Monday, September 30, 2013

Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenges is open for business!!!

If you've hopped over from Dreamtime Designs to see what the heck this is all about....Thanks and keep reading!



For the past few weeks I've been telling you all about the excitement related to Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenges.

Now....
We get to launch our very first challenge.  Lisa promised that we were going to be unlike any other challenge any of us had ever seen.  She, apparently, is quite skilled at the art of understatement!  We were all blown away by her first assignment to us.

Honestly, many of us wondered if we were up to the challenge.  I was definitely among that group!  It all just seemed very intimidating and a bit overwhelming.  That was until I really started breaking it down into the individual components.

Lisa's vision is to allow the artist be known as much (if not more) than their creations.  I love that!  So this challenge is about introducing yourself to the world through your crafts.  Here is your first challenge:


Part A:  Answer the following 5 questions: 
1) Where do you live?
2) What do you love most about where you live?
3) Who do you share this special place with?
4) What is your favorite season there & why?
5) What is your most loved thing to do or place to visit & why?
Part B:  
Create your design / project that reflects the questions above. 
Part C:
Take a photo or two of anything that relates to your above discussion so they can be included in your challenge post.

Do NOT be intimidated by this!
Part A can be just a quick paragraph or you can really put on your author's cap and go to town with it.
Part B can be any kind of craft....we are looking forward to seeing a wide range of projects from all levels of crafters.
Part C can be photos that you all ready have or you can link to photos that you've found online.  Of course, if you're linking please be sure to give the proper credit to the photographers/sites!

As if this post isn't long enough already....I know, what's new?  I am so proud to be sharing my first DDCC Design Team project with all of you!

My answers to Part A are:
I live in Indianapolis, Indiana.  There are far too many things that I LOVE about my hometown to name them all here....even for me.  So, I decided to jump ahead to my favorite season to help narrow down the list of what I love most.  That made my answer super easy:
Football season.
Keep in mind that I'm talking about American Football.  The Indianapolis Colts to be specific.  I share this unbridled obsession with my incredible hubby.  (He does have a name.  It's Mike.)  We schedule our Sundays around game time during several months of the year.  Kinda' sad I know but what can I say?  It makes us happy and keeps us out of trouble.
I decided on these fabulous Mo Manning images because they perfectly depict me and hubby watching a game.  I'm a very vocal fan to say the least.  He's either laughing at me or smiling because he has a wife who doesn't complain about him vegging out on Sundays for the game.

Here's a picture that hubby took of Lucas Oil Stadium (the house that Peyton built) when we were lucky enough to take my parents on a tour of the brand new facility.
This gorgeous stadium is where the Colts play their home games while hubby and I watch from the comfort of our home.....we're too cheap to pay for tickets no matter how much we love our boys in blue.

This is a pic of my sweetie and me with the field in the background.

You may have noticed that the woman in my project is blonde.  I am not.  My beautiful sister-in-law, Kim, is.  Since she and my brother are also huge Colts fans and his birthday is just a few days from now I made this project as a gift for him.
Happy 45th lil' brother! I love you, Dale, & your incredible family!

This easel card sits atop a box with a drawer that I constructed out of chip board.  It was the first time I'd made one and I was flyin' blind.  No template. No tutorial.  My inspiration for this came from my adorable DDCC Design Team 'sister' Mikha.  You can take a look at her's here.  I have plans to do another one so I can remember to write down the dimensions and provide a tutorial in a later post.  It wasn't difficult and I'm looking forward to doing more of these using the knowledge I learned through this trial and error first attempt.

The football is actually a card within a card.  Not only does it prop up the easel, it opens for a spot to write our birthday greetings to Dale.  Love that idea and I'll definitely be using it again!

Inside the drawer, I included a package of home-made candied pecans.  They take 3 simple ingredients to make and are pretty darned good out of this world!  I will be posting a recipe along with pics later.  I would post it now but forgot to get the pictures.  (That may have been done subconsciously just so I could make more pecans.  Yum.)


Here's one last photo to try to show more of the dimension.  Something I almost forgot to point out is the Mountain Dew can in the guy's hand.  Dale's a big Mountain Dew freak so I had to include that....
wonder if he noticed?

Thanks so much for sticking with me for this novel-length post.
Can ya' tell I'm excited about the inaugural challenge at DDCC?!

Lisa, the rest of the DT and I really hope that you'll take time this month to join us.  You will be amazed how much fun it is to really put yourself into a project like this!  If I can answer any questions, please leave me a comment or you can email me.  You'll find the email link in the left column just below my profile.

And, of course, please be sure to become a follower (if you aren't already) so you can catch the tutorials for the box construction and the pecan recipe.  The follow me info is at the top of the right column.

Can't wait to see all of the imaginative and wonderful projects submitted in the October 2013 challenge!  And after you've taken on this original and incredibly fun challenge, you'll be able to add this new badge to your blog:
I will proudly be displaying mine!

Please be sure to visit Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenge to view the guidelines for this challenge.  They're aren't many rules....just enough to keep it fun and friendly for everyone.

I'm off now to visit all of my Design Team 'sisters'....we've had to wait to see each others  projects and the suspense has been driving us nuts.  (Well, okay, maybe we were a bit nuts to start.)  You can find links for all of them in the upper right hand column.  Your time will be well spent visiting each of these lovely, talented ladies!

I would also like to share this project at the following challenges:

C is for Challenge -- Boys and men
Digi Sketch Challenge -- For the boys
Bronte and Bella's Challenge -- For the boys
Delicious Doodles -- Eyelets or brads
Oozak -- Anything goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts -- Something blue
Craft Your Passion -- Add a little charm
Ooh La La Creations -- F is for....Football!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Hiding in My Craft Room has a new challenge today

Today is the beginning of a brand new challenge at
That means a new theme too, of course.  This week we would love to see your creations for:

A woman's birthday

Remember that you're not limited to just cards!  Show off your new layout or maybe a cake topper...oooh, a party banner would be great to see.  You can check out all of the challenge guidelines here.  There aren't many rules but we do ask that you look over them and abide by them so that everyone has a fun time!

Now, for my card this week....which is my first for the Hiding in My Craft Room Design Team.  (Still so excited to be joining this lovely group of talented ladies!)


The super cute image I used is from Lacy Sunshine.....love Heather's work!  Her name is Maggie Springtime.  I've decided to go with more autumnal colors.  Yes, they are unusual for autumnal colors but I'm an unusual kinda' gal.  When I was a florist, I was always drawn to the combo of oranges and purples/maroons especially this time of year.

The flowers Maggie is holding are actually much more maroon than the picture shows.  As are the tiny mulberry flowers I've used.  The color just really fought me in these photos.

The items used for this card were:

*Papers - Papertrey Ink, Bazzill, DCWV
Sentiment - Papertrey Ink
Ink - Memento Tuxedo black
Beads - Michaels
Charm and ribbon - my stash

Here's a side view to show a little dimension:


The entire Design Team at HIMCR is really looking forward to all of the great projects that will be shared this week!  Good luck to all entrants.....hope to see you there.

I would like to submit this card into the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays -- Fall colors and a leaf
Graph'It Markers -- Autumn colors
Kitty Bee Designs -- Flowers
Simply Create Too -- Fall/autumn
Crafty Catz -- Birthdays
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -- Flowers
Color Me Creative -- Fall colors

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenges....Just 5 days to launch!

I so wish I could relate to you the electricity that's been flowing back and forth on the Dreamtime Designs Design Team Facebook page!  It was just over 3 short weeks ago that Lisa sent out our invitations and we all started to get to know one another.

Each of the ladies has her own, unique style.  We're from all over the world.  There are some younger gals and some more mature gals...myself included in the latter.  And, yet, we've grown to a super tight knit group.  I'm thrilled to be a member of this newly formed family and can't wait to continue this journey with all of them.  They make me smile daily and teach me all sorts of new vocabulary!  (Please don't ask about the vocab lessons.  This is a family-friendly blog.  Let's just say that there is a huge difference between UK English and American English.  Yikes.)

In the right column, I've included links to all of their blogs.  When you need to be inspired just go visit any of them!  Or, better yet, go visit ALL of them.  It will be time well spent!!

Whatever you do, make sure to come back on October 1st to find out about our first challenge.  It's a doozy!  Quite frankly, I was pretty intimidated by it.  I've since found out I wasn't the only one.  Then I think all of us realized that there are no rights or wrongs with this challenge.  After that, we each let our creativity go wild... We had so much fun making our projects!  You'll be amazed at the diversity you can get from 10 different women using the same challenge instructions.

We're so excited to finally get to show off our creations.
Although I think we're even more excited to see what all of you do!
Prepare yourself for something completely new in the challenge world....
Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenges
will be open for business very soon!

Make sure you go over NOW and enter in Lisa's blog candy drawings!  And yes, that's drawings with an s...there are 3 chances to win!
Good luck to everyone!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Photos re-sizing themselves on Blogger?

Earlier this week, I noticed that just out of the blue the badges along the sidebars of my blog were all out of whack.  I hadn't changed anything so I couldn't figure out what was up.  At least, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong....for a change.

After a bit of searching I found a quick and easy fix in the Blogger forums.  Since I've seen many of my friends' blogs are also having an issue with the same thing, I thought I'd share the quick tutorial that I typed up for my Design Team sisters at
Dreamtime Designs and Hiding in My Craft Room.

I'm no computer genius by any stretch of the imagination.  Hopefully, these instructions will make sense to you.  If you do have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.  I can't make any promises that I'll be able to answer them but I do promise to do my best.

______________________________

So here we go with the steps you need to take:

Go to the upper right hand corner of your blog's home page, click "Design."
Then go to "Template" and click "Customize."
Next, "Advanced."
Scroll down the list until you see "Add CSS" which is last in the list.
Copy and paste this:
img { height: auto !important; max-width: 100% !important;}
Make sure you hit enter to create a new line after pasting it.  Then click "Apply to Blog."
______________________________


If you notice any of your Blogger buddies are having the same problem please share these instructions or send them over here.

Definitely leave a comment for me if this works for you.  I'd love to know that I've helped someone.  That would make my day!



Stamp 'n' Doodle "In the Garden" challenge

Thanks so much to everyone that shared their projects in last week's "Stitching: real or faux" challenge at Stamp 'n' Doodle.  The entries were all fantastic and I hope to see all of those crafters back this week along with some new faces!

Our theme this week is another fun one that allows for a huge array of styles and projects.  We'd like to see what you can do with:

"In the Garden"

So get those creative juices flowing and show off your talent!  This one would be fantastic for a scrapbook layout.   We welcome any type of project that relates to gardens and would love to see your new creations.

I've decided to once again do an A2 sized card that could be donated to Operation Write Home.  When I saw Lynne's image titled "Cry Babies" I thought instantly of a missing you card for OWH.  I added my own little "garden" with my ProMarkers along the bottom of the image.  And the butterfly patterned paper just called out for a garden style card.


Thanks so much for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your entry over at Stamp 'n' Doodle.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Invitation to the Hiding in My Craft Room Design Team!

Last week I was invited to join the Design Team at
Hiding in My Craft Room.
Yeah, of course,  I said yes!   Have you had a chance to check out the challenges over there?   There are so many great projects from both the Design Team and the entrants.  I'm thrilled to be able to work with this group of talented crafters!

I'm so excited, in fact, that I'm jumping in a week early.
My actual term doesn't begin until the first challenge of October.
I can't wait!
So, I'm putting together a card for the last September challenge theme.  Be sure to check back here on Saturday when I'm able to share the details of the next challenge....you're gonna' love it!

In the meantime, something I can share with you
is a little bonus you can get from
ScrapbookPal.com:
simply mention Hiding in My Craft Room in any order from now until the end of September and they will include a free surprise gift in your order.  Fun, right?

You're probably wondering about the shipping costs....that's a valid concern with a LOT of online shops.  ScrapbookPal.com provides
FREE SHIPPING
for continental U.S. orders of $25 or more!!
Please check here for costs and details for other shipping costs.

You will be amazed by the great assortment of supplies available at Scrapbook Pal.  I sure was.  My order is going to be submitted very shortly....shhhh, don't tell hubby.


Friday, September 20, 2013

Retirement for hubby's very first boss

When hubby and I went to our high school reunion last month (our thirtieth!!) we stopped by the restaurant where he had worked as a dish-washer all through school.  It was strange to be back there.  We walked past the payphones he called me on after each of his shifts.  Remember payphones, anyone?  Cell phones are sooooo much better.

As we were eating brunch, I told our waitress that hubby had worked there 30 years earlier and asked if he could take a quick look in the kitchen before we left.  She was sweet enough to take both of us back there.  It hadn't changed much.  As we were paying, we found out from the hostess that the gentleman who had hired hubby almost 33 years ago had just retired in July.  Today I finally got around to making the retirement card I had promised to do over a month ago.
--Sorry for the delay, Mister.--



The image is one I found on Free Dearie Dolls blog.  If you've never been over there you have got to go check it out!  Oodles of free digis and they are so cute!!  I thought the chef with a bottle of wine would be perfect because the retiree had been the kitchen manager for well over 30 years at the Brown County Inn.

I kept the design very simple just opting to do a center step card for a little non-frilly interest.  (The recipient is not a big bling kinda' guy.)  The embossed card stock behind the chef was done with a Sizzix candy cane stripe folder.  It's the largest in this assortment:



I placed the bit of paper in it diagonally, lining up the bottom edge with one of the stripes on the folder.  Voila.  Straight stripes from a candy cane folder.  I'm sure that's not a new idea but I still feel better clever.  Love to find new uses for my toys tools!

Here are the other items I used in making this card:

Markers: ProMarkers
Papers:  Papertrey Ink and Recollections
Ribbon and brads: my stash

I did also use Glossy Accents on the wine bottle and glasses although it doesn't show in the photos.  In order to do such a small area, I put a drop of Glossy Accents in the middle of the bottle and each of the glasses.  Then I used the tip of a bamboo skewer to drag it around and fill in the areas I wanted to have a shine.  I saw that in a YouTube video once but for the life of me cannot remember whose video it was so I'm unable to give the proper credit.  My apologies to that crafter!

Here's a shot of the card straight on:


You can find this cute little guy in the following challenges:

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Lacy Sunshine's Oscar and Olivia baby tag

Last week my "Bright and Cheery Halloween" card was named to the Top 3 at the Lacy Sunshine Challenge Blog!  I'm still really excited about it because there are always fantastic projects submitted so the fact that mine was singled out is a huge compliment!
Thanks again to Sunshine Girl Deanne for selecting my card.
By the way, see my badge?!  (Happy squeals!)


In addition to that honor, there was also a prize of one free digi of my choice.  (Squeals continuing!)  And since I used one of Heather's images last week, I received this week's challenge image for FREE through the loyalty program.  Pretty sweet deal, right?  You can check out all of the details here.

The image that I chose for my prize was one that just really caught my eye.  It's Oscar and Olivia...and they're otters.  Holding hands.  So cute!  That's the digi I used for today's project and I'm in love with their sweet faces.  I do have to admit that my inexperience at coloring animal fur with my ProMarkers led to little Oscar looking an awful lot like an Ewok.
But, I loved Ewoks so I'm okay with it.



Since my Cricut Fabulous Finds cartridge is very sadly overlooked far too often, I thought I'd give it some love today.  The luggage tags are super cute so that's what I used.  The scalloped circles were cut using Elegant Edges.  I find myself going to that cart over and over.
If you're looking for a new addition to your Cricut library, I highly recommend it!

Here are a couple of side views of my gift tag so you can see how much dimension there is.





The other items I used making this card were:

Papers:  Bazzill and Papertrey Ink
Printed papers: Michaels Dollar Bin (love those packs)
Mulberry flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts and Ebay
Beads: Dollar Tree
Footprint charm:  Michaels in the baby shower section
Seam binding: Glitter and Kitsch over at Etsy
Lace: Martha Stewart
Other bits and bobs: my stash

Making this tag reminded me of my days rollerskating during the early 80's.  My best friend and I were known for our love of all clothing lavender and purple with an occasional touch of pink.  The song "Betty Davis Eyes" kept playing in my head....aah, those were some fun times.

Here's a final look at the gift tag:


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A quick word about theft



Today while I was looking for one of my favorite stamp artists on Facebook, I ran across a page that had over 350 of her images....not watermarked.  Just ready to be stolen by anyone who wanted to download them.

Shameful.

This is absolutely no different than someone walking into a craft store a taking a wood mounted stamp without paying for it.  It really makes me sad that so many people in today's world are so greedy and inconsiderate of one another that they would be okay with this.

I've let the artist know and I reported it to Facebook.  As I told the artist, if it weren't for the fact that my Mama didn't raise no crook, it would have been tempting to grab and go.  But, my Mother did teach me right from wrong, common decency, morals, whatever you want to call it.

I hope that my lovely visitors feel the same as I do and will join me in reporting this whenever you see it.

Stepping down off of my soapbox.  For now.

My first telescoping card

I think I may have just found a new contender for my favorite card style although I'm not sure anything can replace easel cards.  Today I tried my hand at a telescope card and it was so easy!  I love that it has so much impact and is really different from most cards.

It did, of course, take me much longer than it probably should have.  I'm just so darned indecisive on how to embellish cards.  There are so many things yet to learn about color, balance, scale, etc.  I'm getting there....I think.  My comfort level is increasing with each card I make so that's a positive sign.  And, besides, I'm having a blast.  What else matters?

The image used on this card is from Mo Manning.  Love, love, love her work!  It always puts a smile on my face to just look at one of her images.  They're really fun to color too.  There's enough detail to make it look great without so much that it becomes fussy.  There's a fine line between the two and Ms Manning seems to know just where it is.

Recipe for this card is as follows:
Papers:  Papertrey Ink, Bazzill, K&Company
Cricut cartridges: Elegant Edges, Flower Shoppe
Markers: ProMarkers
Stamps: Little Yellow Bicycle, Papertrey Ink, Inkadinka Doo,
Clear Dollar Stamps
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts and handmade for the light peach one
Brads, bling and ribbon: From my stash

Here's the card:



I do wish I had set the brad a little higher on the bottom panel.  I'll know better next time.  But don't you think it looks like there's static electricity in the little guy's hair as if the middle panel were a balloon?  I like the way it looks.  It's what I call a happy accident.

You can find this card in the following challenges:

Bronte & Bella's Blog -- Say it with flowers

A new Stamp 'n' Doodle challenge

There were some really great entries in last week's
Stamp 'n' Doodle Spots and Stripes challenge.  Thanks so much to everyone that was able to join us.  Congratulations to Pauline for her winning card!  Congrats also to the top 3.....we hope to see more of your work in the upcoming challenges.

We have a great theme for this week.  It's one that, like last week, can be used on any style of cards.  This should be fun to see the wide range that you will all be able to come up with!  Are you curious?  Okay.  This week's challenge theme is:

Stitching: Real or faux

So go get your sewing machine fired up, pull out your We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy, or just grab a gel pen and go at it!  I, along with the rest of the Design Team, can't wait to see your creations.  Remember that you're not limited to cards.  If you'd like, do some stitching on a tag, scrapbook layout, or altered item let your creativity flow.

Here is my card for this week:


I decided to use faux stitching but I have a feeling I'll be inspired to do some real sewing on a card soon after looking at all of the great entries I anticipate seeing at Stamp 'n' Doodle.

As a little PS:  This card was mailed today along with 49 others to Operation Write Home.  This brings my total contribution to 75 cards....and I'm just getting started.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Mini Boo Banner

Today I want to quickly share with you a little banner I've made for Halloween.  It's not a huge one; in fact, it only measures about 18" across as it's photographed.  The letters could be separated more but I think it would look a bit awkward.

The base circles that the rosettes and letters sit upon were cut at 4.5" using Cricut Elegant Edges.  I decided to offset the shadow layer rather than lining up the scallops.....just to be different.  I like the effect and will probably use it again for more projects.  The letters were cut at 2.25" using Cricut Old West.  I really like that cartridge although I've not used it as often as I should.  

For loads of dimension, I added rosettes to each of the circles.  I scored at half an inch for the folds in the rosettes so they would be super tall.  Pop dots were used to mount the letters onto their shadows.  Tim Holtz distress inks in Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade were used.

Originally I had intended to list this for sale in my Etsy shop....not sure that will happen though.  It's just so cute I think it needs to hang from my mantel.  Guess I'll have to do another one to sell. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a great day!


The 2nd photo is to show the dimension the rosettes added not just how many pop dots I like to use.
So just pretend you don't see all of those because I do use a bunch.

You can find this banner in the following challenges:

Kaboodle Doodles -- Anything but a square
Fantabulous Cricut Challenges -- ABC's 123's
Bitten by the Bug2 -- Anything fall
Craftin' Desert Divas -- Autumn/fall
Crafty Sentiments Designs -- Autumn/fall colors
Craft Your Passion -- Autumn colors
ABC Challenges -- V is for very cute
Country View Crafts -- Layers

Monday, September 16, 2013

No frost on the pumpkin....yet.

I love living in Indiana!
There are too many things to even begin to list them all here.
One of my favorite things is most definitely the changing seasons.  Don't get me wrong....I whine and complain about the extremes...."It's so freakin' cold" or "Why does it have to be so blasted hot?"  But then there are days like today.  It's cool, a little breezy, and you can just feel autumn is right around the corner.  Today's weather makes me think about football, our annual trip to the apple orchard, falling leaves, football, fall decor, oh yeah, and football.

Yesterday's Colts' loss was very disappointing not to mention needless.  If the officiating had been even half way decent, we'd be 2-0 instead of 1-1.  Not that I'm still upset or anything.  Oh well, enough about football....for now.  The season is young though so I make no promises there won't be more later.

But for now, on to cards.

Am I the only one happy to see all of the fall themed challenges that are popping up all over the blogosphere?  The colors of autumn make me think of my high school days.  My family lived on a lake in the hills of Brown County, IN which is famous for the artists' colony of Nashville, Indiana along with its number of tourists during the fall.  It really is a beautiful place year-round but late September through October is truly magical.  The scenery always makes me think of the quote:
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
--Albert Camus
Don't be too impressed with me for quoting Albert Camus.
I knew the quote but had to look up who to attribute it to....
then I had to look up who Albert Camus was.
(He was a French existentialist &  author...who knew?)

The gorgeous digi I used for today's card is by Beary Wishes.  When I saw it, I fell in love.  I think it's pretty different from most images.  Plus, I just love the look of urns filled with pumpkins and gourds in the fall.  Kind of rustic and elegant at the same time....and no need to water them or worry about an early frost like with mums or other fall flowers.

Keeping true to style, I used an unconventional color on this card.  The DSP with the floral print on blue background is from the SEI Botanical stack.  Isn't it beautiful?  I was really drawn to it when I was gathering supplies for this card so all of the other items were worked around it.  The other items I used were:

*Coloring: Done with my ProMarkers
*Cricut Elegant Edges and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2.  (The "Hello" sentiment was done with Cricut markers using TBBM2.)
*Cardstock: Bazzill and Papertrey Ink
*Beaded stems:  from a garland I got at Michaels
*Rhinestones:  Studio 112
*Ribbon and raffia: my stash
*Brads:  both Recollections.  (There are actually 2 brads: a large flat gold one that I punched a hole in the center of with my Crop-a-dile and a leaf shaped brad that I placed in the center of the larger one.)

And, finally, here's my tribute to today's appearance of cooler temps in my home state:






Sunday, September 15, 2013

Clean and simple....sometimes not so simple if you're messy

I thought I'd do some Operation Write Home cards this morning before the Colts game.  (Yes, I like am completely obsessed with my hometown boys!)  In order to get as many completed as possible, I thought I'd be smart and just do an assembly line of a clean and simple design.  That would have been an excellent idea if it weren't for the fact that I am a really messy stamper.  Let me clarify that:  I have to wear an apron when I'm crafting otherwise I wind up with inky finger prints all over myself.  I should get a giant button down to wear and I could look like a pre-schooler during finger paint time.  lol

My choice of the Tim Holtz stamp I used was to fulfill the Our Daily Bread Designs September challenge for OWH.  The challenge this month is "wheels."   (I don't have any Our Daily Bread stamps, yet.  Since they have some really gorgeous stamps, I foresee their absence in my collection coming to an end very soon.)  In addition to offering monthly winners a $25 gift certificate, Our Daily Bread also pays for a shipment of up to 2 boxes of cards over to our heros.  I love that!

Sticking to the masculine feel of the cards I've been making for OWH, I went with shades of blues for a loose ombre effect on this set of cards.  My intention was to complete all of them in the CAS design you see in the photo of the single card.  My success rate for that plan ended up being 50%.  Remember I'm messy.  It looked like I was being booked at the police station with all of the inky finger prints I left on a few of the cards.  I've heard people say that there are no mistakes in card making simply new opportunities for embellishing.  That quote will be on a sign hanging in my "someday" craft room.

After all of the cards were stamped, I just started pulling bits of paper out of my scrap box to hide my mistakes embellish a few of my cards.  I think all of them were salvaged.  Now all that's left to do is to stamp the backs, get them tucked into their envelopes, and send them off to Sandy at OWH.  I've got quite a shipment in the works for my second donation and I feel pretty satisfied.  Once again, I think it's such a wonderful mission that Operation Write Home is on and I'm proud to helping in my little way.




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Ugly Christmas sweaters and Saturated Canary

Saturated Canary has quickly become one of my favorite digital stamp companies.  Their images are so fun and sweet!  I only have a couple of their digis so far but I've had a blast using both of them.  You can see my first card using "Boobie Love" in this post.

I knew the card I was going do for this post was going to be the one called "[Ugly] Christmas Sweater."  The sweet little girl and one of the fabulous sentiments that's included just crack me up.
Here's a quick look:


The look on her face, the way her toes are pointed inward, and her little shrugged shoulders make for a complete look of embarrassment.   Don't you agree?  The artist for Saturated Canary is Krista Smith.  She is a lovely lady and I'm both inspired by and envious of her talent.  Mostly, though, I'm just thankful that she's decided to make her artwork available.

You know I can't possibly post an entry in this blog without rambling on including some sort of story.  Here's the one for this card:
The entire time I was coloring the image, I was remembering a time when hubby and our 2 younger boys were going to what we all thought was a costume party at one of my cousins' houses.  (I had to work that evening and couldn't attend.)  Well, as you may have guessed, it was not a costume party just a good old fashioned bonfire.  The 2 boys were just wearing black capes over regular street clothes so they were able to ditch the costumes easily.  Hubby, however, was in a full Superman suit.  Not Clark Kent....Superman!  Being the great sport he is, he just walked around the corner and owned it!  Everything was going just fine until the son of another of my cousins' looked at him and said, "You know Spider-Man is better."  That little boy's name is Kaleb and he was probably about 5 or 6 at the time.  Cuter than you can imagine and way too smart for his parents' own good!  (Kaleb's no longer a little boy but instead a handsome young man....wonder if he still favors Spider-Man?)

So, now onto the actual details of the card.  I'll just list the items used and then include a few more pics.

*Coloring: ProMarkers
*Papers: Bazzill, Recollections and DCWV
*Lace:  Joann
*Charm: Joann jewelry dept.  Sorry don't have the maker's name.
*Cherub:  My Mom's stash (Uses them on her incredible stained glass creations)
*Cricut cartridges used: Elegant Edges, Flower Shoppe, and Home Decor
*Beads: Dollar Tree and my stash
*Ribbon: my stash
*Cheese cloth: from my kitchen.  I did dye it with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo for that great color.

If you have any questions about any of the finer details, please feel free to either email me or leave it in the comment section.





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