Bah Humbug All About Boys

Hello Friends -

I have three cards for my Guest Design spot at Bah!Humbug! Challenge Blog.  This is my third week with the lovely ladies of the manor so it seems only fitting to have three cards.  The challenge was to make cards for "the boys".  I decided to do one for three different age groups.

My first one has already been claimed by the Wonderkid (although I took it back out of his card box -- the box he uses to store all the cards he makes).  He'll get it on or around Christmas.

This very sweet digi comes from Di's Digi Downloads.  It is called "Gimme Gimme".  I like the way the coloring turned out.  I normally only buy a couple of digis from a company at first because some of them are tougher to color than others.  This one didn't require extensive shading -- something I still find challenging.  The sentiment is computer generated.  

Here is a close-up of the bottom half of the card.

The sentiment font is called Harrington.  It seems very festive and Christmas like.  Do you have a favorite Christmas font that I should check out?  I'd love to know about them.  I'm fumbling around trying to find just the right ones.

The next card is for a tween boy or maybe a teenager, although the Wonderkid walked around with it oohing and aaahing for an entire day.  This image is one of my favorites from Christy over at Tiddly Inks.  I've used it before and I'm thinking I'll want to use it again.  He is called Santa's Helper -- fitting, yes?

I computer generated the sentiment, again.  This time using Jokerman.  I then cut each word up and backed it in a dark red paper.  The same paper was punched using a Martha Stewart punch to make a ribbon.  I know I should have used the corner punch and made it into an even prettier border but I wasn't up to doing the math to figure out what size I could make and where to start the punching.  I used some of the punched out pieces to decorate the top of the card.

And here is my final card for today.  It is for a guy, maybe that special guy?  Well, maybe one of my friends will want to give it to their special guy.  This digi is also from Tiddly Inks.  It isn't necessarily a Christmas image but I think it works well here.  She is called Wicked Fun.

It is very simple but I don't think guy cards work if they are too fussy.  What do you think?  Do you know of any guy that would like this card for Christmas?

Tiddly Inks Card

Hello Friends -

I'm back, not with the project I planned to show today but I'm back.

Today I have a card for one of my nieces.  It also is for the Tiddly Inks challenge -- Reading Fun.  I chose School Girl with School House.  The card is 5 x 7 inches.  The colored cardstock is from Core'dinations.

I pop dotted School Girl to give it a bit more dimension and add to the perspective.  I'm pleased with the way she turned out.  I feel like I'm getting a little better at adding dimension to hair.  She still needs a little something but I see some progress.

Here is School Girl, a bit closer.

What do you think of the hair?  Now, if I could just work out the shading on her face.  I would really be on a roll.

It is funny, when I was growing up EVERYONE started school the day after Labor Day.  We went to the Great Geauga County Fair over the long weekend, saw friends, ate fair food and then started school.  I didn't know anyone that started school on a day other than the one after Labor Day.  It was that way for as long as I knew and all the way through school.  Now, the Wonderkid has been in school for two weeks, already.  Many of the schools in our area have been in for a month.  So, Labor Day doesn't have that same end of the summer feel.  Add to that, we live in the South and we'll be wearing shorts for another 6 weeks and could be swimming for a month.

It certainly changes the way I think about the holiday.  It was a nice day off, I think about the meaning of the holiday, thank everyone that fought to bring us the 40 hour work week (when we can still get it) and the weekend.

So, Happy Labor Day, Y'all.

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.

Supahhh Star

Hello Friends -

I have a quick post today.  I wanted to show you a birthday card I made for my niece.  She is 9 going on 16 and has beautiful caramel colored hair.  She is a SUPAH STAR!!!  This digi from Tiddly Inks is perfect for her.  In addition, it was Christy's (the artist that made the digi) birthday last week and her favorite colors are red and black.

What do you think of that Core'dinations glitter cardstock?  Isn't it amazing and oh so glittery?  I'm not big on the glitter normally but it seems to work so nicely with this image and all. The edge of the red cardstock was done with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

I must admit, I can't see red and black together without flashing back to my high school and college days.  Do you have any color combos that cause you to flash to a certain time or place?

I'll be back tomorrow with another quick post from the road.  Wish us luck as we trudge North.

Some days are just good

Hello Friends -

Today should not be a good day.  I woke up way too early.  It was raining like crazy, the dog was freaked because of the lightening and thunder (he is the biggest scared-y cat you can imagine).  It just shouldn't be a good day but for whatever reason, its been good.

Do you ever wonder what makes for a "good day" or a "bad day".  Do you ever have days where you think, "I shouldn't be in a good mood but I am."  or conversely, "What do I have to be cranky about?"  I'll admit, sometimes good and bad days are in direct relationship to the amount of chocolate I have consumed.  However, I don't think this one is a chocolate induced good day.

I'm thinking it is partially a good day because this card came together nicely.  I was following a number of rules to get to this point:

Rule 1 - it must be a shape card without using an electronic cutting device (cuttlebug/sizzix/etc are encouraged).  I didn't even know you could do this.  I'm so lazy sometimes because I have my cricut.  I must say with all of the frustration and anger at Provo Craft, I think more and more people are going to be figuring out ways to make things without their bugs.  (enough of my commentary -- don't anyone burn down my blog because I said that).

Rule 2 - use a digi from Tidly Inks

Rule 3 - use the following picture as inspiration

This photo should have put me in a bad mood.  What would I do with this photo?  It has way too many flowers in it for my taste and I had the hardest time finding an image inspired by the photo.  I ended up choosing one used by Melissa on the Design Team something I normally don't do but what is a girl to do?

Since I'm still not crazy about my coloring, I paper pieced the scarf and the dress.  I also hated all of the white space around Chi (the character which you can purchase here) so I made my own design paper by stamping a small flower/leaf set all around her.  I also inked all of the edges because it just wouldn't look right otherwise.

The exciting thing, not only did I make this a shape card, I made it an EASEL shape card.  Now how cool is that?  I found a great tutorial on easel cards at the Splitcoast Stampers.  Any time I want to find a tutorial for a different type of card, I head over to Splitcoast Stampers, they'll have it.

I carried the paper from the shawl into the mat on the inside.  I also stamped Happy Birthday on the mat.  I think this one is going to my aunt for her 70th birthday.  It is tomorrow so it'll be a day or two late.  Saying she is 70 really makes me feel old.  When I think of her she is in her 40's or so, certainly not 70.  On the Birthday note, tomorrow is also Christy's birthday, the artist that made Chi and all of the other Tiddly Inks.  So, Christy, you can have this as your virtual birthday card.

Here is a side view of the card.  You can see where the folds happen.

And that is my project for today.

You know what else made me happy today?  The UPS man.  I have a thing for my UPS man, not physically or anything.  He is my very own Santa Claus but he keeps giving all year long. Today he surprised me with a box from Custom Crops.  Now, I don't normally do haul photos or videos they feel a bit icky to me.  Too much consumerism and not enough of the creative/art side of things.  However, this is making me very happy.

I received my Jillibean Soup order.  Almost the entire box was Jillibean Soup.  Who can't be happy when they get all that yummy Soup, especially on a rainy dreary day like today.  Don't you love a big bowl of soup when the rain comes pouring down?

Here is what I now have

This photo doesn't even show the new Strawberry soup and all the kraft goodies.  My Jillibean obsession has gotten so bad that I've now created a box with only Jillibean embellies, prior to this the only designer with their own box was Tim Holtz (it is easy to have a box of just Tim Holtz embellies).  I wonder if Jill (founder/owner of Jillibean Soup) would find that nice or creepy?  I probably shouldn't mention that next week I'll be visiting the town where she lives.  You won't tell, will you?

I took some pictures in the rain today.  I think I'll edit them and put them up for you later today or tomorrow.

Tiddly Inks Kraft Card

This is going to be a quick post with only one picture but I'm very pleased with this card.

The challenge over at Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog was to use Kraft Cardstock on a card with a Tiddly Ink image.  That wasn't much of a challenge for me.  I think I have more Kraft Cardstock than anything else.  It is interesting inking on Kraft as opposed to white or other lighter colors because you can't do a lot of shading.  It seems to make my work look better since I don't think shading is my strongest suit.

The boards are two copies of the one in Carpenter Joe's hand (click on his name to go to the store and buy him).  I made them much bigger and cut them out of his hand.  The interesting thing, the spot where it looks like I was drawing the continuation of that knot in the Tim Holtz Wood embossing folder is actually the edge of Carpenter Joe's hand.  It lined up when I wasn't looking.  I didn't even notice until I was taking the pictures to post here.

Christy over at Tiddly Inks released some very cool new digis, she calls them Gothic Pin-ups.  They are a ton of fun and well worth a look.  You can find them here.  She has 6 girls and 3 papers to go along with them.

So, what do you think of my card?  Is my inking getting any better?  Don't you just love Carpenter Joe?  I think I'm going to put this in the Wonderkid's lunch bag tomorrow.  I went to his "Narrative Review" (his school's version of conferences) and they said he was amazing.  The entire time they were talking I kept thinking, "Whose child are they talking about and can I take him home tonight?"

The MOJO is back

I considered taking a break on any crafting until next week.  I'm going to a Teresa Collins class hosted by my LSS, EMI Scrapbooking, on Saturday and this morning my guiltiest of pleasures happened -- Cleusa our cleaning lady came.  While this is one of my favorite days, it also means EVERYTHING gets put away, including all of my crafting items.  With all the interruptions (including life), my mojo was seriously shaken.

Add to all the other life things that happened, this box should have been very easy and IT WASN'T.  It is two of the cuts on the Cricut cart Bags, Tags, Boxes and More.  Normally, a cut like this would all be on one button.  The outside might be a regular button and the inside would be the shift of that same button.  For some reason, they put these two parts of the same box on two separate buttons.  OK, enough of the cut I'm too excited about the final product to get hung-up on the silliness of the cuts.

Lets get into the fun part.

First, the paper.  I am a huge fan of Jillibean Soup. I bought some of the Christmas Kraft paper last fall and I haven't been able to bring myself to use it.  I just take it out and stare at it every now and then. However,  I couldn't wait to play with it and I love everything about it.  This is part of the Atomic Soup line and is called Quart of Quarks.  Not only do I love the paper, but I think the names are all so cute -- everything is soup based.

Whenever I'm making boxes and other 3-D items, I liked to use double sided papers so the inside is as pretty as the outside.  Don't you love the other side of this paper?

The other exciting part of Jillibean Soup -- there is a matching Core'dinations stack.  Yippeeee!!! This is one of the embossed papers.  The stack has red, brown, green, blue and a white washed salmon/peach color. I sanded the front to bring out the numbers a bit more.   Now, I'm not normally one to buy the embellishments from a line.  I would rather make/find my own, but the embellishments with this line are so much fun.  The button comes from the Jillibean Cool Beans.    And...

Check out this very fun sticker border of the periodic symbols.  (You can click on the picture to make it bigger).  Doesn't it look perfect with the paper and the digi stamp.

The stickers next to Geeky Glen are also part of the Jillibean Soup page of stickers.

I've completely ignored the other piece of this project, the incredible digi stamp from Tiddly Inks.  You know how much I love Christy's images and playing along with the Tiddly Ink Challenge.  Part of why this works so well, the image is PERFECT.  I couldn't be happier with the entire package.  I am going to design a set of cards (I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon) which I'm going to put in this box and send to a Geeky friend of mine.  Don't you think she'll LOVE it?

This project was started as a challenge at Flaunt if Fridays.  Normally I don't consider myself a flaunt it kind of a person but this project has me excited enough to FLAUNT it.

Thanks for looking and hopefully I'll have something for you tomorrow.

Tiddly Inks Shaker Card and Sketches in Thyme Challenge

Good morning all.  Pull up your chair.  I've got a few things to show you today.  However, I'm going to start with the fun news.  I received an email this morning saying I WON!!! Creative Charms does a giveaway most months.  This month,  I won the kit of the month.  You can see it here.  It shouldn't be long before they have the new kit of the month posted, also. So, I would check it out.  I was just thinking I need to order more velvet ric-rac from them.  Now, I have black on its way to me.  Isn't this fun.  I love getting goodies in the mail (although recently my UPS driver asked if I was ordering bricks).

Now that I've shared my little bit of fun, how about some eye candy for you.  In fact, I have two cards to show you.  Lets start with the Tiddly Ink card. 

This is a shaker card.  The image is on the card base.  Over the image is a piece of acetate (I used part of the packaging from a sizzix embossing folder) then I put a strip of pop dots all the way around the edge.  On top of the pop dots was a second piece of acetate (the other half of the packaging) and finally a frame to cover all the "inners". 

Here is a side view of the card so you can see the layers.

and another showing the impossible little bits of pop dots.

The next time I do this I will have a strip of pop dot tape instead of a hundred little pop dot squares.

In between the two pieces of acetate and in the middle of all those pop dots is sand.  The Wonderkid has a sandbox (courtesy of PopPop) with it comes sand, EVERYWHERE.  So, I decided to "borrow" a little bit of it.  Just so you know, a little goes a long way when you are talking about shaker cards.

Here is the sand and the image.

I used two Tiddly Ink images for this card.  The main image is Sandy Memories.  If you notice, the little boy on the left has a bit of a sun burn.  The little boy on the right must have a good mommy who puts lots of sun screen on him.  The crab, starfish and sand dollars come from Don't Be Crabby.  I printed about a dozen sets of the starfish and sand dollars and colored them, cut them out and afixed them to the frame of the card. 

I finished it off with a button from my stash (I think it was a bag of buttons from JoAnn's) and some of my new baker's twine from the Kraft Outlet.

So, do I have you thinking about shaker cards you could do?

I need to digress for just a moment.  I ordered a few things from Christy at Tiddly Inks yesterday and I screwed up when I did the ordering (I should have waited another minute for the download button but I didn't).  So, I emailed Christy asking if she could help me out.  She was a real trooper and stuck it out with me until I had my images.  Now THAT is customer service because I'm certain she had something better to be doing than emailing with me bright and early on a Sunday morning. Thanks, Christy.

OK, moving right along.  (Now I have the Muppet Song stuck in my head. Do you remember it? Click the link if you want to hear it.)

Sketches in Thyme card.

As the name says, this is a sketch challenge.  Here is a copy of the sketch.

Do you think I followed the design?  What do you think of the card?  I'm very pleased with the way all of the colors pulled together.  The only thing I think it needs is some embossing on the light green section.  The light green is Core'dinations, the dark green is Bazzille and the pattern paper is some that I picked up last week at Archivers.  The ribbon came from my stash.

Can you see the little pieces of bling on the dark green?  They are Queen and Co pearls which are specifically designed to coordinate with the Core'dinations papers.  I have been eyeing them since Core'dinations did a post about them but I just hadn't purchased until recently.  This color is called Shamrock, so I had to use it.  The sentiment is one of the $1 stamps from Studio G.  I picked up two of them last year and now I get to finally use them.

Tiddley Inks Monochromatic Project

I don't think monochromatic is my kind of work.  I don't have enough pens to really give something depth with just one color.

However, here is my card for the Tiddly Ink's challenge.  I love these images (although I'm finding them tough to color -- my problem not the artist's).  I need to practice a bit more so I can get better at these.  I have one that I'm wanting to color but I haven't taken the time.  It is a cute little carpenter. 

But I digress.  Here is my card.

I like this sweet little image.  I used my cuttlebug to emboss the Core'dinations gemstone paper.  I love the way this paper looks after being embossed.  It is wonderful to send something through my cuttlebug and not worry about seeing a white core when I finish.  I thought the hearts gave a sense of missing someone and wanting them home.  The ribbon is from my stash.

Here is a closer look at the image and the embossing.

I used the new print and cut feature in SCAL2.  I love that I can print something in a circle or along any path I dream up.  I also love that I can use whatever fonts I like.  This one is called Chiller.  I'm not convinced I quite have this feature "mastered".  I don't feel like I can get the printed image in the right place on my mat so I can cut it.  I need to mess with it a bit more to figure out how to make it work better. 

Wouldn't it have been wonderful if I printed the houses and the sentiment in a circle around it and then cut the whole thing out?  Now that would be cool.  I'll need to work on this for a bit more to figure out how to make that work.  I think it can be done. 

Thank you for looking at my creation.  All recommendations are sincerely appreciated.  Including feedback on the new look to the blog.  Do you like it or not?

Bah! Humbug! Oldie but Goldie Challenge

The challenge for this week at Bah! Humbug! was an oldie but a goldie.  Everyone was asked to dust off some old paper, technique or other item and use it.  I must confess, I don't have much in the way of old paper or other stuff in my stash and most of the stuff that I do have that is old I don't like too much.  So, after lots of thought and consideration, I decided to make a style of card I haven't made in ages, a Z-Fold card.  I added a couple of new twists, though.

First, the I-Top brad in the middle instead of a small circle and some ribbon.  I thought this was a brilliant change and one I think I'll incorporate in the future.  The other new thing, an MS punch around the page punch.  I bought this one in the January sales and haven't used it yet.  What do you think?  Isn't it fun?

The paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle.  I bought this set when they were having a huge after holidays sale.  I'm liking this company more and more.  If I recall correctly, they had some yummy paper released at CHA last week (not that I was there or anything, I drooled at all the fun stuff when they did sneak peaks).  But back to the paper, this particular set is very glossy and quite thick.  It was wonderful for a card that stands up. 

The sentiment is stamped with tuxedo black Mementos and comes from a recollections set I bought a year ago, or so.

Finally, the digi is from Tiddly Inks.  I am still getting the hang of coloring digis but I'm fairly happy with the way Santas Helper turned out.  The red on the suit might be a little flat but I love his bag and boots.  It was tough to color his hair and since the entire thing is only 2 1/2 inches. I was trying to have a light hand. Oh, Santas Helper was cut out using a Spellbinder's Nestability.  I believe it is called Curved Rectangles.