Finding time to get back in the scraproom....

One of my swaps this month was creating a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card with a recipe inside. This card has a delish recipe for a "refreshingly fresh strawberry pie" inside. A very simple card, but it was fun to make.

I apologize for the photo quality...this time my camera was out of batteries so I was forced to use the phone camera again. Ah well...
This swap was a "Treasure ATC"..Creating an ATC that had to be opened to find a "treasure" inside. This one was quite fun. Though as I'm looking at it, I'm thinking the front closed is quite boring..... The brads 0n the front are actually plain ordinary brass brads from the local office supply store that I heated and covered with a black sparkly embossing powder a few times. The brads are then wrapped with a piece of brown embroidery floss to keep it closed
Much more interesting inside as you open it up. The top flap has postage stamps stamped and a "for real" canceled stamp on it. The middle's background is made by sponging over a piece of paper lace I had laying about. Very hard to see, but there is a real skeleton leaf from our woods layered over the paper and then layered on top of all that is various bit and bobs from my "bits and bobs drawer". :-DThe bottom flap has a tea bag envelope attached and inside is a lil' tiny teacup stamped and attached to a piece of embroidery floss which is then attached to a scrap of paper with a "Keystone Brand" label for fun. All kinds of lil' things to open and find.
Tonight I intend to get back in the scraproom and make a photo cube for the boys Grammy. "Please to go sleep lil' boys please go to sleep!" ;-D

Whiff Of Joy...

Wish I could take credit for this adorable little guy, but he is just a link over to Whiff Of Joy as part of a promo for the new stamp sets. But he IS super cute!

Whiff Of Joy is about to release their newest set of medieval stamp sets on February 14th (what a great V-day celebration!). Absolutely adorable. You can enter for a chance to win their new set FREE! Check out their blog here (http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/2009/02/whiff-of-joy-preview-1-chance-to-win.html ) and directions on how you can enter to win the newest Whiff Of Joy set. Whether you enter to win or not, the blog is full of inspirational ideas and links to follow. Check it out, and check it often as Katharina is going to be uploading new samples daily.

Wedding invites and other bits of creativity

As part of a wedding gift for a very special friend I offered to make her wedding invitations. They are finally completed and she and her finance' really like them! I was SO nervous, from the time I shipped them out to the time they arrived and she sent me the message that she loved them. Whew!

I created the invitations starting with 12x12 Close To My Heart Sunkiss Yellow Cardstock cut down to 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 cards which I randomly stamped with daisies in CTMH's Sunny Yellow. I then layered vellum printed with the wedding information on top and finished them off with Prima's Iced Got Flowers? Summer Fun Paper Flowers. They were actually alot of fun to make and even with 150 of them I still think I can handle playing with some more prima flowers and can honestly say I still like the color yellow! This wonderful project explains all the yellow scraps around my room.

This morning I created two ATC's for fun. I played with creating my own background paper and randomly stamped a flourish three times on each card, embossing each one with a different color powder (clear, brown sand, and sparkly black). Then I layed some fun bits I had laying about on the background and covered it with some torn vellum and a torn tag with some fun fabric ribbon wrapped about it. Then I topped it off with a cute lil' rose colored using distress inks (my very first attempt using Tim' Holtz's Distress Inks and a water pen). Very collagey......I'm sure that's not a word, but I'll take some creative license and use it anyway. Hmmm, no yellow scraps here-how'd that happen!?!? I finished of card with some chocolate brown ink to distress the edges and DONE! :o) That's all the scrappiness for today. This is quite impressive-months and months with no posts and then a dozen in a few weeks. Now I have to continue living up to the challange of timely posting.

Finally ink and paper products!

So I am finally sharing some of what has been keeping me sane the last week or so. I've gotten a few essential jobs done and finally allowed myself some play time. So, here are a few cards I threw together (trying my darnedest to use up scraps and bits as much as possible!) The card above was made by running red cardstock through my cuttlebug using the script folder and then rubbing cranberry red ink over the raised images till I was happy with it. After distressing the edges of the cardstock I also inked the edges with the same ink and curled them. The face stamp

is RubberStampede and is stamped on a piece of white corecardstock that I sanded first to distress and then layered on another piece of red cardstock. Then I just finished it up with left over red lace and a cute lil' saying and done. Can you say monochromatic? :)I had so much fun making this card I made a few.

This card I used some alcohol inked cardstock I had created and not yet used. I stamped the image using VersaMark and then embossed in GOLD. I originally had no intentions of using lace, but the card needed something more and that is what worked the best. The sentiment is gold embossed on a torn piece of vellum.

This card came out of nowhere. It was a set of three images that I had bought recently because they looked so fun. I stamped in VersaMark on yellow cardstock (I have a TON of yellow scraps-explanation to follow), embossed with clear powder and then used a dense sponge to apply the ink over and over til I had the color density I wanted on each one. Cut them out, layered it up and walla, a piece of modern art. :P

The lace and ribbon bug musta' bit me because I used it again on this card that just kinda came together as I was using up more alcohol ink background scraps and other odd pieces lying about.

The last greeting card came from a card I had remembered seeing online at http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/ . The original was a Valentines Card, but mine took a turn away from Valentines as I was again trying to use my bits and such and not break into my full sheets of cardstock and paper. At the start of the card I had a feeling it was NOT going to turn into any type of respectable card, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out into a quite nice lil' card.

So tomorrow I must post again as I have yet to post the wedding invites I did for a friend. She has received them and is thrilled with them so I'll post a peek at that in the morning.....which will explain the yellow scraps. :)

For a special Gramma far, far away....

Sending some Hugs, Kisses, and Love to Gramma in the Philippines!

For Gramma.....

I generally would not post much of my children on the web, but my mother has gone on a mission trip to the Philippines for three weeks and misses her lil' guys A LOT! I've tried to email and send video but just can't get it to go.....So, here you are Gramma, your lil guy fix. :)

Some fun funky cards

Did some playing last night and actually created a couple cards. No huge techniques or anything, but had some fun and finished with a couple cute, fun, funky cards. Enjoy. Let me know what you think. The "You are special" card is a using an inkadinkado stamp set that is actually in pieces, like playing with a paper doll! I actually stamped her and decided she needed something more so restamped her dress on a pink piece of scrap cardstock and layered it on.

The "Beauty" card is using a Dawn Houser set from inkadinkado. I just love the dress....and the attitude. :) And then I just added a wee bit of bling to finish up the bottoms of the cards. I've been on a button and brad binge for quite awhile and neither of those embellies would really work on these cards, so sparklies it had to be. :)

The "Shoe" card is actually for a swap I'm doing, but it was inspired by a friend's love of shoes. It is from the same Dawn Houser set as the dress. The background is alcohol inks as are the shoes, which I stamped with archival ink on another background of alcohol ink I had made and then cut out. I wonder if my friend would wear a pair of shoes if I alcohol inked them? They would certainly be one of a kind! It's hard to see the sheen, other than on the shoes, but there is gold metalics throughout the background which makes it shimmery and shine as you hold it. Also there is a gauzy ribbon across the card behind the shoes...need a better camera. :P Thanks for looking and hope you enjoyed.