Hiding in My Craft Room -- Anything BUT a holiday

Welcome to the final challenge of 2013 for

Hiding in My Craft Room

This week I'm really happy to tell you that the theme is:
Anything BUT a holiday!!

I think I may have skipped with joy just a little bit as I was putting away my Christmas crafting supplies yesterday.  They will be great to see again next year but for now:  enough already!

My card this week is crazy with color.  I started with Lacy Sunshine's Eleanor Painting Ladybugs image.  Next, the papers were chosen.  Since I knew the colors needed to be really bright and fun for this card, I went to my 6x6 pad of Glitz Finnley.  It's full of great patterns and eye popping colors.

The sentiment stamp from Inkadinkado's Friendly Advice was perfect for the direction I wanted to take this card.

I didn't have any beads that were the right colors for this card but still really wanted to use one of these adorable little bottles.  What to do?  Use some bright pink embossing powder, of course.  It's actually Ruby Red from Stampendous.  The color deepens a lot after the powder has been heated.

Here are a few more shots of some of the other embellishments:

I had so much fun working with this image....I always do when I color Eleanor!  She reminds me of my future daughter-in-law with that sweet little face and great big glasses.

I added some super small dots of Liquid Pearls in Petal Pink around the image.  First I stamped hearts and flourishes from My Cute Stamps' Lots of Love in Memento Desert Sand.  The little butterflies are from Tim Holtz's Flights of Fancy set.  They were stamped using Victorian Velvet.  I stamped it off once on scrap paper and then onto to the image sheet.  This helped keep the color very soft.  I inked around the image with Victorian Velvet also.  The corners for the image and the mats beneath it were all shaped using We R Memory Keepers' Deco Corner Chomper.

So there is my card for this week's new challenge at

Hiding in My Craft Room.

I hope you have a chance to go take a look at the other items done by the rest of the HIMCR Design Team.  There's always a huge variety of really great inspiration pieces!

Of course, we would all love for you to join in the fun of the new challenge.  Good luck to all who enter.

You can find this card in the following challenges:

Crafts-Too Challenge You -- Natural world; things with wings

Digitally Sweet Challenges -- Anything goes

Sarah Hurley -- Create your own background

Charisma Cardz -- Anything goes

Crafty Little Fairies -- Anything goes

Cute Card Thursday -- Anything goes

Crafty Creations -- Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by today.

Have a great last few days of 2013!!

Peace, love and frogs

When I saw this adorable image over at Lacy Sunshine I just cracked up.  The thought of a hippy frog just tickles me!  To top it off, his name is Pickles.  I have no idea why I think that's so funny but I do.  The name of the image is Groovy Pickles and you can find it in Heather's "Retiring $1 digi" section.  Yeah, I said it.  A buck.  And there are loads of really cute images there.  I have no idea how long they will remain available so you may want to go take a look.

The background paper that's kinda' tye die looking was done with a set of My Cute Stamps, Versamark ink, clear embossing powder and distress inks.  I love the resist embossing technique.  It takes a couple of steps but is really simple.  The first time I remember seeing it was in this video.  Each time you do it, you get a different result and I enjoy the surprise.

I've used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches for this card.  Here's the sketch:

And here's the card:

I twisted the image just a bit....a hippy frog should be twisted.  Right?  The sentiment is mine.  I printed it using Word and I think that's pretty funny too.  Yes, I am a dork.  I neither deny nor resist it.  In fact, I embrace it.  The tag the sentiment is on was made using a Recollections tag punch.  The little "forever" charm is from the Michaels Dollar Bin.  The seam binding was white and I dyed it using 
Spiced Marmalade distress ink and a little water.
(Note to self: wear plastic gloves next time.  Dork.)

In addition to Tuesday Morning Sketches, you can find this card at the following challenges:

Lacy Sunshine -- Dies &/or punches

Allways Something Creative -- Beastly
Color Me Creative -- Retro fun/Funkify it up
Creatalicious -- For the boys
Natalie and Amy's Challenge -- Embossing
Chromatic Craze -- Color inspiration
Come and Get It -- End of summer colors

My Inaugural Stamp 'n' Doodle Challenge

Today marks my beginning as an official Stamp 'n' Doodle design team member.....I look forward to a terrific 6 months ahead of me.  It's sure to teach me a lot regarding design team duties and I hope the projects that I do will serve as inspiration to a few of you who stop by Stamp 'n' Doodle.

As with all of the Stamp 'n' Doodle challenges, you can use any image you would like; however, if you use a S 'n' D image you will receive 2 entries in the prize drawing for one free image.  You're not limited to just cards.  Any project that adheres to the theme and other challenge rules is eligible for submission.

This week's challenge theme is:

Weddings

I fell in love with the "I got dressed all by myself" image that Lynne (owner and illustrator) designed.  That just had to be used somehow in my first challenge project.  So, I decided to do a little gift basket for a flower girl.  Isn't she just the cutest?

Other items used were:

Cricut Elegant Edges

Martha Stewart lace

Sentiment from My Cute Stamps

seam binding

"Cutie" charm was from the Michaels Dollar Bin

flowers and rhinestone flower from my stash

Here are a couple more photos:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you are able to join us at Stamp 'n' Doodle for the Wedding challenge.

I'm also submitting this project in the following challenges:

Addicted-to-Stamps -- #63 Anything goes
Love to Scrap -- #13 Anything goes
613 Avenue Create -- #35 Anything goes
Dream Valley Challenges -- For a child
Hiding in My Craft Room -- #113 Freestyle

Operation Write Home Virtual Card Making Party Challenge 1

This morning begins the LaborDay weekend here in the USA and to celebrate that and their "birthday" Operation Write Home is having a Virtual Card Making Party.  This is the first time I've taken part and I'm really excited.  I'm not sure I'll get to all of the challenges this weekend.  But I do plan on completing them before the end of next week and include them in my second shipment of cards.

The master thread for all of the challenges is on the OWH Stars and Stamps blog.  You can find the sketch and linky tool for the first challenge at Nancy Keller's blog.  She is our hostess for the first challenge and has provided a gorgeous inspiration card.

I decided to go with a general winter theme rather than Christmas mainly because I just got the "Snow Cute" stamp by My Cute Stamps and just couldn't wait to use that sentiment.  Just like all of those cards I made yesterday, this is nothin' but scraps.

Here's my card for the first challenge:

I look forward to seeing the other creations in the VCMP and visiting as many of the blogs as possible.  Thanks to all of the gals that are taking time to set up ALL of these challenges!!

Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday

I tried my hand at a new technique after seeing a tutorial over at the Papertrey Ink blog.  If you haven't been over there, you must go take a look!  The design team is made up of some the most extraordinarily talented ladies I've seen.  The tutorials are thorough and always inspires me to broaden my horizons.  This week's Make It Monday was about white crayon resist.  I love the results that Heather achieved.  You can see her complete video here.

Like I said, I did give it a try and look forward to doing it again with a better crayon.  The only white crayon I could find was an itty, bitty piece....barely enough for my sausage large fingers to hold onto.

Using that technique, a sketch I found over at 365 Cards*, and my scrapbox I came up with these 4 cards.  It's interesting to see how different they look using same technique and sketch just changing colors and embellishments.

*The challenge at 365 Cards also includes making a patchwork which I didn't do so this card will not be submitted over there.  Guess I need to get to work on a patchwork card for my friends at 365!

The one with the oranges and purples is definitely my favorite.  Today.  (It will probably change tomorrow.)  Right now I'm just in a bright color kinda' mood, I guess.

You can find it at the following challenge:

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday -- White crayon resist
Word Art Wednesday-- Challenge #93, Anything goes

Very "punny" little seahorse

For all of my fellow card makers out there who participate in weekly challenges:  How do you control the urge to search out every last one?  I've only been doing this for a week and already have started to look at my card making in a completely different way.  Suddenly, I'm thinking "Oh if I add some twine it works for that challenge" or "That color (sentiment, technique, etc) would fulfill the requirement for that site."  I think I may be hooked and, in all honesty, I am lovin' it!  Concentrating on the details like this is going to really step up my abilities.  Plus, looking at all of the incredible works showcased by the various challenge blogs is truly inspiring.

Yesterday, I went through a list of the challenge sites I've already joined with previous cards and tried to work with as many themes as possible.  There were 7 that really seemed to coordinate well so I used the requirements for each and this is the card that resulted.

My little seashore is from Cricut's Create a Critter and can be found on page 42.  He was cut at 3 inches and I removed the spot for his eye in Craft Room so another sweet little Peachy Keen stamp could be used.  White gel pen, Glossy Accents, and a bit of chalk complete his face.  I inked around all layers with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo distress ink.

For the scallops on his head, wing-like dorsal fins, and little belly I used a stylus from McGill to do some curling to the back of the paper to add dimension.

(Love the end result of that simple step!)

I added a layer of Bazzill dark brown paper that was distressed using Tim Holtz's distressing tool between the card base and the top mat.  The card base and top mat are both Papertrey Ink paper.  The ovals were cut using my old school Creative Memories circle and oval cutting system.

I used a trio of tiny bubble stamps from My Cute Stamps "Be my Bridesmaid" set to randomly stamp some bubbles floating through the layers of blue papers.  Brilliance white ink was used.  After the ink dried, Glossy Accents was used to fill in the bubbles.

And I think the card wouldn't have nearly the impact without the Glossy Accents.

The sentiment is a combination of stamps from Papertrey Ink.  Life is a Journey is from their "Birds of a Feather" set.  And fin-tastic is from "Pond Life Sentiments" set.  I cut the Life is a Journey stamp into 2 pieces being very careful to not snip into any of the letters.  I love doing this with sentiment stamps....suddenly I can make my own sentiments.  The original phrase still fits back together perfectly.  Just like a little jigsaw puzzle.  

A couple of cooper colored eyelets and some hemp twine from my stash were added to the sides of the sentiment layer.  I think the "knot" in the twine gives a nautical feel to it.

As always, I appreciate you spending time at my blog and hope that you'll be so kind as to leave a comment.  I would also really love for you to begin following me!  Make sure you leave your blog info in the comment section so I can come by to take a peek at your work as well!

Here are the challenges you can find this card at:

Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards -- Color inspiration
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge -- Make a splash
Papertrey Ink Make it Monday -- Stamping random background
365 Cards -- All smiles
The Kraft Journal -- Layers
Kaboodle Doodles -- Anything with scallops
Addicted-to-Stamps  -- Wonderful with wings
2 Creative Chicks -- Anything for kids
Craft your Passion -- All at sea
Sentimental Sundays -- Child's play
Paula Holifield Crafts -- Summer sun