Thursday, February 28, 2008

Flower Card



I saw this card on Angela's blog and thought it was so cute. She said she got the template from Mirkwood Designs. So I headed over there, printed the template and made this card in about 10 minutes. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I dry embossed a couple flowers for the front of the card and attached it to one of the petals. I have a Great Aunt whose 80th birthday is coming up the first week of March. I decided to stamp Happy Birthday inside the card and I'll send it to her. I would never guess she's turning 80. She wears Tommy Hilfiger clothes for goodness sake. She's a really cool person.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Beate's weekend sketch #36


I've never participated in Beate's sketch challenges but I had some free time this weekend to try to create a card based on this sketch. I love this image by Inky Antics of a dog hugging a kitty. I heat embossed the image and colored it with my copic markers. I had a little trouble figuring out on the image whose paws were whose. I stamped it and colored it three different times because I couldn't figure out which were the kitty's paws and which were the dog's paws. I am not sure I got it right, but this way looked the best to me.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Iron Chef Recipe Card


I've been working on some swaps lately. I am in an ongoing recipe card swap each month where we have to choose a category, and then we are given a secret ingredient. We have to then create a recipe card using the secret ingredient that fits within our chosen category. My category for March is "Soups, Stews & Chili." And the secret ingredient is Cinnamon. That's a toughie. Then I remembered the Cincinnati Chili that my mom makes has cinnamon in it. I found this outline of a map of Ohio and typed the recipe inside. I have to admit, I had no idea on that Ohio map where Cincinnati was located. I had to look up Cincinnati's location on mapquest. Even though I'm from Ohio, I'm from the northeast part of the state. In college, some friends and I once drove to Cincinnati, and it took us over 5 hours to get there. I couldn't believe we could drive that far and still be in the same state! Ohio doesn't seem that big. I hope I put my star brad in the correct place on the map and I am not showing off my bad geography skills to my fellow swappers.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

A RAK from Rae



I got this adorable black & white handbag card RAK from Rae today. I was so excited when I got the mail and saw there was an envelope with her return address on it! I love, love, love her cards. I immediately had to make my own version of her handbag card. I love how it turned out, and it was really fast and easy to make. I'll definitely be making more cards like this. I dry embossed the pink flower using a Lasting Impressions template. Thank you Rae!

I'm off to watch the hockey game, the Caps are in Carolina tonight. Hoping they can squeak out a win, it's a critical time with the playoffs rapidly approaching. Hope you're having a nice weekend!

Friday, February 22, 2008

I lied... one last Valentine


I lied... In a previous post I promised that Valentine's card would be the last. I made this card at the crop I went to just before Valentine's Day. I completely forgot about it until now. I was supposed to send it to my swap partner from the Embossing Yahoo Group I belong to. I feel bad because it's getting to her very late. I was going to print "Loads of Love" from my computer for a sentiment but wanted to finish this card at the crop, so I borrowed this Hero Arts stamp from Chrisi. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I love this wagon template from Lasting Impressions. You can put anything in the wagon to make a super cute card.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sympathy Card



I don't like making these types of cards. One of my co-workers had to make a tough decision to put her dog to sleep yesterday. She was really upset so I wanted to make her a card to let her know I was thinking about her. I didn't have much time last night to spend making a card after the hockey game, so this is what I came up with. I like this dog stamp, I think he looks sad. I think he's perfect for this card. The dog stamp is by Dan Dee Images, and the sentiment is a stamp by Victorine Originals.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Old Stash Challenge


I took Kathy up on her challenge to use old stuff from your stash to make a card. Check it out, she's giving away some blog candy to a lucky winner.

I definitely used some old stuff to make this card. A long time ago (years ago?), my LSS Angela's Happy Stamper had a make and take card that looked something like this. I loved it, and bought all the supplies to make it. Only.... did I ever recreate it? No. The supplies sat until now. The colors and the quote stamp are a little different than the make and take card. I like this quote, it makes me smile. The background is made by stamping Hero Arts shadow stamps randomly. I used my old Sea Shells inks.

Hope you're having a good week!

Monday, February 18, 2008

A couple more Valentines


One last Valentine's Day card, I promise! I wanted to post this earlier but got too busy with traveling for work last week. I had to go to Dallas, TX. It was so cold and rainy there, I was glad to get back home. It is 65 degrees here today and I have the day off. Yeah! I was hoping to work on some recipe card swaps that I signed up for, but it is too nice of a day to be inside. I think I'll take the dogs to the dog park instead.

This card took about 2 minutes to make. Very simple. I dry embossed the heart onto red striped paper, cut it out and put it on a card. I needed a last minute card and wanted it to be flat so I could put a 41 cent stamp on the envelope.


Also, wanted to post some pics of gifts that my Aunts sent to me. My Aunt Judy lives in KS so I don't see her much. She just recently retired and got into stamping as a hobby. She blew me away with this candy jar! I've never made one of these, but she said she cut the bottom of the can with a pampered chef can opener, cleaned it out, filled it with M&M's, and then glued the bottom back on. It keeps the tab top in tact. She decorated the can so cute.



My other Aunt lives in TX so I don't get to see her much either, unfortunately. She completely surprised me with this KitKat bar. She's always been crafty and does a lot of quilting and sewing but never expressed an interest in papercrafting. So that's why I was shocked that she made this. I think it's awesome for a first try, don't you think? Now, if only I could get my mom interested in papercrafting...

Bunny's first haircut

Bunny got her first haircut last Wednesday. She was very scared to even walk into Petsmart... those big automatic doors going into the store really scared her! But she was very brave when confronted with scissors, clippers and the hair dryer. Here are her before & after pics. Isn't she so cute!?!





Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Love....




We're having a bad ice storm here and I'm on a 2 hour delay from work this morning, so thought I would post some more Valentine's Day cards. It took me 2 hours to get home from work yesterday (it's only 10 miles) but all the interstates and overpasses were closed, so everyone was taking back roads, which is my normal route. I'm hoping for a better commute in this morning. Wish me luck!

Valentine's Day is coming up, and I have to admit, I have a new love in my life!! Yep, I'm in love with my Copic markers. I bought quite a few of them with gift certificates I got for Christmas and finally got a chance to use them at the crop last weekend. They are wonderful! So much quicker than the prismacolor pencils and gamsol, which I use to swear by. Here are a few cards I made using my CC Designs Valentine's sets and copic markers. Isn't that cat and pig just the cutest? I love the sayings that go along with them, the cat says "You're the cat's meow" and the pig says "You make me squeal!" Hope you're having a good week!


Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Happy Tuesday!




Last weekend, I went to an all day crop (hosted by Crops Plus). Their crops are always so fun, and they really spoil you. You get tons of free goodies and lots of table space. I can't say enough good things about their crops. Wanted to share a few things I made there. I had planned on making enough of these little treat bags for my co-workers, but it didn't turn out that way. For one, I didn't get as much done as normal because I had two friends with me (I was too busy talking), and secondly, we ate most of the candy at the crop.

The card was a make-n-take by the Stampin' Up rep who was there. I love the card, I love the colors and everything about it. It was way too easy to make to be this cute. The images are stamped on the front of the card, then stamped off (without reinking) on the inside of the card.

I found out today I didn't make the design team at my LSS. Here is the post where I have photos of my entries. Guess I'll try again next year.

On a hockey note - my Caps are back in 1st place in their division thanks to my fav player, Mike Green. He scored the game winning goal in OT on Sunday to bring them into 1st place. I am so excited!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Bargello Card Swap




I joined a swap on the PaperCrafts website for Bargello cards. I took a class on the Bargello technique a long time ago at Angela's Happy Stamper. It took me awhile to remember how to do it so I could make these cards. The definition of Bargello is a needlework stitch that produces a zigzag pattern. I first cut 1/2 inch strips of paper and used a glue stick to glue them horizontally on a piece of paper. All the strips should be butted up next to each other and line up on one edge. Then I cut the paper vertically so I would have new 1/2 inch strips that look similar to a quilt (all different colors on one strip). Then I glued those strips to a new piece of paper and made a pattern from them. Are you confused yet? I will try to post a tutorial on this soon to make it a little easier to understand. The purple card was made using Washi papers and the green card was made using cardstock and a sheet of SU paper.

I took this picture while I was working on this post this morning. This rarely happens... as they say, let sleeping dogs lie!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Baby Cards


I have a couple friends expecting babies this Spring, so I've been trying to think of gifts to give them, and design some cards too. Both of these cards are dry embossed using Lasting Impressions templates. I love the distressed papers that LI makes, they are definitely my favorite papers to make cards with. The circles on the rocking horse card were punched using my Marvy punches. I had a busy weekend, didn't have much time for crafting. Hopefully I'll have more time to craft this week and share some more projects. Hope you had a nice weekend!

Friday, February 1, 2008

What? No Embossing!?



Yep, I can make cards and other projects without embossing. It's hard and I may go into a little bit of an embossing withdrawal, but I can do it! I made this doggy Valentine's card for my Mom (I hope she doesn't see it on here before I send it to her!) The dog and saying stamps are by C.C. Designs. The grass is by A Muse. I stamped the dog and then masked him when I stamped the grass. I colored in the images with my prismacolor pencils and used gamsol to blend the colors.

The second picture is a recipe card I made for the Iron Chef recipe card swap series I am participating in on the PaperCrafts site. Every month we have to choose a category (not knowing what the secret ingredient is). Once all the swap participants have chosen their category, the swap hostess tells us what the secret ingredient is. We then have to create a 6x6 recipe card using within our chosen category using the secret ingredient. This month my category was bread, and the secret ingredient was cranberries. The bread die cut is a sizzix die cut. I'm probably going to be the only participant who didn't use red or cranberry colored paper on her card. I didn't even think about using red paper until after I had made all the recipe cards!

Meeting Mike Green!






Once a month, ESPN Zone in DC hosts a Q&A session with a player from the Washington Capitals. This month my favorite player, Mike Green, was going to be that player! So on Wednesday night I went into the city to hear him speak. He is even more good looking in person and is really funny. I had a great time and learned a few things about him. After the Q&A session, he signed autographs, so I got him to sign my #52 Mike Green jersey!