Wrap It Up, Stick a Bow on It

Let's wrap up February, stick a bow on it, and call it done shall we?  I didn't make anything new last night (except a mess) but I do have some cards to share with you from previous.  These are the birthday cards I sent out this month, minus the couple I already shared on my blog.

Here is a "sending cheer" card I sent that in hindsight, actually looks kind of depressing (oops). It wasn't supposed to be depressing, but it does look rather bleak here.  The sky is sponged in the window but you can't tell it from this photo.  It has a nice cheery greeting on the inside. Anyway, my friend didn't slit her wrists after receiving it, so apparently it wasn't as depressing as I feel it was.

Next up, I tried that washi tape CAS card that was being bantered about after Susan at Simplicity made one.   Despite having bought washi tape in coordinating packs, I had a hard time coming up with a couple tapes that looked good next to each other (you know, because I've mixed them all together now).  And of course I had to substitute all that white space with all that green space. And I had to add a flower least my friend think I sent her someone else's card.

  Thanks for hanging out with me as I show off cards from this past month.

The Fine Print: Top card-stamp by Stampin' Up, "scallop" border made with circle punches only part-way sticking out.  Second card-stamp by Stampendous covered with glossy accents. Third card-Stamp by Stampin' Up, ribbon from A Muse, tied with embroidery floss. Bottom card-greeting by Paper Smooches, flower by Prima, washi by Queen & Co. 

A Merry Aqua, Silver and White Christmas to You!

I guess today is all about Christmas cards since I have two posts on the subject.  The other one is for the Rudolph Day challenge (two Christmas cards, that's all she wrote) and this one is for Merry Monday, which is a color combo challenge this time.

The colors in question are aqua, silver, and white which are surprisingly festive and surprisingly hard to determine... ...that is, for the aqua.  Some aqua is more blue and some is more green and really it all came down to what I had in my stash.  We had also been given permission to substitute a light gray for silver.

I was tickled to find these pre-printed card bases in my stash and paper in the right colors--both kinds of aqua, gray for silver, and white.  It's like they knew this challenge was coming!  I had a hard time deciding between two stamps so I ended up using them both. I even found some silver glitter, silver glitter paper and shiny silver embellishments to get actual silver onto my cards.

The Fine Print: Card bases, dotted paper, plain aqua, and silver glitter cardstocks by DCWV, stick Christmas tree by Hero Arts, star colored with Sakura silver glitter pen, embellishments by Candi, Hippy Snow Chick by A Muse Artstamps, flower by Prima, and colored in Copics.

Rudolph Day

It's time for this month's Rudolph Day challenge.  I had great intentions to do some wonderful things with the Christmas stamps in this set.   I've not used them before so this would give me a chance to try them out.

However when it came time for the reality the only stamp that I felt like playing with was the toy soldier and even then I had to try a dozen different things before I came up with something I liked.  Twice, since the challenge calls for two cards.

I kept them pretty basic since that's my style and anything else would have been madness. In the end I was quite pleased with both of them.  And who knows what next month will bring. Maybe I'll try out the other  holiday stamps in that set!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Tim Holtz, because you couldn't figure that out from the photo, oval dies by Spellbinders, holly leaf dies by A Muse Studio, ribbons and bling from my stash. And yes, you've seen many of the other stamps in action on my blog; it is just the holiday ones I haven't used before.

WOYWW 247 and a Late SOS

Last week for my Workdesk Wednesday post I shared not only the rolltop desk that I own but one made specifically for paper crafters that I covet.  Lots of you asked when and if I was going to get that new desk.  I'm not going to because the desk I have is perfectly functional.  However, if a chainsaw wielding maniac comes into my house and chops my desk in half, you know what the replacement desk will be!

Several of you commented that you liked my desk and its drawers and cubbies, but having them means you have to keep the desk tidy enough to access them.  Yes, exactly.  Now you know part of why I try to keep it neat.  Another reason is below.

He doesn't have a chainsaw, but he's definitely a maniac and he wants access to my desk.  The empty spot on top of my desk is so he can sit and greet us as we are coming and going.

Here's a card I made to link up to the Shopping Our Stash (SOS) challenge but somehow I never got around to it before it ended.  The theme was embellishments and this card has a whole passel of tiny blings on it and some paper flowers.  It is pale and pastel-ly and watercolored with gelatos.  I know!  It's like I was pretending to be someone else!

The Fine Print: Fancy dress stamp by Stampendous, paper flowers by Prima, non-chainsaw wielding maniac by Mother Nature.  And in case you want to know what stuff is on my desk for me to play with, I have stuff for a Merry Monday card, a couple of stamps from last week, and whole stack of new Iris Folding patterns.  Woot!

Aww.....Teacup Kitty

I know many of you probably popped by here looking for my Rudolph Day challenge, but you'll just have to hold your reindeer, because we aren't emotionally prepared for Christmas cards today.  Today I have a sweet little kitty to be admired by all.

You know how it goes, sometimes you want to make a card using a particular stamp.  Sometimes it is an embellishment that you wish to use.  Other times it is the paper that begs to come play.  This was one of those cards.  I really wanted to use this paper so I poked around in my stash until I found a stamp that would look good with it. 

I'm am going to link this up to the Snippets Playground because I've done some soul searching about snippets.  In the past I never considered a quarter sheet of designer paper a snippet unless it is like the lone sheet of Halloween paper lurking around.  But I've since decided that I needed to include these pieces of random paper that I only have one or two of, especially ones like this one that I've had for years. I have other snippets in here too--the brad, the matting piece of pink, and the waffle textured flower.  It's all good!

The Fine Print: Stamp by Crafter's Companion colored in Copics, paper flower by Prima, glitter brad from my stash, and designer paper from my really, really, really old stash.  Seriously that paper is at least a decade old.

Everything's Better with Blue Bonnet On It

I might be confusing that saying a wee bit...

Oh! Everything's better when shared with a friend!  I was so close!

The Fine Print: Faux brads and stamp by Stampin' Up "And Everything Nice," designer paper by DCWV, flourish and flower dies by Marianne (I think).

Horsin' Around with the Letter U

Over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, they are doing their second challenge which is U is for unused--how I prefer my toilet tissue.

They gave us a couple of other rules loose guidelines as well ("rules" sound so totalitarian).  They said you were to dig deep into your stash and find something that you have never used or haven't used in so long that you've darn near forgotten about it. 

I have a brand new stamp that I bought just for its silliness/snark factor but even though it is unused I didn't feel that it was in the correct spirit of this challenge.  So I dug out this previously used yet long forgotten stamp and stamped it instead.  I know it isn't heavy on the snarkiness but I thought it was different enough to work.

Inside greeting:

And frankly I was horsin' around last night and being far to lazy to look for an unused snarky stamp but you can bet your boots I have one.  Or six.  Or possibly even a dozen.  Well, that might be pushing it a bit.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Copper Leaf Creations, papers and ribbons from my stash.

Tea for Two, or Fifty-Two

Today was my big stamp club meeting and it was my turn to host the make and take.  Since I was clueless what to do for such a large group of people, I reached out to my friends for ideas or suggestions.  My friend, Other Judy, came up with the idea of a cute tea bag holder.  You can use it as a gift insert or mount it on a card.  It's a fun little thing that could easily be made taller to hold a gift card.

It's basically a tri-fold with one corner snipped away to create a little pocket.  We put some decoration on the front and again on the inside and it was done.  To make it easy we kept our decorations to paper flowers but it would look great stamped up with tea themed stamps as well (that's what Other Judy did).

 

 

The greeting says: I wish we could sit down together and have a cup of tea, but since we can't when you have this one I hope you'll think of me.

 

The Fine Print: Thank you Other Judy for such a fabulous idea that was well-received by all.  Papers and flowers from my stash, TEA dies by A Muse Studio.  If you want a hot-to-trot idea you can substitute a condom in lieu of tea. Va-Va-Voom. Anytime you come across a quickie project that could be taught to a group of 40-50 lemme know!

Mad for Plaid

My big stamp club has the card exchange theme of "plaid" this month, which brings back traumatic teenaged memories.  Actually, it doesn't because I was too clueless to know how uncool it was to wear hand-me-down red plaid bellbottoms floodwater pants with a white polo shirt to the first day of my new junior high in 1979.  In hindsight, it is no wonder I spent all of 7th grade without friends.

I'm not sure this pattern is really considered plaid, since it doesn't look anything like my bellbottom pants (of which I had two pairs of), but I'm taking an artistic license here.  Hey, I'm allowed to do that because I'm obviously weird. I used snippets 'n bits to make this card so I'm going to link up to Pixie's Playground, just to prove I have real friends now. 

The Fine Print: I'd had a growth spurt before school started and since we just moved we hadn't had time to go back to school shopping so the neighbor lady gave my mom some clothes for me to wear left over from her daughters (and an entirely different era).  I had to clarify that so you don't think my mother did this to me, although she didn't tell me not to.  Stamps by A Muse "Color me Happy," bunny and grass dies also by A Muse Studio, reversed pinking circle and circle dies by Spellbinders, flowers by Prima, ribbon and papers from the snippet stash.

Deck the Halls!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la, la la la lah!
Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la la, la la la lah!

Now the cats shall tear it down!
Fa la la la la la, la la la lah!
They don't care if you frown!
Fa la la la la la, la la la lah!

Yes this means it is time for our Very Merry Monday Challenge, which is to use holly on your card. I wasn't entirely sure that I had any stamps of holly except for some very small sprigs, but I knew I had some dies.  Then I remembered I had the mother of all dies--an entire background of holly--and I just knew I had to use that.

The card seemed boring and dull until I broke out with my Ruby Red liquid pearls and that changed things around right quick. I am so pleased with how this card turned out I probably will make a couple more of them.

The Fine Print: Deck the Halls stamp by A Muse Artstamps, holly background die by Taylored Expressions, flowers by Prima, brads by unknown (not those horrible from before), Ruby Red liquid pearls by Ranger.

The Workdesk on a Wednesday

If you are like me and like snooping around other people's crafting spaces then you will want to check out What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. Truly it is a fine blog hop that shows you where the creativity happens, which I always find interesting.

Things have been added, removed, and shuffled around since last time but ultimately not much has changed. I'm starting to pile more things up to play with than I will have time for so I'm going to have to make some choices.  Below are some of the things I have to pick from.

I don't really want to talk about what is *on* my desk this week, but I'd rather talk *about* my desk.  I wanted a rolltop desk since I was little and finally got one when I was in high school.  It was made of pressboard which isn't built to last and after several years of hard use it developed a lean.  Hubby and I decided it was time to replace it with a real wood desk.  We went to multiple stores and over and over sales people would ask what I was looking for in a desk (real wood, rolltop) and what I wanted to do on the desk (paper crafting).  Over and over sales people would shake their heads sadly and insist that no one should be doing crafts on a lovely piece of furniture like a real wood rolltop desk.  Those sales people tried hard to talk me out of my rollrop desk, which as you know I did eventually get. The other day I ran across this beauty:

They are now making a real wood roll top desk specifically for the paper crafter.  Oh yeah, narrow minded sales people, who's laughing now??! If you want to see the features of this desk and other wonderful storage ideas go to Stamp-n-Storage. However, no cursing my name after you go there.

And here's a card since if you aren't here to talk about workdesks you are here to see what I've created recently.  I  made this at  Stampin' Up workshop the other night.  The flowers are embossed on brayered vellum.

The Fine Print: Only 70 some more shopping days until my birthday, if you like to buy me that new rolltop desk. I'm sure a couple of you could get together and spring for it.  I'll even let you have my current one in exchange.   Flower and leaf stamps by Stampin' Up "Secret Garden" set, happy everything from a retired set, Swiss dot embossing folder.

So Cool, We're Hot!

 Because deep down inside we are all cool cats.  Except for those few turkeys.  You know who you are.  Wait! That sounds like some vague passive-aggressive thing you see on Facebook where I'm really trying to tell a specific someone they are a turkey but I don't have the cajones to tell them outright.  That's not it at all! I mean there are some turkeys in the world, and now that I actually think of it they probably don't know they are turkeys otherwise they would work to better themselves and be less turkey-like.  Except for those few who reveal in being a turkey... oh my gawd, why is this simple card so complicated??!!
 
The Fine Print: Stamp by Hampton Arts, paper by DCWV, flowers by Prima, and ribbon from my stash. 

Bee All You Can Bee

I thought I'd pull out an old and previously unshared card for this President's Day (observed) Monday, which is not a holiday where I work because we do this "thang" called Rodeo later in the week (give me two days off work to celebrate hunky cowboys in tight jeans over one day off for some old dead bigwigs any day).

This card was made for my big stamp club as part of the mystery challenge card exchange.  How it works is you are given something--you don't know what, hence the mystery--and you have to use it on a project.  The mystery item this time was the piece of silver sequin waste.  For some reason it made me think of honeycomb so I made this card with a bee on it.

And yes, live the life you've imagined unless you are like me and have a really twisted imagination and then maybe pare it down a little and then live it....   ...especially if it involves hunky cowboys in tight jeans. 

The Fine Print: Although, you may want to rethink that cowboy thing, since they think eight seconds is a long time.  You know what I'm sayin'?  Bee and bee die by Stampin' Up, not sure about the greeting as I made the card several months ago, designer paper from my stash.

I've Created a Monster

It's true, I've created a monster.  As you see depicted by this snippet card below that every time I make cupcakes now Dio has to steal one, balance it on his tail and pounce about the house.  Okay, that's fiction.

Fact is a little weirder.   See, about a month ago Dio was following me around as I vacuumed the house and on a lark, I pulled out the attachment hose and vacuumed him.  He loved it. Now every time I vacuum he follows me around the house until I pull out the attachment and vacuum him again.  It has added a good 20 minutes to the hoovering job.

Just in case you didn't think there were enough snippets on my snippet card to let me into the Snippet Playground above is the inside where there are a few more.  Below is what a freshly vacuumed cat looks like.   *sigh*

The Fine Print: Stamps by Penny Black clear set "Kitty's Day" and Printworks "Count the Happies," cupcake punch by Stampin' Up, all the stuff from my stash.

Flutterby

There's a new challenge out there that is all about our favorite insect--the butterfly.  The very first challenge at the Butterfly Challenge blog is called Butterflies and Flowers.  You have to use at least one of each on your project.

I wanted to make something bright, fresh and spring-like and this background paper immediately sprung to mind.  Of course, I had to dig the Valentine stash back out to get at it but I think it was worth it.

After all the delicate frills on the paper and die cuts I felt my butterfly should be fairly solid, so I used this one, which was my very first butterfly die ever.  I thought he looked a little naked so I gave him a jeweled head.  Then I decided that made his body look off so I jeweled that up too.  Now I'm not so sure it isn't excessive, but hey, I'm known for that.

The Fine Print: Hello greeting by Endless Creations; heart, scalloped heart and butterfly dies by Spellbinders; Valerian flourish (chopped in half) by Memory Box; flowers by Prima, brads and jewels from my stash.

Happy Valentine Day!

Why yes, those are Fahrenheit numbers, why do you ask?  This is what Valentine's Day in Southern Arizona should be about--melted chocolates, wilted flowers and lots of tan happy people.

Here's a Valentine notecard I whipped up for the occasion.  I had to laugh at my bandit in hot pink pants, not exactly stealth clothing! 

And here are the giant flowers my hubby got me for VD. Aren't they awesome?!  Charles the cat thinks they are for him, so we won't tell him otherwise.  He was sitting on the carpeted stool there admiring them until I got out the camera--then he had to chase its strap around.

The Fine Print: Stamps used--"Quick and Cute Valentines" by AMuse Studio; cardstock used-grapefruit petite polka dot, grapefruit, sugar and onyx by A Muse Studio; Spellbinders heart and scalloped heart dies.

Merry Monday

This week's Merry Monday challenge is to write this post with an animal in the way.....  oh wait, that's just me that is doing that.  The challenge is to make a Christmas card with an animal on it.

I just had to pull this cutie out of the closet and use him. I knew I wanted to pair him with this striped paper but it took me awhile to figure out what else to do with this card.  I colored the Christmas ornament with a glitter pen which lightened up the red in the photograph, but it matches much better in real life.

Except for the incredibly crooked Merry Christmas I like how I decorated the inside.  The crooked greeting came about because the words slipped on the wood mount.  How does that happen when all it does is sit in a drawer most of the year?  Very curious...

The Fine Print: Mouse stamp by Elyzbells, border punch by Martha, holly vine by Memory Box, striped paper by DCWV, inside greetings by AMuse Artstamps.  What do you mean you expected a Valentine's Day themed post on Valentines??!!!  Well, stay tuned I do have one by the photo for it is someplace I'm not right now (which will be bed when this goes live).

You're So Special

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to make a card for someone special.  I made this card for someone special....  Now is this the point where I should confess that I didn't know who that someone special was?  I know it sounds crazy, but I had to make a Valentine themed card for a swap at an on-line group.  I know the ladies on this group gravitate toward the cutesy stamps and all love Penny Black, so I specially made this card for whoever my partner would be.

I was quite tickled with it (as was the lady I ended up sending it to) as I thought it made a sweet, friendly Valentine card.  It's been awhile since I broke out any border punches and gosh knows I have quite a collection of them.

The Fine Print: Penny Black stamp "Sending Love," love greeting from the dollar bin (part of a bigger greeting), border punch by Martha Stewart, designer paper and bling from my stash.

#245, What's on Your Workdesk this Wednesday

It's the usual tidy desk, with lots of room for me to play.  Once I sit down to play though all that room magically vanishes and becomes piles of stuff.  Swearsy! I didn't join What's on Your Workdesk last week because I forgot it was Wednesday. Instead I wrote a post about remembering stuff, which is kind of ironic...

Currently I have these on my desk to play with.  The Christmas stamp is to make a card for Merry Monday.  The grid stamp is a new purchase that I'd like to do something fabulous with, and the cow stamp--well, what's not to love about that?!

Here's a few cards I've received from friends recently.  The green card I've had for awhile but I love it as it makes me think of spring, which I've heard may actually show up sometime this year. I suppose I should hang it on my bulletin board, which I did actually change out, only you can't see it in my desk photo.

The Fine Print: Your eyes are weary from staring at the monitor. You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor blink. Very sleepy. Close your eyes. So relaxing.  Just let your mind drift away.  You find the voice in your head reading this to be so soothing.  Sleepy.  You are now under my control.  At the count of three, you will cluck like a chicken.  One.  Two.  Three!

House Mouse Color Challenge

Over at the House Mouse and Friends blog they are having a color challenge this week.  We are being asked to use amethyst and vanilla and one other color on our creations.  You say, "amethyst" and I immediately think of soft spring flowers, which is rather interesting since I live in the desert and we don't do soft spring flowers.  We do prickly bright flowers, but that's another story for another day.

I chose green as my other color and this card was born.  I don't usually make big square cards but it felt right for this one. I used glitter on the water so there are some sparkles in this card as well as flowers and flourishes. I was quite happy with how it turned out.

The Fine Print: "Flower Raft" House Mouse stamp by Stampabilities, Madera corner flourish by Memory Box, paper flowers by Prima, brad and designer paper from my stash.  Break out your House Mouse or friend stamp and join in on this challenge!  If your brain is like mind and amethyst and vanilla don't mean anything to you, think Purple and Cream.   Yeah, see how much easier that is to remember?!

Hearts & Flowers

Recently, in my blog travels I came across an iris folded card and immediately realized that was what my life was missing.  Strangely enough, before then I didn't even know that something was missing.

Now that I've made this hearts and flowers themed iris folded card, I guess I can say that my life is complete.  Hmmm... somehow I thought feeling complete would have a different feeling than this.  This feels vaguely like allergies. 

And welcome to my new followers who have come out of the woodwork in droves.  That's so cool to see you here in JudyLandia, where things are vaguely odd and oddly vague.

The Fine Print: The card was made from stuff that came from places.  That's about all I can tell you about that except the red flowers are Prima and the XOXO is by DeNami Designs.  Oh, I can also tell you that those are the worst silver brads on the planet.  The two prongs don't come together so they are very hard to thread through a hole and the metal they are made out of is so stiff you can hardly fold them down.  Terrible things.  Don't buy that kind... if I only knew what kind it was.

So Stinkin' Cute

It is Sunday again and that means it is time to take our snippets to the playground for a go at the swings and teeter totters.  Since we're closing in on Valentine's Day all my snippets are out of the Valentine's box.  Even though I've made quite a number of cards, that box doesn't seem any less full from when I first pulled it out, especially the snippet pile.

 

I made this little black, white and red sweetie with a newish Simon Says Stamp set.  I thought he would be lots of fun to play with.  He is stamped on the linen textured paper that I have a lot of.  That paper reacts interestingly to Copic markers which kept my black (really dark grey) from being too dark.

However for this card he is stamped on regular cardstock and the color came out too dark.  So for the next card I moved down a color on the grey scale, or actually two colors since I don't own ones right in a row.

That one was too light.  Then I tried to darken him up except around the face and he came out sort of awkward looking.

I tried another piece of the linen textured paper and it didn't work as well as it did on the first try.  Again, my skunk looks awkward around the face.

So I just threw the last card together and called it good.  Now that I've had a go at this stamp set I don't think I like it so much after all since I can't get good coloring on the skunk. It is too bad as it has the cutest sayings in a nifty font to go with it.

The Fine Print: Skunk and tiny hearts from Simon Says Stamps "Stinkin' Cute," plain heart punch by EK Success, hearts on a wire die by Simon Says Stamps (snippet of an entire background die), fat curvy heat die by A Muse Studio, small lace heart (last two cards) by Simon Says Stamps, huge greeting by Copper Leaf Creations and of course, all the bits of paper from my snippet pile.