In a funk

The lack of posts means that things have been busy around here. First it was the end of my summer term and I had to get grades turned in. Then Justin and I left to go a trip to the other big cities in Texas - you can read a bit about our trip on our blog here. We got back from our little vacation about a week ago - but then I was in charge of a night all about Preparedness for the ladies at church. That was last night and after I made my syllabi for this semester (which starts on Monday) I was finally able to stamp. :)


Needless to say, you take a couple weeks off and it really kills your creativity. I got this Cutie Pie paper the day before we left and hadn't had a chance to use it yet. I have to admit - as much as I love designer paper, I have a really hard time using it. For the most part, I am afraid of making something that I don't like in the end and wasting the beautiful paper!


Anyway - once I pulled out a little Cutie Pie, I realized how well it went with Big Blooms and was sad yet again that Stampin' Up! didn't keep this from the Spring mini. Well - I will choose to use it regardless! I decided to pair it with another retired good one: Riveting was a hostess set in last year's catalog.


Here is what I came up with - I'm going to get it into tomorrow's mail for my upline's b-day which is on the 30th. Hopefully she gets it in the mail before she decides to check out my blog again!

Beate's Weekend Sketch #13

I finally have a little extra time to work on some cards (extra emphasis on "little" here). Anyway - here is my card for Beate's sketch challenge for this weekend. This was a really fun card to make. After I was done though I had wished that I hadn't used so much pink - maybe I will just have to do another one, right?


I used a lot of retired products on this one - the paper is from the Just Delightful Simply Scrappin' kit that was a SU Sell-a-bration item this past year, the flower stamp was also a sell-a-bration from the set Delight in Life. The sentiment came from the Cute Converse set I got over a year ago and never used until now (I told you before - if I get it for free it is really a toss-up when I will use it).


I have to admit that I had a little trouble with the dimensions on this one. From the sketch it says the card base is 8.5" X 5.5" and tells where to score it. When I did that though - my resulting card was a 5.5" square and I could tell from everyone's cards that were posted that they were getting rectangular cards. Hmmm. So - I started with a base that was 8.5" X 4.25" and I ended up witht a standard size card. Very interesting.

Has it really been that long?!?!

Wow - time has gotten away from me! My sister wants me to teach a card class at her house in a couple weeks. It took me while to find time to do some stamping, but I finally picked all the cards that people will make. A few are ones that I have done in the past, but here are a few new ones that I tried out this past weekend to see what I thought.

Both of the birthday cards here I CASE'd from Stampin' Up! publications. On this one I used Pale Plum, but when I do it at the class I will use Almost Amethyst - I decided the plum didn't go quite as well as I had hoped. I made this in the hopes that it would be suitable for a guy, that's why there is no ribbon or anything else frilly.


Here is the recipe:
Stamps: Big Deal Alphabet and Everyday Flexible Phrases
Paper: Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, Barely Banana and Whisper White
Ink: Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum
Accessories: 1 1/4" Square Punch

This one uses one of my favorites - Eat Cake. Where I saw this they were discussing how to make scratch and sniff cards but I won't be able to get into that with the class so this is unscented. :)


Recipe:
Stamps: Eat Cake
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Old Olive and Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive; Markers - Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, and Old Olive
Accessories: Brads

This next one is a boy baby card. I have been seeing these pocket cards pop up a lot lately and thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Once again, I'm not going to make it this way for the class, but this was just to get an idea. Instead I am going to make the card in Taken with Teal instead of Tuorquoise, mat the Zebra in Green Galore, use ribbon on the folded portion of the card that is Teal and Green (instead of the striped paper), punch the tag out with the same blue polka-dot paper as the rest of the card, and make the pull-out part Turquoise instead of White. I know - it sounds like a lot of changes - but I think it will be super cute!!!


Recipe:
Stamps: Zoofari, Holidays & Wishes, Hugs & Wishes
Paper: Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Petals & Paisley DS
Ink: Basic Black and Taken with Teal
Accessories: Brads and Round Tab Punch

Weekend Sketch Challenge #10

Here is my entry for Beate's sketch challenge for this weekend. I haven't entirely decided how I feel about how it turned out.

I am having trouble accepting the fact that Big Blooms from the Spring mini didn't make it into the catalog. :( Anyway - I used a new color combination for me - Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Sage Shadow. In addition to the Big Blooms set, I used the Watercolor Joy wheel and a stamp from Holidays & Wishes for my sentiment. Enjoy!

Not really what I had planned, but...

I decided to use my Doodle This stamp set and colors to match this ribbon that I pulled out of the dollar bin at Michael's. The colors Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery were great matches, but I had a lot of trouble matching the darker pink. I finally settled on Pink Passion, but once I put the card together they don't entirely match. I'm guessing that from the picture, most won't be able to tell - but I can tell. :(


But before the matching problem was discovered, I learned that I am not good at sewing on cards. So - I can't sew curtains and I can't sew cards. :( Of course - I had to learn the hard way that I don't sew cards very well. Hence all the holes that are pierced all around my Certainly Celery Designer Prints Paper. I started sewing and it all messed up, but by then there were holes all across the top of my paper. My choice was to each throw it out, or pierce all the little holes and try to pretend that is what I wanted it to look like. So I chose to pretend.







The recipe:
Stamps: Doodle This, So Very (Sell-a-bration 2007) and Petals Jumbo roller
Paper: Pink Passion, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery Designer Prints
Ink: Pink Passion, Whisper White Craft Ink
Accessories: ribbon, and flower shaped eyelet

Best Fishes

Can you tell that my summer classes have come to a close - I have posted 4 cards in the last week! Actually I gave the final exams yesterday and got them graded. Today I have to go and turn in my grades, but I have to start teaching another class tomorrow. This shouldn't be quite as bad though - it is only one class, but they do meet for three hours a day - yuck!

One of the Sell-a-bration sets this past year was a really cute one called Very Punny. It has small images with small sayings. The sad thing is that I have had this stamp set since February and this is the first time that I used it. That happens with things that I get for free though. I'm not sure what it is - but if I pay for it, I use it as soon as it arrives. If it was free it is really a toss up how long it will sit on my shelf before it gets used. :(

On this one I totally CASE'd (Copy and Share Everything) another card that I saw made with this same set. The problem is, I don't remember at all where it was that I saw it. The other one was a green card and used the little frog image that says "Hoppy for You". I decided though that the Cuttlebug embossing folder I used on the background really goes great with the bubbles that the fish is blowing out. And I used 3 colors that really don't see much used by me - Brilliant Blue, Only Orange and Yoyo Yellow. The ribbon is a color called Maize that matches so well with Yoyo Yellow - I better not start using that color too often since Stampin' Up! discontinued the Maize Grosgrain Ribbon.

Anyway - enjoy the card - hope it gets your creative juices flowing!

Rhino fun

I got this Zoofari set so that I could make cards for kids, but instead, I made another baby card!


Chipboard is all the rage right now, so I got a pack of colored chipboard mat stack. It claimed to work work with any die-cut machine and it did! I have this scalloped frame die that I have not used much, but have really been wanting to use more. The colors of the chipboard don't completely match Stampin' Up! colors though. :( However I used the watercolor pencils to color in the rhino and it turns out that they don't really match SU colors either but I felt like these blues were close enough to matching each other. You be the judge.


Justin actually helped me with this color scheme. How good is he at this kind of stuff?


The scan is a little dark on the side because with the chipboard and the ribbon the scanner wouldn't close all the way. :( Oh well, right?

Artichokes and Eggplants - gotta love those veggies

This card features one of my favorite color combinations - Always Artichoke and Elegant Eggplant. I'm not sure what it is about these two colors together - but I just love, love, love them.



I bought this stamp set, Bud Basics, almost a year ago when it was in the Summer mini catalog. I was very happy to see it show up the new Fall-Winter Collection Catalog that came out a week ago. :) This is a great stamp set and there is a jumbo wheel that corresponds with it.

On this card, I also used the Divine Swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder on the background. I love those embossing folders - they add so much!

If you haven't seen the new catalog - check it out here. If you want your own copy, let me know. :)

I love ladybugs!

A couple years ago I dressed up as a ladybug for Halloween. So when I saw that Beate had made a ladybug card and put on her blog, I had to try it out. This is the first time that I have used two new stamp sets from the Fall-Winter Collection catalog. The ladybug wings are stamped with the Pick a Petal set and the greeting is from the Hug & Wishes set.



I just love ladybugs!

Happy 4th!

The 4th of July is also my father-in-law's birthday so I made him a very patriotic card. Here it is - I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder (love it) on the Brocade Blue background. The card itself is Real Red, and the star image is from Stars & Swirls (just retired!). I used a Versamarker to color in the star and then embossed it with Hologram Highlights EP. The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from the Eat Cake set.



Enjoy!