It's In the Bag!

This is my entry for Papertrey Ink's It's In the Bag challenge. The instructions were to create, alter or decorate a bag of any kind. I decided to make a bag out of a clear card box - using this tutorial from Nichole's blog. I've had this project filed in my idea book for a while, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to try it. The paper and ribbon is all Papertrey in Berry Sorbet. I think I'll use this as a goodie bag for my daughter's upcoming birthday! Thanks for stopping by today!!

Another Ambassador Sample

This is the second sample I made for the Ambassador challenge I'm hosting over on the MFT forum at Splitcoast. Because my challenge was masking, I wanted to show a card with the reverse masking technique. I cut the biggest Nestability Label 1 shape and then positioned the second biggest one over top. I ran it through again with the sandwich for embossing only (no cutting) to get the embossed shape. I then left the nestie in place and sponged white craft ink into the remaining exposed area (essentially using the nestie as a stencil). I stamped this Annie Lapointe image in Versafine ink and coloured it using Prismacolour pencils and gamsol. I think this is actually the first time I've ever used the reverse masking technique, but I will definitely be doing it again soon!!
Happy Friday and I hope you have a great end to your week!

A Masked Challenge!

It's my privilege to host one of the Ambassador challenges for Feb. over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast. My challenge is to use masking to create a project.
For this card, I masked the ice cream sundae in order to layer them behind each other. After all - 6 sundaes are definitely better than 1! You can use post it notes to mask images but I recently bought some Eclipse masking tape and it is fabulous - I highly recommend it!
If you have time, I'd love for you to come play along in my challenge! MFT images are not required - so show us what you've got!
I'll be back tomorrow with my second challenge sample!

Chalked Daisies

So I'd been seeing all these gorgeous cards using this Upsy Daisy set by Stampin Up. A couple talented stampers have been using watercolours and prismacolour pencils to turn these solid daisies into beautiful works of art. I was inspired and tried my hand at it and failed miserably! Since I had my Versamark out anyway, I decided to pull out my chalks. I can't remember the last time I used chalks! It's been years! So I stamped the daisies in Versamark and applied the chalks using q-tips. I really love how this turned out - I will definitely be repeating this one! The paper is Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango and Basic Grey Urban Prairie as well as Kraft and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment is again from Papertrey's Mixed Messages (it was still out on my desk!).
Tomorrow I'm hosting one of the Ambassador challenges over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast. I'll post my samples over the next couple of days and I hope you'll pop over and play along!

Sweet Pea Sympathy

I got a couple new goodies a couple weeks ago and I hadn't yet had a chance to play with them. I received this new Lockhart stamp - Sweet Peas as well as the Nestabilities Labels One dies. Unfortunately, I needed a sympathy card for a friend of my mom's, so I put them to work. I love sweet peas so it was love at first sight when I saw this stamp. It's pretty small so was a little hard to colour but I love the way it turned out. I coated the water in the vase with Crystal effects so it's glossy. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mixed Messages set - one of my go to sentiment sets. The rest is pretty simple. Hope you're having a great weekend! We're off for some family fun!

A Cupcake Kind of Day!

I have been struggling with this card for almost a week! Hard to believe since it's pretty basic, but what can I say - I like to make things more difficult than they should be! This card was for the MFT Sketch challenge over at SCS. It turned out o.k. but I'm not thrilled with the green strip across the top. I was looking through my card stash the other day and realized that I have almost no male birthday cards, so I tried to keep this one a little more masculine (just ignore the pink and purple polka dots on the patterned paper!). The cupcake top was stamped out a second time, cut out, and raised up on dimensionals. I used my Making Memories slot punch tool to make the slits for the ribbon.
Can I just tell you that I'm sick of shoveling? I am so ready for spring - and it's only January!

Under the Wire for a Good Cause!

Have you heard about the amazing blog tart that Jen del Muro is offering? She's trying to help collect cards for the International Student Services Department at Dallas Baptist University {DBU}. They give out cards to visiting students (that represent more than 50 countries). It's taken me a while but I really wanted to send some cards as I know how hard it is to be far away from your family.
I made this card using Stephanie Hargis' Cupcake sketch (TECC52SH) and stamps from Stamp a Sweet Impression (SASI). The cardstock is Papertrey's Sweet Blush and SU Taken with Teal. The patterned paper is Basic Grey Urban Prairie.
There's still time to make a card for DBU and enter Jen's blog tart giveaway - what are you waiting for?
Well, I should be off as my kids are home as we have a snow day today!! We are getting a ton of snow and it's very pretty out! Stay warm and dry my friends!!

A Fairy Happy Birthday!

A couple of weeks ago, Pink Cat Studios ran a contest where you needed to print off this Lily the Fairy image, make a card and submit it for judging. Well I half finished the card and set it aside, and totally missed the deadline. Which is o.k. because I'm not crazy about the card - mainly just the sentiment. I printed the sentiment "Wishing You a Fairy Happy 3rd Birthday" on vellum in ink that matches the RGB values for Regal rose. While in theory it seemed to be a good idea, it didn't quite pan out in practice. I think I may pull the sentiment off and re-do it. I do love the image though - and Melissa did say that because of the positive feedback about the image, she's designing a whole set. I would love that!! This card is for my daughter's birthday - she turns three in a month! Lily is coloured with my copics and the paper is My Mind's Eye Laundry line.

In other exciting news, I submitted my application to attend a copic certification class in March. Marianne is coming to Toronto and I would be so excited to be able to learn from her - crossing my fingers that I get in!!!!

Sketchy Dandelion

I had a chance yesterday to play along with the sketch challenge over at Splitcoast. I think that sketch challenges are my favorite kind of challenges - perhaps because it makes a card come together so quickly. When I saw the long skinny panel on the sketch, I knew that I wanted to use this Hero Arts Dandelion stamp. I've only used it once before, and I'm really trying to be good about using what I have. The SEI Dill Blossom paper matched so well that it was just begging to be used on this card. The rest is straightforward - the pink is Pink Pirouette and I stamped the chocolate chip layer with a linen background stamp, inked in Palette New Canvas. I'm off to do some laundry, and maybe play along with the MFT sketch challenge!!

Stamping Room Revamp!

Before:

Last January, I revamped my stamp room and turned my desk to face out to our playroom. I also added a table and re-arranged my storage. Well, a couple of weeks ago I again got the itch to redo my stamp room. I stamp in our unfinished basement. The walls are stucco'd cement and the carpet is our old family room carpet that we kept and just placed on the floor (i.e. it's not actually tacked down and there's seams everywhere). But it's all I have and I'm lucky to have my own space. I got tired of looking at the grungy stucco walls that were full of cobwebs and decided to paint. I confess - I only painted my little corner - it would be way too much work to paint the entire basement!! I actually picked a colour that is a really close match to cool caribbean but had them decrease the saturation by 25%. I needed a light colour as I don't get a lot of natural light down there.
This is a picture of my new workspace. I turned the desk back into the wall so that I could put some storage on the wall. My workspace is now U-shaped with my desk being at the base of the U.

After:

I got these nifty Bygel rails from Ikea. They were dirt cheap at $3.99 each. The buckets were $0.99 each and the hanging basket was around $3.99 as well. My desk has never been this clear and I'm really liking it!
I actually stole this wood unit from another area of our basement. It was just holding stuff that needed to be purged anyway and I decided that it would be a great addition. I especially like that it's tall - so it's perfect for my paper cutter, cuttlebug, and embossing station. Right now it holds all my stamps both wood mounted and acrylic and unmounted. It also holds patterned paper, envelopes and alterables. Eventually I would like to make curtains for the window and matching panels for this storage unit just to add a little more colour.
This is the bulk of my patterned paper. Current stuff that I'm loving and using is in the tiered stand - divided by manufacturer. Other paper is in the 12x12 Cropper Hopper vertical storage in my wood storage unit. My 6x6 and 8x8 pads are stored in a pile next to the vertical paper holders. I'd like to get a basket to better contain them.
This is how I store my 8.5"x11" cardstock. It is filed alphabetically by colour. This works for me as I am good at remembering names. It is mainly Stampin' Up but I also have some Prism and Papertrey in there as well. I actually need to start a second file box as this one is getting pretty full. It's handy to have it so close to my chair as I can just reach down for what I need. The folder standing up next to the file box is my SU scrap file. I file anything smaller than 1/4 sheet into my scrap folder and use it for matting images or punching shapes/sentiments.
Well that's it. It's not much - but it's mine. And at least it's a little prettier now. And since I already owned the storage unit, my revamp only cost me about $35 - the cost of the Ikea stuff and paint! Not bad!! Thanks for bearing with me. I'll be back tomorrow with a card - I promise!

Another Silke Original!

How lucky am I? This beautiful card landed in my mailbox last week. I was fortunate to make a lucky guess in Silke's blog candy contest, and won some of the new Raspberry Fizz paper, cardstock and ribbon. Thank you so much Silke! Go visit her blog - she rocks!!
I had hoped to stamp this weekend but instead got a severe case of stamp room-itis! I pulled apart my room, painted my ugly unfinished stucko walls and am just finishing up putting it back together. My dh is right now drilling holes into the cement so I can put up my new Ikea rails. Hope to post pics tomorrow!

Reading Flopsey

Happy Friday! I finally found some time to stamp again in the midst of sick kids! I used the MFT sketch challenge over at Splitcoast - but took a couple liberties with it (oops!). I stamped Flopsey on Kraft paper and coloured him with copics and the books with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The sentiment is from the Essential Sentiments set and I added a couple of buttons as embellishments. The turquoise flower was made by running a piece of acetate through my cuttlebug with a flower die. I then coloured it with my copics - kind of a fun trick, since I didn't want to cover up too much of the patterned paper. The paper is SEI Dill Blossom - I found it in my stash and it's so pretty!!
I'm hoping to stamp this weekend too so I'll have more to share later. Have a great weekend!!

A Dreamy Sketch

I decided to play along with the January challenge over at Stampers Dream which is a sketch challenge. This is a great sketch, but I had a hard time with it. I ended up making this card 5.5" square - much larger than my usual cards - but I kind of like it! I used this sweet image and sentiment from Stampendous and paired it with Basic Grey Euphoria paper. I've been admiring Sweet Miss Daisy's banners - so I tried one out for the sentiment. The purely pomegranate background is stamped with a linen background stamp for a little bit of texture. This was the first time I've played along with Michelle's sketch challenge, but it won't be the last! Thanks for stopping by! I'm so grateful for those of you who read and subscribe!!

A Triple Challenge Card

I made this card last week and I combined three challenges for it. The first was for the MFT sketch challenge, the second was for the MFT Ambassador challenge to "bling it out", and the third was for the Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoast to use stars. I just love this set from My Favorite Things - Who's That E-girl? I paper pieced the couch, wall, and her skirt. The stars are sticky stars that I got from Jody Morrow's sticky share - I covered them with Martha Stewart Peridot glitter - they're super sparky in real life!! The papers are from DCWV Nana's Nursery Boy stack.
Hope you've had a good start to your week! Both my kiddos are sick, my ds has been home from school for the past two days - here's hoping he's well enough to go back tomorrow.
Oh and I got my new Stampin Up catalog this evening when I attended my monthly stamp club and I was pleasantly surprised! There's some cute new sets! Have you seen one yet? What do you think?
Oh and P.P.S. I was lucky enough to win a spot in the MFT Guest Designer contest for my one layer card. I wasn't the big winner but I get to be an Ambassador and host a challenge for next month's release.

One Layer Card Challenge

My Favorite Things (MFT) released new sets on Wednesday, and as usual, is running their Guest Designer contest. The challenge for this month was to make a one layer card. I have big time difficulty making a one layer card, so I really had to think about this one. I ended up pulling out my Isabelle Paper Doll set and stamped her bear costume on the front of the card. I then cut out the face and lined up Isabelle and stamped her on the inside of the card. The sentiment on the front is computer generated and the inside sentiment is from Essential Sentiments. A fun challenge! Hope you've had a good weekend!