Bah Humbug Snowflake Spinner Card

Well, the lovely ladies of Humbug Hall gave us a new challenge this week.  In classic form, I'm getting it done just before the deadline.  It is a fairly easy challenge (snowflakes) so I wanted to add a bit of a twist.  I hope you have fun with this little card, I know I did.

It is a spinner card.  I found some wonderful directions for making this at Splitcoast Stampers.  I think I've mentioned it is my go to site for tutorials on all things fun in cards.

Here is a shot of the snowflake at the bottom of the spinner.

The sentiment is computer generated.  The blue cardstock is Core'dinations, the snowflake is an SVG from SVGCuts and the debossing is a folder from Sizzix.

Finally, I decided to try something new.  I did a VERY short video of the card because I'm amazed at how quickly this thing can get going.  I used two pennies (hopefully the Wonderkid won't notice that a "borrowed" them).  I wanted to see how easy/tough it is to upload to Blogger and I wanted to see what would work and wouldn't.  I didn't add sound to it because it is short (about 20 seconds) I thought you could watch without a soundtrack.

Birthday Party Invite

I thought you might like to see the birthday party invitations I've made.  Luckily I only needed to make 16.  I must say, in the end, I was very excited about the way they turned out.  Everything is cut using my E with cartridges.  I stamped the letters on the pennants.  The baker's twine is from The Kraft Outlet.  The pattern paper is from Imaginisce and the cardstock is from Core'dinations.

I don't have an Imagine.  The inside was printed on my laser jet and then cut using my E.

I'm working on a banner for the entrance to the carnival.  I've already started making all of the carnival games.  I think it should be a wonderful and fun party for a little one.  I'm certain you will be tired of this party by the time it is over.

What do you think of the invite?  Do you like the ticket on the inside?

Papercraft Star Challenge

This card was way outside my comfort zone.  The Papercraft Star challenge is something metal or a button (I have three green metal flower brads), either a stamp or a die cut (I have the stamped sentiment) and at least two patterned papers.  Then there was an inspiration photo.  This is the photo.

When I was looking for papers I was picturing the red/pink color as much more pink.  I still think it uses the picture as inspiration (especially for me given my comfort zone is as far away from pink as you can get.)

Here is a close up of the brads and the pink flower pattern paper (from ki memories -- Friendship stack).

The brads are from my pals at Creative Charms, as is the big green heart.

The Wonderkid has already laid claim to this card.  He "helped" me put it together.

Vintage Venice Card

I know this is a very simple card and it looks like I didn't do much to create it but...

I can't tell you how many times I stamped this image to get one that I liked.  It is a beautiful image (it comes from Darkroom Door an Australian company and I purchase from BlueMoon Scrapbooking) which makes it tough to embellish it.  I wanted the image to stand on its own.  I stamped the image in Archival Ink's Sepia tone.  It is stamped on cream paper which I then inked the edges using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Can I just say that ink is a lot darker than I was expecting.  I made a photo mat out of chocolate brown Core'dinations paper and placed all of it on kraft paper.

Here is a close-up of the Basillica de Santa Maria della Salute.

The dome of Salute dominates major portions of Venice's skyline.  If you visit the city you feel like you have been to Salute.  It is easily seen from the canal and many of the higher spots in the city.

Here is a link to additional information about Salute.   I have very fond memories of our visit to Venice.

I made this card for the challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  It is anything goes this week.

Vintage Cowboy Card

Hello Friends --

Sneak peak of today's card

There are two challenges going on right now that I've been thinking about and wanting to enter (The Kraft Journal and Gingersnap Creations).  Somehow they both became combined and these two cards are what I've created.  

Let me back up.  For any of my readers that were around back in November, you will remember a picture of a little slice of paradise.  You can see the post I'm talking about here.  This is my brother's place in Granby, Colorado. If you want some gorgeous pictures and a real look at a working ranch I recommend checking out his website.  If you go to the bottom (just keep scrolling, it is a long ways down) you can see a slide show of the ranch.  There are some great shots of one of my nieces and some other fantastic pictures.

One of the barns on the Strawberry Creek Ranch

My brother's office

So, back to the crafting, my friends over at Gingersnap Creations have an Old West theme this month.  When the first challenge was Cowboys and Cowgirls I HAD to play along (You can find the challenge here.  It doesn't close for awhile so you still have plenty of time to join in the fun).  I mean how could I not?  So, I started searching for a nice little digi with a vintage feel.  I found a couple that might work but not perfectly.

So, then I thought about all the wonderful pictures of my brother.  You see, he is the real thing.  An honest to goodness cowboy.  I thought about the tons and tons of pictures we have of him but none were quite what I wanted.  So, I ran over to his website here. 

This picture at the top of his website was perfect for what I wanted, well almost.  

photo by Emily Kitching

It doesn't have much of a vintage feel, now does it?  So, I went about turning it into this.

Now that is better, with a bit of a sepia modification with one of my favorite tools, Picnik it looks like a fantastic vintage photo.  

This is the first card I made with the photo.  I reprised some cardboard from last week's Christmas Gift Tags.  You can see that post here (in case you missed it with all the blogger issues).  The design paper is some I bought a LONG time ago.  In fact, I think I might have purchased it in Montana with my sister-in-law.  The button is a wooden button I dyed with Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I used the same ink on the twine wound round the card base.  

The photo at the top shows a close up of the button and some of the twine.

Here is the second card.  This one was made specifically for the ladies over at The Kraft Journal.  They wanted to see Buttons and Bows.  While my first card has a button and a bow, I didn't know if they would find one sufficient so I worked up a second card just for them.  It doesn't have quite as much depth to it, it is a bit cleaner than the first card but still has that dramatic photo. 

What do you think of the two cards?  Do you have a favorite?  Do you get that vintage feeling?  Are there any special changes you would recommend to make either of them better?  

Finally, just a little warning for all those folks thinking they want to chuck it all and move to this bit of paradise, it comes with a price.  When I called my brother today to confirm the photographer of the photo I learned that the day had been nice but they were getting ready to drive through a snow storm.  For my readers Down Under remember we are heading into summer and here in Atlanta we were forced to turn on the air conditioning this week and have had quite a few days in the 90's already.  I love visiting the ranch but for longer periods of time, I'll stick to summer in the mountains (the months of July and August).

Bah Humbug Green or Recycled Challenge

Hello Friends -

I haven't been able to take part in the challenges from the lovely ladies of Humbug Hall.  I must say, I've missed those crazy gals.  However, I was serious about taking part this week.

They challenged everyone to either recycle something or use green or both.  Well, you know me, I must be an over achiever, so, I used both.  I didn't make a card, though.  As much as I need lots of Christmas cards, I also need a ton of gift tags. I've been working on my stash of cards but what would I do when it came time to wrap all those presents?  Well, I've started to build a tag stash also.  I'm thinking about trying to do a tag similar to the cards I've been doing.

So, here are some tags.  I made a total of 12 tags (one 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock).  The green for the trees was all from my scraps.  The cardboard came from a box of paper I received and the stamps are all from My Pink Stamper.  I find two simple cuts, one from Doodlecharms and the other from Christmas Cheer.  Each tag is slightly different, except for the back.

I pulled little bits of things out of my stash.  I think this one turned out well.

I hope the Mavens of Humbug Hall will find my humble offering acceptable.

Strawberries

I had a plan for a wonderful post today.  I headed down to the Georgia Farmer's Market (this is one of those huge events with hundreds of farmers from across the state coming to sell to all of the restaurants and grocery stores in the Atlanta area) with the plan to purchase and photograph all the lovely strawberries.

Then I was planning to take a picture similar to this:

 and then I was going to bring my strawberries home and start making Strawberry Vanilla Jam and I was going to take pictures while I made the jam and then I would have posted those.  Here is an older posts of my watermelon pickles.

HOWEVER...

When I arrived at the Farmer's Market today they had NO, absolutely NO strawberries.  So, that messed up my entire post.  But... I still had my card for the Tiddly Inks blog hop.

So, here you go...

It took me three different photograph sessions to get one shot that I liked.  The image is called Minnie Berry.  She is one of the newer Tiddly Ink images.  I can't believe Tiddly Inks is only one year old.  She has so many wonderful images it seems like it should have taken a lot longer to build up the library of characters, scenes, etc.

If you get a chance, I would like to recommend the blog hop over at Tiddly Inks.  You can find the information here.

Capadia Designs Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends-

I have a quick layout to share based on a sketch (OK actually it is the top of a take-out box that Diane -- of Capadia Designs --  has been saving for a while).  Here is the take-out box.

I think Diane is correct when she says it would make a great sketch (here is the post about her decision to do this challenge).  I was thinking about doing a card but I really wanted to create a layout since this weekend was National Scrapbooking Day and I've been thinking about layouts more than cards.  I say thinking because I haven't accomplished too many.

Here is my take on the sketch.  I decided to follow this sketch very literally.

This layout was tough for me because it is very linear and needs to have everything with the correct proportion in order to look correct.  It reminded me a little bit of a Frank Lloyd Wright design (considering the balance and lines not the actual piece). I saw a bit of Wright's stain glass windows in the box.  That sounds a bit pretentious and odd, doesn't it?  Oh well, I'm going with it and you'll just need to live with it or stop reading, sorry folks.

I always do my best to keep my projects from needing straight lines.  I don't feel like I can ever get them to be as straight as I want.  So, this design was tough for that reason.  It also has no title and very little writing.  Then, look at all that "white space".  You don't know how badly I wanted to put something up in the top left corner.

So, what would you do have done differently?  Advice is greatly appreciated.

These flowers were from my aunt's yard.  We drove up to see her for her 70th birthday, Easter and Mother's Day.  It was a nice day although it was a lot of driving.  Talk about a bad layout.  This beautiful tree was behind three other trees making it impossible to see from the house and/or porch.

One last picture of this Rhododendron.