the sentiment you would put the party details. 

If you've been following me you know that I recently moved and that I don't have a crafting space in my new house.  I'm hoping to get something together somehow in the future but for now my supplies are all over and I'm working on my kitchen table.  So it's time to emboss and I can't find any embossing folders.  Dang nabbit, so I figured I'd just find a stamp and emboss it, I do love the way gold embossing looks, and it would be nice to emboss some leaves for autumn.  Hmm, first finding my leave stamps, not working out for me, so I looked for a background stamp.  Found the Hero Arts "Manuscript Background"  and couldn't find my gold powder.  ACK!  I found lilac, turquoise, clear, red and silver, none of which I cared to use.  Then I found yellow!  Wohoo!  I sat down and got ready to play and realized I didn't know where my heat gun was.  This meant a trip to the sauna, otherwise known as my garage to look for unopened boxes of craft supplies.  Twenty minutes later I emerged dripping wet with heat gun in hand and stamped the background with Versamark applied the powder and heated it up.  Well, it doesn't show in the pic, and it's not as evident as the gold would have been but it is embossed. 

In the end I pulled the card together, it may not be my best effort but I bet someone who doesn't read my blog, will think this card is absolutely adorable. 

Don't forget to visit Katie's blog to see what the rest of the Design Team did, you'll get some ideas for different folds, and maybe you'll enter the challenge and win a prize.

Here's the deets:

Stamp - C.C. Designs Baby Tricks or Treats Pumpkin; Sentiment, A Muse "Got Candy"; Hero Arts "Manuscript Background"

Ink - Versamark for the embossing, orange SU marker for the sentiment, Memento Tuxedo Black for the image

Paper - MFT Perfect Panel for images, SU Kraft for card base

Miscellaneous - yellow embossing powder; stickles; pumpkin charm; pumpkin button (shaft removed); TCP twine; copics

Here's the challenges:

Cooking It Up With Katie - Fancy fold, Autumn and embossing

Paper Sundaes #35 - use three types of embellishments (twine, charm and button)

Our Creative Corner - Fun with Folds

Raise the Bar Challenge #35 - Orange, brown and green

Paper Play Week 36 - Autumn is a Comin'

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again.  Would you please click on the pink ribbon before you leave.

Critters Gone Wild!

****New Release Blog Hop!****

2G's DT is SALUTING the 'CRITTERS' in our lives...

be they furry, fuzzy or even fluffy!

The sisters are RELEASING ALL NEW DIGI Stamps that have to do

with our 'little 4-legged friends'.

Those sisters are going NUTS again with a fabulous BLOG CANDY package! Everything from ribbons to glitters!

We'll have 1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the blog candy and 3 critter digis & a 2nd place winner of 2 critter digis!

Here’s how to win….Grab your favorite furry friend and let’s go for a walk - Around the DT’s blogs! . . On the last stop you will be directed back to the S2G Challenge blog so you can leave us some love. The winners will be selected from the comments left on the Challenge Blog.

If you walked here from Georgia’s blog, then you’re in the right place. If not, head on back to the S2G Challenge blog  to start from the beginning. You don’t want to miss a thing!

**Don’t forget ** We also have our regular Twisted Thursday Challenge with the usual TWIST this week~ The TWIST this week is to use ...SPOTS & DOTS. Chances are better to WIN if you use a S2G DIGI or Clear Stamp. We'll also pick someone from this Challenge to Be a GUEST DT for a CUSTOMER BLOG HOP next month!

That's one big picture of my "Bosco Folder"  I made it big so that you could see I did use dots on my project, they're on the name on the bone.  The smaller pic is the card to go with it.   I picked up the folder for less than a buck at the local Wal-Mart (no weird shoppers for photo ops - unless you count me).  On the inside of the folder there are two pockets for your papers.  I thought this would be a pretty/fun place to keep the important information we all keep regarding our pets.  Bosco's owners like to take trips so this will be a good place to put the instructions for the pet sitter.

This image is Man's Best Friend.  One of the many critter digis available at Shirley's 2 Girls shop.   When I sat down to make this I knew I'd have a lot of fun because I love to make home interiors.  Can you tell that I like to do paneling?  It's very easy, I used to have all hard wood floors, one day I just looked at them and figured out that all you need to do to make a wood floor or panel is to draw lines, if you can't draw a straight line it's even better, and then put some dots around, I like to use colors that look like honey, put down a light color first and then just make some splotches of a darker tone.  It is as easy as I've just described.  Try it on a piece of scrap paper, you'll be surprised at how easy it is.  It's just time consuming which is fine by me.  Also for the lines make sure you use a fine point marker that won't smear when you color over it, that would be a drag.

The chair was paper pieced with dp from DCWV Pet Stack, all the dp used is from that pad.  For the bone, I fiddled around and just drew it, before I cut it out I checked to see if it was big enough for the name, it wasn't!  So I just drew a little more around it.  I show you this photo so you can see that I am not the most talented artist out there and you don't have to be to make little things like this bone (which if you make a little larger you could use as a template for a card - very cute to have a bone shaped card for your favorite pet lover).  The drawing is scratchy and imperfect but it looks pretty good on the folder.  What I'm saying is don't be afraid to try to do this stuff, it's not brain surgery, no one will suffer is you make a mess.  I plopped (very technical terminology used on this blog) the template on top of a scrap piece of card stock and cut it out, topped that on top of another darker piece of card stock (it's actually cut from the center of the mat around the image).  The dotted letters are rub-ons.  One suggestion, start with the middle letter and work your way out. 

Ready for your next stop on your walk…Then head on over to Lynne Gardine's blog  and hope you had fun while visiting here.
Lynne's our Guest DT, give her a big ole welcome and make her feel at home.
In case you get lost (being directionally challenged I tend to get lost all the time, even in blog land) here the Blog Hop Order….
1. Cat Darling
2. Georgia McDonald
3. Chris Veneruso (you are here)
4. Lynne Gardine
5. Ann English
6. Gina Lindsay
7. Laurel Seabrook
8. Mae Wisor
9. Melissa Oeters
10. Wendy Hoff
11. Debbie Daniels

There'll be lots of fun critter madness all along the way, these are some very talented ladies, you'll want to visit them all, in fact I'll be visiting too!

Here's the deets:
Stamp - Shirley's 2 Girls "Man's Best Friend" digi image
Ink - HP Printer
Paper - images printed on Georgia Pacific cs; dp DCWV Pet Stack; card base SU kraft cs; bone DCWV cs and scrap cs; blue mats on card SU Baja Breeze cs
Miscellaneous - charm; twill ribbon; stickles on dogs; copics; dimensionals; twine; Sweet Water rub-ons

Here's the challenges:
Shirley's 2 Girls - critters, twist use spots or dots
Mojo Monday #155 - sketch
Our Creative Corner - ABC's and 123's (BOSCO)
ABC Challenge - C is for charms
Color Throwdown #109 - Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz and Daffodil Delight (I think the chair alone has all those colors!)

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come by often.