random.on purpose.

Just Jinglin' Along...

Okay - I promise my most excellent promise - this will be my last Christmas card post for a couple of weeks!  It's just that the current Jingle Belles challenge was so completely irresistable, that I HAD to make a card for it!  The challenge was to make a card inspired by the beautiful banner that Lauren created for the Jingle Belles blog, which looks like this:

Isn't that the coolest?  I love sooo many things about it!  I couldn't quite capture it, but this is as close as I could come:

Stamps: Close to My Heart Speckled Backgrounds, Inkadinkado Holiday Words and Holiday Silhouettes, Studio G sentiment and dot border; Ink: Stampin'Up! Baja Breeze and Basic Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark; Paper: Stampin'Up! Naturals Ivory and Real Red, DCWV Aqua textured cardstock; Accessories/tools: White embossing powder, JoAnn glitter chipboard sentiment, Coats & Clark button thread, unknown heart sequins and jingle bells, CTMH journaling marker, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Happily, the color combo of red and aqua (or turquoise) is also one of the weekly challenges for the SCS group I've joined!  I promise - that really is aqua ink and cardstock on that card, in spite of the fact that it looks bright blue in the photo.  I need to read up on my camera settings or something...  We were also supposed to use a flourish of some kind on our card, so my snowflake flourishes totally qualify!  Woo hoo - a two-fer!

My jingle bells started out brass, but I held them with my tweezers and blasted them with my heat gun until they were warmed up pretty well, then dumped white embossing powder over them and re-heated so they'd be smoothly coated.  They're (obviously) too small to decorate like the ones in the banner, so I opted to tie them with red thread instead of white, and add some heart sequins in between...  I got to use my Tim Holtz tiny attacher for the first time, too!  Fun stuff!

Another challenge for the SCS group was to make a CAS card that didn't require extra postage.  I made two:

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Warm Words; Paper: White, Stampin'Up! Ski Slope dp; Ink: Stampin'Up! Riding Hood Red; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug die and embossing folder, Marvy Uchida scalloped square punch

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Holiday Blocks, Inkadinkado Warm Holiday Wishes; Ink: Stampin'Up! Riding Hood Red, Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Rich Razzleberry, Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: White, black; Accessories/tools: Silver cord, Liquid Pearls, 1/8" round hole punch

I guess I still had jingle bells on the brain when I made that second one...  Even though both of these cards use foam tape for some dimension, it's only 1/16" thick, so these cards are still  under 1/4" thick, envelope and all, so no extra postage is required!

Okay - that's it for this Christmas edition!  Next time I hop on here will be to share Valentine-y stuff!  I've been working on some things, but none of them are ready to share yet.  Plus, I did have to get that Jingle Belles card "out there" while the mojo was flowin'...

I hope you're having a great weekend so far!  Catch ya next week, most likely!  Thanks for stopping by...

Cozy and Crafty

That's what today was!  Really, really cold outside, and my car has been in a snow cocoon since Thursday night, so I had ZERO desire or ambition to go anywhere!  Greg had to be out, since he plows several area parking lots, so I was on my own off and on during the day, too.  Hmm...what should I do?  Well, play along with a couple of Splitcoast Stamper challenges and catch up on the Jingle Belles, too!

I'm pretty excited about my Jingle Belles cards, so I'm sharing them first.  The first one is for this year's first prompt, "No Time Like the Present(s)", which I started making the day after the prompt was posted, and then totally missed the deadline to upload it last Wednesday.  Life stuff - you know how it goes...  Anyway - the prompt was to use wrapping paper (preferably from one of the gifts from this Christmas just past) to make our card.  Here's mine:

Paper: Wrapping paper, Close to My Heart Clover Meadow, black; Ink: Stampin'Up! Glorious Green; Accesories/tools: Sewing machine, Sizzix holly die, ribbon and buttons from my stash

No stamps at all!  I just cut a piece of the wrapping paper that included the singing snowmen and the candy stripes above and below them, added some stitching for interest, added the ribbon and bow at the top and the diecut, inked holly leaves and button berries to the bottom - done!

The current prompt got me totally excited, because it inspired me to take on a couple of things that I find, well, challenging!  The prompt is "Sketching Through the Snow", and it's this great sketch by Kirstie Vittetoe:

The card that came into my head required me to do something:  a) collage-y and, b) vintage-y, neither of which I consider my strengths.  That's what challenges are for, right - to challenge us to do new things!  Or, at least, to attempt to get better at old ones...  Here's the card I managed to pull off for this challenge:

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Many Merry Messages, Anita's angel stamp; Ink: Versamark; Paper: DCWV Old World and Textured Metallic stacks, Stampin'Up! Naturals Ivory; Accessories/tools: Gold embossing powder, Perfect Pearls, deckle-edge scissors, ribbon, gold cord, lace and flower from my stash

I'm pretty proud of this because it doesn't suck and it pretty much matches the picture in my head - rare!  I'm also proud because I used bits of lace and ribbon that have been hanging around for a couple of forevers - ditto on the flower.  PLUS - I dusted off my old deckle-edge scissors to cut out my image and the mat for it (remember when we ALL did that - before Nestabilities...?)

The lace was sewn on with off-white thread and my sewing machine, and then I did a hand-sewn embroidery stitch with some thin gold cord over the machine stitching.  It took a while to figure out the spacing on the holes to poke prior to stitching, but once I got that sorted it went pretty quickly!  The only other thing not immediately noticeable on this card is that I mixed some copper Perfect Pearls with a bit of water and did some tiny splatters on the angel panel, just to help everything coordinate, and to make the ivory cardstock less stark.

This is the second time I've written this post.  The first one got lost in the ether when my computer started having issues and I had to re-boot.  Now it's bedtime and I'm tired and so I'm going to share the other two cards tomorrow - sound fair?  Here's to a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

At Last...

I carved out a snippet of time to make a Jingle Belles card!  I've totally been bummin' about my time constraints because I've had some really great (for me, at least) ideas for a couple of the prompts and not been able to execute.  ESPECIALLY the week of  "Not a CREATURE was Stirring" - I had my monsters stamped, colored and cut out, and STILL didn't manage to get the card made!  I don't have time to finish that one today, either.  I blew off work this morning to make a card for this week's     prompt, but too bad - those cushions will just have to wait another hour or two, right?

Backstory:  The lady who cuts my hair and has become a friend also does Chihuahua rescues.  The friend that introduced me to her was a CAT person, but has totally converted and has (to date) adopted FIVE of the "chi chis", as she calls them.  Two of our (male, biker-type) friends are also Chihuahua owners, and are absolutely GOOFY about Chopper and Taco.  This week's prompt at the Jingle Belles blog was to use stickers.  I have no Christmas stickers, but I have a squillion alphabet stickers.  Some of them have always looked sort of Mexican/fiesta-ish to me, so I thought it fitting that I use them in tandem with my Chihuahua stamp to make a card for at least one of the afore-mentioned chi chi owners:

Stamp: Inkadinkado; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: CLose to My Heart Cranberry, Stampin'Up! Summer Sun; Accessories/Tools: Cuttlebug Floral Fantasy embossing folder, Miss Elizabeth's stickers, Bic and Prismacolor markers

Ta da!  A whole card done - before the deadline and everything!  Big changes are ahead in my corner of the world, and they will include chunks of time dedicated to creative pursuits, so I'm pretty excited about that!  Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the week (Happy Hump Day) and thanks for stopping by!

Have a Holly Jolly...Halloween?

So, after a loooooong time away - putting out fires and catching up on things overlooked whilst putting out fires - I'm baaaack!

I've missed more Jingle Belles challenges (so sad), as well as LOTS of other things I've been wanting to play along with and/or do and I've MISSED creating, for sure!  I had an almost-finished card from an earlier Jingle Belles challenge, so I used it for this week's prompt to incorporate Christmas carol(s) in our card.  I decided that "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" was the way to go:

Stamp: Close to My Heart Christmas Melodies; Ink: Versamark; Paper:  unknown textured cardstock and tissue paper; Accessories/tools: Stampendous Gold Tinsel embossing powder, Creative Memories circle cutting system, unknown ribbon, gold thread, sewing machine

This is the card I was originally going to make for the "Holly and the Ivy" challenge back in March.  Although the cardstock looks black in the above photo, it is actually the same purple as the berries (it's raining today and picture-taking is problematic - keep this in mind with ALL of the photos in this post, please...)  I used the Faux Silk technique I outlined in the post for that challenge.

That's pretty much all that you need to go on for my card.  Shifting gears, I wanted to share some of the quirky stuff that makes me happy this time of year.  I don't like gruesome Halloween things, and you will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER see me going into a haunted house and I have a serious phobia surrounding masks, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE quirky/cute Halloween-y things!  Here are some pics of a few of my faves:

These next pics are not the greatest, but I so love these little ornaments (that I hung from black ribbon) on the lampshade of a little lamp next to my staircase that I had to share them:

And that, my dear friends (all three or four of you!) is what's going on in my little corner of the world right now!  Hopefully the Sue-niverse will be fire-free for a time and I can get back to doing things that I enjoy MUCH more than playing firefighter!  Have a great rest-of-the-week!

Stalling Again (what fun!)

I'm supposed to be sewing.   I'm supposed to be finishing some digital stamps.  I'm supposed to be printing and adding texture to some wall decals.  I'm supposed to be ridding the attic and garage and basement of excess clutter.  Instead, I'm playing with my printer and paper trimmer and colored pencils and markers and glitter to make my card(s) for this week's Jingle Belles challenge:

The challenge was to incorporate at least one digital element in our card.  The challenge is also being sponsored by Robyn's Fetish, a company that has digital stamps and paper packs.  I opted to use their My Valentines papers as the basis for my little (2 3/4" square) note cards.  I had three different ideas and couldn't choose between them, so I did one of each.  I printed a sheet of cardstock with three 2 1/2" squares of each of two different papers, along with several digital stamp images sized to fit.

My first thought was to do a very simple card layering the two papers and just adding a flower, so I did that:

I added some glitter to the flower center and drew a few swirls with a Quickie glue pen and sprinkled them with glitter, too.   The leaves are actually a cut-apart Prima flower that I colored dark green with a marker.  I wanted to do another CAS card with one of my RandomBliss images, so I did:

I colored my Santa with colored pencils and a new blender pen that I was testing.  Jury's still out as to whether I like it as well as mineral spirits...  You may have noticed that there are no doodles around the Santa in the "group shot" picture at the top of this post.  I wondered if the circle was too plain, so I added the doodles (and some shading on the outer edge of the circle) after I took that pic.  I haven't decided which version I prefer - any thoughts? 

The final idea that I wanted to execute was to do a little "extra" - a frame for the image, some ribbon, etc. - so I did that, too:

This one uses a digital stamp from Pure Innocence by Heather Ellis.  I colored it with Bic and Prismacolor markers and cut a frame for it with a die from Stampin'Up!  I also used some SU! ribbon that Sherry gave me (thanks, GF!)  That's pretty much the scoop on these little cards, I guess...  

I started some fall projects last week, taking pictures along the way, so I can (hopefully) finish at least one of them and share it/them soon.  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

 

A Privilege and a Preview

First, some exciting news!  I submitted an idea to Stephanie and Lauren of Jingle Belles fame a while back, and they asked me to be the "lovely guest star" for the challenge this week!  Well, of course - what a privilege!

My idea was "Deck the Halls", and a deck of cards came to mind.  My first thought was to make a card that was the King of Hearts, with a baby Jesus in the manger on the card instead of the regular king, since Christ is also known as The King of Kings, but that seemed a bit disrespectful/sacrilegious, so I thought of ATCs instead (Artist's Trading Cards).

THEN, I thought maybe I could do a Christmas-themed deck of cards and it wasn't too long before I landed on the perfect theme: The Twelve Days of Christmas!  Each suit in a regular deck has thirteen cards, so I'd just have to add one that said "Merry Christmas" for the thirteenth card.  I made my card for the JB challenge with the playing card for the First Day of Christmas, which is, as everyone knows, a partridge in a pear tree:

Stamps: RandomBliss digital Partridge in a Pear Tree, Stampin'Up! Happiest of Holidays and Tags on Board, Hero Arts Small Typewriter Alphabet; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin'Up! Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Going Gray, Black, Green Galore, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Baja Breeze, Close to My Heart White Daisy pigment ink; Paper: Close to My Heart Honey cardstock, Me & My Big Ideas dp, Provo Craft dp, Strathmore watercolor paper; Accessories/tools: Marvy corner rounder, Stampendous white detail embossing powder

I used my inkpads to do a watercolor technique.  I take the inkpad and "smoosh" it onto an acrylic block (which serves as a palette) and then just paint away!  Saves buying a bunch of paints and conserves space, too!  I used a small poinsettia stamp and a small #1 from an alphabet set to make the number and suit for my card.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment on an already-embellished piece of paper.  The rest is simple and self-explanatory...

This partridge is the preview I was referring to in my title.  I've finished eight of the twelve days as far as sketches, and six of them have been finalized into digital stamps, but I've had a minor setback for the moment, so it'll probably be a week or so before they're ready to roll.  Keep an eye out, though!  I'll be selling the digital stamps (outlines only) and may get enthused enough to make a finished deck or two to sell, as well.  I may even go all crazy and do a giveaway!  We'll have to see what the rest of the week brings...

Alrighty then!  I've got to go clear up some messes I've made throughout the day (painting messes, dinner messes, etc.) and see what other mischief I can get into.  Thanks for stopping by!

Under the Wire

Yup - that's me!  The deadline for the Jingle Belles challenge is in about half an hour!  This week we were challenged to CASE any card made for any challenge by any fellow Jingle Belle.  I chose this card by Tesa of Tesas Scrap:

I love that it's kraft, that it's tall and skinny, and that it's Clean And Simple (CAS).  Here' s my version:

Stamps: Inkadinkado and WalMart; Ink: Close to My Heart White Daisy pigment ink, Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: Hobby Lobby Kraft; Accessories/tools: Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Marvy circle punch, Fiskars scallop-edge scissors, Prismacolor colored pencils, Goo Gone pen, Sakura stardust gel pen

Edited to add:  I had a question about the Goo Gone pen in the list of supplies above.  I used it instead of odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps to do a modified version of the Gamsol Magic technique.  Thanks for asking, Steph!

Sorry the colors are whacked - I need to build a light box to take pics with...  Anyway, this was a fun challenge!  I may go a-CASE-ing other Belles' cards!  Okay - time to link up and then eat dinner!  Buh-bye!

Playing Again

I think that I've finally settled into some semblance of a routine with our new situation here at the ol' homestead.  One happy effect is that I'm able to find a little more time in between things to make cards and things for my house and brainstorm possible business ventures and...

ANYWAY - I managed to finish my card for this week's Jingle Belles challenge - one day ahead of time, even!  The Jingle Belles paired with the Clean & Simple challenge blog this week for a sketch challenge:

and here's my card:

Stamp: Inkadinkado Warm Holiday Wishes; Ink: Stampin'Up! Chocolate Chip; Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Holiday Treasures and Ski Slope; Accessories/tools: SU!/Sizzix Norhtern Frost die, Fiskars scallop edge punch, Marvy small snowflake punch

Still making up my mind about it - I think it needs something between the sentiment and the snowflakes - but it's supposed to be clean and simple, so I'm leaving it alone...

I also made a card for yesterday's technique challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.  I know what you're thinking: "You, SUE, did a technique challenge?!"  Yes, I did, but only because it wasn't a fancy-fold card or a 3-D object or require shaving cream or melting things.  We were challenged to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) the first card that we ever added to our "favorites" folder.  The first one I added (May 2006) was THIS ONE by Mercy Kerin, and here's my CASE:

Stamps: Recollections paper airplanes, Inkadinkado Road Trip sentiment; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Paper: DCWV; Accessories/tools: Bic and Prismacolor markers, sewing machine

I paper-pieced the little airplanes so they'd be more colorful and show up better against the blue sky.  How perfect was it that I had a "Blue skies ahead" sentiment in my stash?  Serendipity, for sure!  My stitching's a bit wonky on the right side, but it's a whimsical card, anyway, so I'm okay with it...

Okay, that's it for this installment!  Back to the "day job"...  I'm making window seat and bench cushions for one of the houses in this year's Parade of Homes, which starts next weekend - I'd best be finishing, eh?  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week (it's still early enough to wish you that, right?)!

 

Christmas In...August?

I know, I know - it's typically "Christmas in July", but my July was pretty much a hot, shredded mess, so I'm only now getting around to the "catching up" project for the Jingle Belles challenges that I'm so very far behind on...

I made one card over the past weekend, and started a second one.  Yesterday Sherry came over to play so I finished the second and also made a third.  This morning I made the card for this week's "Shape Up for the Holidays" challenge (shocker, I know!):

Paper: Stampin'Up! Real Red, Blush Blossom, white; Accessories/tools: Fiskars and EK Success border punches, Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder, Nestabilities heart die, SU! decorative label punch, Micron pen, chalk, dew drop

The challenge was to make a shaped card, so I drew inspiration from this card that I made last year to make a retro Santa.  He's sized to fit into a business-sized envelope, and the only "bumpy" thing going on is his dew drop nose:

The card I made last night was the one I had in mind for last week's "Blue Christmas" challenge to use...well, you know - blue!

Stamps: Pure Innocence; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: DCWV and Provo Craft; Accessories/tools: Bic and Prismacolor markers, Sakura glaze pen, Zig silver metallic Painty pen, Twinklets Diamond Dust

I paper-pieced my little girl's clothes and cut some super-thin strips of black cardstock (with my paper trimmer) to stand in for her hair (I wasn't about to try to cut around it, so I lopped it off).  The mailbox is actually from a different Pure Innocence stamp, but I wanted to use it here.  Mixing and matching stamps (even from different companies) makes me happy...

Here's the card I made last weekend that I never got around to posting here:

Stamp: Studio G; Ink: Ranger Fired Brick distress ink; Paper: Special Occasions green metallic, Georgia Pacific white; Accessories/tools: Sizzix embossing folders, ribbon

This card is for the "Ghost of Christmas Present" challenge.  We were to follow a recipe that included these ingredients:  white as a ghost, a present, a bow or knot, and a touch of traditional Christmas colors.  I embossed my white layer and my "gift", then made a bow with some narrow ribbon I had hanging around, stamped a little tag, and that was that!

I also made a card for the "Cardstock Christmas" challenge - no designer papers allowed!  I embossed, stamped, tore, and inked up some cardstock to make this card:

Stamp: Rubber Stampede Santa and sheet music; Ink: Ranger Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo distress inks; Paper: Stampin'Up! Naturals Ivory and Soft Suede; Accesories/tools: Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, colored pencils, ribbon

And that's what I've been up to card-making-wise! Fun times, eh? I've also been working on the pillows for Hannah's room, so I'll post pics of those in the near future, too. Gotta go finish 'em now, though! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

A Creative Diversion

Well, well, well...  Things are even more odd than usual in the "Sue-niverse".  Very strange birthday/holiday weekend, continuing strangeness so far this week, and an odd ending to the giveaway!  Only TWO comments, and so our winner of the free book is Debra!  Send me your snail mail address, please, so I can send it your way!

In other news, I needed to do something to scratch an Odd Brain itch and, since it involved the Jingle Belles challenge that ends today, I decided to blow off work this morning and execute!  The challenge is to use STARS or STRIPES (in honor of the Stars-and-Stripes holiday, July 4th) on our card.  I also used this week's Mojo Monday sketch, although I altered it a bit:

Stamps: Penny Black Winter Swing; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Papers: Provo Craft dp, Close to My Heart Olive, Honey and Holiday Red cardstock; Accessories/tools: Colored pencils, blender pen, Fiskars star punches, sewing machine

The sketch wasn't square, but my card is.  I also left off one of the "ribbons" behind the image.  Now that everything is stuck down permanently, I'm noticing that I probably should've shifted everything to the left just a bit.  Ah well - at least I enjoyed myself and participated in a challenge!  Second one in less than a week, even - go, me!

All right - time to go do something that actually earns a dollar or two.  Have a great hump day, and I'll be back again soon, I hope!  Thanks for stopping by!