Back from vacation!

My blog has been quiet this week because I went to Las Vegas!  Woo hoo!  It's just one of those places on my bucket list to go and see.  I had a great time - didn't do too much gambling because there's so much to see.

 

We stayed at Treasure Island, which I recommend to anyone wanting a good hotel on the strip:

 

I'm catching up with the activity on the OWH site and others and found Friday's discussion about crafter's remorse very interesting.  I'm sorry to hear that so many of you don't use your Cricut and have been frustrated with it.  I bought SCAL (Sure Cuts-a-Lot) and use the software to cut images with the Cricut, but I've also got several cartridges too.  I wish I could show ya'll how easy it is to use!  When it dies, though, I'm switching to a Silhouette.

 

OK - on to today's sketch.  I made two cards for this one - masculine and feminine.  Here's the girly one:

 



Sentiment is from Stamps of Life - didn't photograph too well.  I made the background on watercolor paper with my Inktense pencils, then white embossed the sentiment over it.  The gray background paper is from my stash and I debated about mounting it on pink cardstock, but decided to go for it!  (That Vegas lifestyle is kicking in!)

 

My second card is masculine, using a stamp from Impression Obsession:

I colored the image twice - once with the Inkense pencils and once with Copics.  The Inktense had the effect I was looking for.  Papers are from my stash again and the stamp is from Inkadinkado. 

 

And here's our sketch inspiration:

 

I'm inspired to make cards for kids again after reading this post: Tough guys digging through a box of cards.  Hope you are too.

 

Happy Easter, everyone!

 

Pattern Play Day 2 and the OWH MWT

I've made two cards today and they both use inking techniques, which are so much fun!  My first is for day two of the Pattern Play class at Online Card Classes.  I started with a vintage button paper from my stash and stamped a floral background stamp over it with clear embossing powder.

 

After I heat embossed it, I used the Crushed Olive Distress Ink over it and then...I left it on my craft table overnight, not too sure about how it came out.  Then this morning, I looked at it again and decided I was pretty happy and finished the card using a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp and some green ribbon:

 

Guess I had a moment of indecision there!  My second card is for today's midweek throwdown over at OWH where we've been challenged to create a card with an ombre effect.  Here's my card:

 

I stamped & clear-embossed the stamps from Tim Holtz Visual Artistry set.  I cut strips of masking tape and rubbed different colors of chalk ink, going from dark to light.  This was the only idea I had for the ombre challenge, but I see my fellow OWHers have come up with other great ideas, which I'll use for inspiration sometime.

 

Thanks for looking...stay crafty, my friends!

 



Bootcamp and Pattern Play Class - Day 1

Hi friends!  Today I made a quick card as I was unpacking from this weekend's scrap retreat.  It's a good thing my card was simple, because our power went out when a thunderstorm came thru!

 

I used OWH sketch #62 for my card, which I thought followed Paula's lesson on The Rule of Thirds:

Here's my card:

I also used Creative Memories pattern paper for the background of the card, following today's lesson in the Pattern Play card class I'm taking.  I didn't include a sentiment, because I like to have a few cards with no sentiment in my OWH box.  The flower is from the Nifty Fifties cricut cartridge and the ribbon is from my stash.

 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!



OWH MWT for March 13

Woo hoo!  Happy Hump Day to ya!  This week's mid week throwdown at OWH is a color challenge - use blue & green.  An additional dare was to include orange, but I'm not feeling the orange today. 

 

Here's my card:

All the papers are from scraps and the "Hello" stamp is embossed with white.  Pretty simple, but good for Spring.

 

I'm getting ready for another scrap retreat and my card obsession leaves me little time to scrapbook anymore, but as I was pulling out my scrapbooks, I realized how much I miss doing that.  I need to find a way to fit in some scrapbooking time along with my cards. 

 

We're trying a new place this time - the Country Crop Retreat - and I can't wait to get away and spend time with my friends.  Ya'll have a good time and I'll be absent from blogging until next week.  It takes a while to pack and unpack!



OWH keeps it going!

This week's Tuesday tutorial and Mid week Throwdown challenges at OWH kept me busy.  Tuesday's tutorial was how to make Spirelli embellishments.  I had to study this one for a bit and made a few before I got the hang of it for this card:

 

Sentiment is from the Stamps of Life.

 

Next up was a tic-tac-toe challenge!

I choose the top row: Brads, Border Punch, Ribbon:

I embossed part of the yellow with the Swiss Dots folder and stamped the sentiment, from Simon Says Stamp on the unembossed section.  I added the rickrack ribbon and used a Martha Stewart border punch on the bottom of my tag.  That sunflower is a Mrs Grossman's sticker - one of many I'm trying to use up.

 

The challenge forced me to use extra elements on my card which gave it some extra pizzazz.  What fun!  I'm looking forward to this weekend's BlogSkip!  Catch ya'll later. 

 



Using up stickers

I don't often catch OWH TV live because it's late for me on the East Coast, but this week, my cat Suzume and I managed to watch it:

I can barely see Sandy because Suzume lays right on top of my keyboard.  I did get totally inspired by her Stump Sandy card using up stickers.  Boy, do I have stickers - lots of Mrs Grossman's stickers from years ago when that's all we had to embellish our scrapbook pages with.

 

I've been using those stickers up to make a card for this month's ODBD challenge:

Sentiment is from Inkadinkado, papers from Basic Grey Indie Bloom.  I cut the scallop, butterflies and green layer on my Cricut.

 

I also used stickers for this week's Sketch Challenge #162:

I flipped the sketch horizontally and used an oval instead of a square.  The sentiment is from the Mother's Day Inkadinkado set and the background papers are from my stash.  I made the dashes around the black paper with my white Signo ball pen. 

 

It feels good to use up those stickers from like, 10 years ago!  That's crazy that I'm still holding on to them.

 

Hope your Sunday is nice.  Thanks for looking.