Mouse with Pumpkin

I was going to enter this mouse into that newish challenge over at Perfectly Created Chaos but it closed already. I kept getting distracted by other things (oh look! shiny!). I can still share this card with you and share the story of how I couldn't get this mouse colored nicely. I tried lighter creams and it didn't work, so I did some light tans that looked stupid, and moved onto light browns. I finally stopped there because I don't know how much color this one piece of cardstock could take.

I guess I can also share this card over at the Snippet Playground #249 since I cut the leaves out of a snippet of patterned cardstock and the bit of seam binding was just laying around being a bum.

The Fine Print: Mouse by Great Impressions, leaf cutouts from DCWV, designer paper and seam binding from my stash.

Gone Fishin'

I was dancing around our service center this morning and when asked what I was doing I said I was pretending it was the weekend already. You know, it's important to get a jump start on these things.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Stampin' Up, other stuff from my stash. 

Spring is in the Air

I've been thinking about all sorts of things pink and girly lately and this card reflects that. And with that I guess I'll don my Mary Janes and my pinafore and skip on over the Snippet Playground since this card is made with scraps and pieces.

The Fine Print: Don't laugh! I can be girly. Right after I set down this toad, put this wrench back, and dust the mud off....  Basket of flowers stamp by Stampin' Up, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, scraps of white cs, designer paper and bit of ribbon from my stash.

Using my Scraps on Rudolph Day

Yesterday was the 25th which means that it is Rudolph Day time from now to the end of the month. I thought I would kill two birds with one stone (so violent!) and make a Christmas card using scraps so I could also play along with the Use Your Stuff Challenge.

I wanted to try out this rather simplistic card design I saw recently when pursuing the web. It really spoke to me even though CAS isn't usually my thing. This is my version of it. I really like how it came out and I have visions of similar cards I can make--and not all Christmas. It really is a great way to use us your scraps even though with this small amount of them on your card you'll need to make to a thousand more to use up your scraps (or is that just me?).

The Fine Print: Dotted card background by Bazzill, designer paper by K&Co., circle punch by Marvy, and greeting and star shaped bling by A Muse Artstamps. True confession time--those aren't my scraps, well I guess they are now since they were in a stash of Christmas designer paper that my friend gave me, but I didn't create them. 

An Apple a Day

One for the Snippet Playground! 

Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away I was sitting around eating an apple and cheese at my desk for my early morning snack (I guess the rest of you folks call that 'breakfast') when my coworker stopped by to say hi.

She then proceeded to tell me about an article she read in the paper that said that the apples you buy in the grocery store are already many months old by they time they get there. That's because of the whole global market thing and they travel in from all over. I nodded along and continued to eat my apple.

She made a face at me and shuddered.

"What?!"

"I can't believe you are going to keep eating that apple after what I just told you about it."

I shrugged. Many months old apples are the only apples I've ever known. A fresh apple off a tree? I only had that as a kid and yes, those wee green apples were damn good but I know those days are long gone. Besides that apple was good.

The Fine Print: These apples were picked just last night but that apple brad is several years old, as is that ribbon and probably that designer paper. Here's me using up stash!  Apple stamp by DeNami Designs and apple brad by Recollections.

Merry Monday: Fa La Lah!

It is time for a Merry Monday challenge! I had a choice of music or carolers and I went for both after thinking I wasn't going to have either.  I had to dig deep into my Christmas stamp stash to find this stamps and then was tickled to find the strip of designer paper with music on it. Thus this card was born.  It's okay that the music paper was in with the Valentine stuff and therefore is probably love sonnets, right?

Since the two strips of designer paper are snippets I'm going to join in at the Snippet Playground too.  I promise next time I come play it will be something other than a Christmas card! 

Or maybe I had my fingers crossed when I said that.  You never know with me.
Update: This card got me an honorable mention over at the Merry Monday Challenge Blog. That's not too bad at all for throwing some snippets 'n stuff together.

The Fine Print: I've got nothing to add here because I forgot to look who made the stamp before I put it away (and I'm not in the same building as it anymore, nor even on that side of town).  It's an old stamp and one of my favorites, but oddly enough I didn't see it on my blog previously.

Snippets on a Sunday

It feels like it has been a long time since I've been out to play at the snippets playground.  It is a great place to go for inspiration for using up those bits and pieces of cardstock and paper we all have lying around.

I made this iris folded apple using up scrap designer paper. My advice on copying this idea is don't do it!  It turns out that about halfway through the design you start to sweat that you may not have enough scraps left to finish.  So don't do it unless you are sure that you have enough to finish because taking these things apart is no fun.  I also used snippets for the fancy corner piece, the stem, and the leaf.

The Fine Print: Apple die by MFT, fancy corner by Provo Craft.  I saw someone use a fancy corner die the other day, decided I needed one, and then remembered that I had this one!  Also, the secret to getting the layer with the folding on it to stay as flat as possible is to coat the back of it with carpet tape.  That stuff won't keep a carpet in place but it will ensure that layer of paper won't pop up.

Budderflies

Hello, My name is Dio and I'm going be your Guest Columnist today because my mom is in a funk. I fink that means she smells funky.  So I had lots of frets this morning.  See mom and dad's cooking machine doesn't work any more. It doesn't make hots.  The landlords are going to bring us a new cooking machine.

Mom tooked the drawer out of the old cooking machine and fished all the mousies out from under it.  She said she didn't want the landlords to see them.  Then she picked up all the mousies from all over the house and hid them!  Does that mean the landlords won't let us have mousies??!  Do we have contraband mousies? I so worried they will see my mousies and take them away.  I'm gonna growl at them when they come with the new cooking machine. Just you see.  That way they know don't mess with my mousies!

My mom says I should talks about budderflies not mousies.  See she made this card for Misses A's budderfly challenge where you had to stitch things up. Well, not really.  She started it but she didn't finish it. I don't know why.  Probably she was scrooing around that's why. She certainly wasn't petting me!

She did finished it now though because it was a dual purpose card for sumpin' else besides a budderfly challenge.  It's got some shimmers on it but you can't really tells too much here.

So my Mom made anofver budderfly card because I guess she likes budderflies or maybe Misses A said she should make one with yellows in it this time.  The budderfly is like metallic shimmers and that is why it had to go outside to get its pickture taken. I'm not allowed outside.

I'm supposed to say that because this card is rather plain Mom put little clear microbeads on the budderflies body to jazz it up, but really its cuz she scratched some of the color off of it, but I'm not allowed to tell that.  I'm not allowed to tell the bad wordz Mom said trying to tie that double bow either.  Anyway, that's the budderflies and I'm Dio.   Until next time....

PEE ESS... Mom says both these cards had snippers in them so they can go merry go 'round on the playground with Di and you all will know what dat means.

The Fine Print: White card embossing folder by Sizzix, stitched circle and fancy flourish by MFT, solid and ornate butterfly by Simon Says Stamps (Chrissy and Leandra), paper flowers by A Muse Studio, pearls from my stash, die cuts from various paper snippets.  Yellow butterfly card butterfly by Dufex (totally awesome sheet of punch out metallic butterflies!), designer paper by unknown, punched edge border snippet (no idea where it came from), ribbon and microbeads from my stash.

Convention Update and Snippets

I stole this photo of us happy card making fools from my friend's Facebook page.  We were wrapping up the make and take party at the end of the convention.  I am in the lower left corner, next to my is my pal Joan.  Above me is my friend Lora, whose photo this is and next to her is our buddy Lin, who won the big deal ultimate grand prize giveaway.  Peeking out in the back is Mechele from the Stamp Doctor. She's a great lady and you should buy lots of stuff from her so she can afford to come back to town.

I didn't take pictures of my haul yet (believe me, it's quiet extensive) but here is a photo of a hot trend from the convention.  I know glittering on acetate is old school but they've added in a new twist.  First off, throw away that Staz On pad that never works anyway. Stamp On It sells images pre-printed onto acetate for you.  No longer do you have to mess with "glitter glue" that may or may not dry clear as promised; now they use clear stuff like crystal lacquer, diamond glaze, etc. Its a stunning effect.  The background paper is pearlized so it looks extra stunning when embossed in a folder.  The company I sell, A Muse Studio sells lots of different colors of pearlized paper called Shimmer Couture.  You should buy lots from my so I can afford to have the the Stamp Doctor come back to town.

Dies from all sorts of manufacturers such as Spellbinders, Cheery Lynn, Marianne, etc. continue to be hot, hot, hot (and the reason we'll be eating ketchup soup for the rest of the month).  There were lots of samples of the fabulous things you can do with your dies including glittering them, stacking them up and pairing them with other dies.

An interesting note about the convention was the people I know there and what we bought.  You see that top photo?  Every single one of us in the photo (minus Mechele) bought a stamp of Arizona from B&J's Art Stamps. We had a good laugh as we all pulled out that stamp to show each other.  Everyone one of us bought the stamp flip flop card die from Mechele, along with the matching borders, pop up piece, and coordinating stamps.  Amongst the 4 of us, there were several other duplicates.  Several other friends I ran into showed off their purchases--which were also in my bag. Not only do we share a love of paper crafting, but we tend to have the same tastes in products!

Before this post gets any longer, here is my snippet card that I am bringing to Pixie's Snippet Playground. She is always after us to use up those bits and pieces, waste not, want not and all. I made this iris folding card the other day using a pattern lovingly sent to me from across the pond by Hettie. For the snippets I've used up a bunch of strips of a paper. I've been hoarding the background cloud paper as well because it has been retired and I'm afraid to use it all up, which is silly as it fun and should be shared.

Thanks for sticking by this looooong post with lots of links!

The Fine Print: By the way, I thought it funny that glittering was such a hot thing at the convention because I had begrudgingly pulled out my box filled with jars of loose glitter to make the Merry Monday card I showed yesterday.  That's one thing I didn't need to buy!  There was also a booth that had iris folding and 3D paper tole crafts that made my heart go pitter patter.  That's one way I differ from my friends, but I did try hard to get them to buy the paper tole sheets because they punch out now--no fussy cutting needed!

Oriental Snippets

Somewhere I saw a card that was sponged and stamped and I thought to myself, "Self, you could totally duplicate this card for an oriental themed one."

And so I did without the sponging and the stamping.  The variegated piece was brayered in three different colors onto a snippet of glossy paper.  Yes, you heard me right, brayered, my least favorite technique on the planet.  The flowers were die cut out of a scrap of textured black cardstock and the card base, is an oldie as well.  With all these pieces, I'm adding this card to Pixie's Snippet Playground.

Um, yeah, I did do a wee bit of stamping in the upper left corner.  I hope I didn't stamp it upside down! And I hope it says something wonderful like "peace" or "strength" or "hope" and not "fried wontons."

The Fine Print: Poppy die by Memory Box, Japanese symbol by Plaid Enterprises, inks by Memento.

Inspired Butterfly

Sometimes when I am lacking in ideas I pull out a Just Cards magazine and leaf through it for inspiration.  I really like Just Cards because the style of card they feature are the kind I make so almost every page inspires me. 

I thought I'd have a go at copying this card from Diana Weber.  Her card is all white and embossed with tiny dots, the butterfly is a stamp, and her greeting is on a die cut that has been sponged and pop dotted.

I fussed and fiddled with my version of this card.  I wanted my embossed white panel to be mounted on colored cardstock.  I was to going to use a die and not a stamp for the butterfly.  My greeting would be entirely different.  I tried this and that and in the end I surprised myself by using kraft.

As you can see I ended up rejecting a white or an embossed piece entirely.  My butterfly is much, much larger and that changed the dynamic of the card and limited what I could do for a greeting.  While my card is different you can see where I got my idea from.  I am quite pleased with my results.  Here is a close up of the butterfly lying flat so you can see his detail better without catching all those shadows on it.

I am going to link this up with Di's Snippet Playground because there are snippets galore on this card.  Everything except the card base was made with snippets.  Although I must confess that I almost had to use an entire sheet of kraft to do the greeting, but luckily I double checked my snippet stash and found a piece to use.

The Fine Print: Butterfly and backing dies by Marianne, greeting by Penny Black, Label One Spellbinder die, designer paper snippet probably from Basic Gray, robin's egg pearls by A Muse Studio.  Yes, I know if only I had used a button and a bow I could join the butterfly challenge.  Maybe later!

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.

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.

Sooper Bowl Sunday!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday for those of you who are football fans (that's 'not soccer' for you Brits) and may your team win!

Not having much interest in football I leave it up to hubby which team we'll be rooting for.  He says we are rooting for Really Bad Weather this year.  I had no idea they were playing and I'm not sure their team colors so we'll just have to make due with the ones I've chosen above.

I'm going to go out on a limb this time and enter this card into two challenges.  I used to think that was being naughty but now I realize it is just reality.  There are so many challenges I would love to join that either I double up or I quit my job and if I do that I won't be able to afford myself.

This card has many snippets on it--the linen textured white piece (used to be my go-to white until I realized just how annoying the texture it so stamp and write on), the ochre colored underneath and the green the grass was die cut out of.  The card base, while not a snippet, was in my "use me up soon please" pile (because I have about a dozen of them).  So off to Pixie's Playground this card goes!

Also I will enter this card into CraftyHazelNut's Patterned Paper February Challenge because I covered the back of the card in patterned paper.  Now I realize that almost every card I make is covered in patterned paper because that's my thing but I wanted to play in this challenge to maybe get some new paper ideas from my fellow participants.  Could be fun, eh?!

The Fine Print: Peanuts stamp by Stampabilities, colored in Copics, grass die by A Muse Studio.  Feel free to swing by the house for some wings, chicken strips, and flavored chips that fight back (meaning HOT).

Toadilly Awesome Snippets!

I bought myself a new die this past weekend so of course I had to use it.  The die is reeds and cattails.  We used to have some cattails growing near the creek (not crick) when we lived in Ohio.  My dad, another crafty person, once cut some down and put paraffin over them to seal them.  That way we could enjoy them all year round in the house.

I used lots of snippets and scraps to make this card, so I'll be linking up with Di's Playground Pals.  All the die cuts were made out scrap paper, the dotted piece was another scrap, and the cool puffy butterfly was a present from Darnell.  I mentioned before that I don't consider quarter sheets of designer paper to be snippets but this was in my "to use up" stash, as was the card base (which matched my scraps!!).  So I got to use up lots of bits and pieces to make this card.  The inside greeting says "You're toadilly awesome" and you are!

The Fine Print: Frog stamp by Annticipations, large scallop punch by EK Success, oval dies by Spellbinders, cattail and reed die by Cheery Lynn, colored with Copics.  I might not be spelling 'toadilly' the same way they did on the stamp, but you get the idea. 

What is a Snippet?

To me a snippet is a piece of something larger such as a hunk of ribbon as opposed to the whole roll. A snippets can be that one odd-ball epoxy brad you have or even a stash of 5 regular brads.  It can be that image you stamped but never used, or even the one you stamped and colored.  Snippets can be die cuts or the left over paper from die cutting out of it.  They can be random embellishments that have been abandoned on your desk.  They can be previously punched out objects.  They can be that package of charms you won in a raffle.  To me snippets are the black sheep of the crafting world, often over-looked but collecting like dust bunnies in the corners of your crafting space, the left over bits and bobs.

One thing that does not count as s snippet in my world are quarter sheets (A2 card sized) of designer paper.  That's because that's how I cut my patterned paper up.  You get four quarter sheets from an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper and six from a 12x12" sheet.  It is rare that I use all four or six at once so I put the unused ones away in their proper places until I need that color or design again.

Yet, I call this card a snippet card because of its background paper:

Sure it is a quarter sheet of patterned paper but it was not in its proper place and that makes it a snippet in Judylandia.  This ridiculous orange and black plaid piece has been wandering around various places in my craft room since October.  It missed the boat, or in this case bin, and never got put away.  I'm too lazy to drag the Halloween bin out of the closet to get it put away.  Instead this sheet of paper has drifted around here and there constantly turns up when I don't want it to.

So I decided to put it to use and be done with it.  And just in case the gals at Pixie's Playground don't feel it counts as a snippet, all the other pieces are snippets too.  The speckled white (which doesn't look so speckled in this photo) is just a random hunk as is the dark gray under it.  The black ribbon is from my box of loose pieces of ribbon.  The orange brads were pulled out of a tin of various orange brads (found two that matched!).  The bats were die cut from a mere scrap.  This is a total snippet card even if it is for a holiday that is a long way off.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Penny Black, die cut shape by Stampin' Up (the trick for the gray layer is to trace around the die you cut with and then cut it out, that's how you get a slightly larger layer, yes I learned that from someone else's blog), die cut bats by A Muse Studio colored with a glitter pen, ribbon and brad from my stash.  I wonder if I can muster up the energy to drag the Halloween bin down out of the closet to put this card away????  Don't hold your breath.

Owl Snippet

The snippet playground is reopened and I'm ready to play.  I think I'll go for a nice quiet game of jacks as I don't the energy for hopscotch... but now if regular scotch were involved I'm sure I could find the energy to participate!

I've been running across this little owl quite often in my blog travels lately which has inspired me to pull him out and use him.  He is perfect for snippets since he has so many little bits.  The heart paper is a piece from my stash as well. I several of them about that size and would like to use them up this year, so expect to see more of that.

The Fine Print: Circular dies by Spellbinders, owl punch and greeting from Stampin' Up, designer papers and ribbon from stash. It is nice to get to use the little bits up!

Strips!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have a lot of left over strips of paper from a crafty class and I need to come up with ways to use.  I know the obvious way to use them would be to make more of the card I taught, but I wanted to think outside that bannered box to something else.

I could just use the strip of designer paper as is and use it as an accent stripe.  I thought the card needed a little something horizontal as well so I added in the bit of ribbon.  Then I thought it needed a bit more in that upper blank corner so the greeting got stamped.  I think that squirrel might be cheering on the UA Wildcats in that blue and red cap.

On this card I sliced up the strips into narrower widths and mounted them onto a darker blue mat.  Without that darker blue this card would have been much to pale for me.  Again, I felt it needed a horizontal bit so I added a snippet of baker's twine.

I tried again with narrower matching strips.  Since this card had a horizontal print I thought it would eliminate the need to add something going that direction on this card.  That cat's huge green eyes are insane!  Maybe those horns are intercepting alien radio waves and beaming them directly into his brain!

And here is a picture I was told I had to upload to ruin Jack's bad ass reputation.  He doesn't want everyone to know he's really a big softie.

I decided to link this post up to Pixie's Playground because I said the magic word "snippets."  It also made me realize that I'll be I could get tons of inspiration there!

The Fine Print: Designer papers by DCWV the current Christmas stack; top two cards stamp from A Must Artstamps, Merry Kissmas kitty by All Night Media; baby blue and white baker's twine by DeNami Designs, ribbon and glitter from stash.

Possibly Taking Liberties

There was no post from me yesterday because I didn't bother to turn on the computer.  Besides I think August is cheeky for having 31 days right after July does it.  I think it should give up a day and give it to poor February who gets short changed all the time.

I wanted to join Di's Snippet Playground because I haven't been by in forever and I hear the sandbox has fresh sand and the teeter totters have been well oiled so they won't screech.  I suspect I may be taking liberties with the definition of "snippet" though.

Um... okay, I don't actually know the definition of snippet but somehow I don't think a 6x6 piece of patterned paper counts.  But it was in the bookcase! By itself! No rhyme or reason!  It was a little lost soul, which to me fits the definition of snippet.

But just in case that is too big to be a snippet I did use a left over piece of twine that I hid from the kitties, a smidge of blue paper and a scrap of blue to make this card.

I just love this stamp.  It makes me smile every time.  How silly is that that kitties are taking turns getting rides on a giraffe?!  And paying 5-cents for it!  I wonder what the giraffe is saving up for?

The Fine Print: Stamp by Magenta, a good old fashioned fat wood mounted one, twine by A Muse Studio (toffee color) and snippets from my stash.  I really like that paper but I don't know why it was amongst some books and I'm sad I have but that one piece.

Birthday Party

This month was my stamp club's birthday and we decided to have a special celebration for it.  We had several different tables of activities for our members to do.  Half the tables would be make and takes where they could participate in making something.  The other half of the tables would be for demos so they could learn things to do on their own.

I agreed to man one of the tables and I think one thing this club needs is more actual stamping or creating.  That meant my table was going to be a hands-on make and take  One problem with this stamp club is that it has too many members so if you agree to do a make and take for everybody you need to plan for about 50.

That got me thinking, what can I put together for 50 people?  I had been pondering that on and off for awhile when I came across this post by Crooked Stamper.  I thought her solution to using up the ends of paper packs would be ideal for my class. 

That worked out great as I had plenty of papers that coordinated that could be used for this class.  I had a nice variety of colored twine and greeting stamps.  So while everyone made the same project, no two were alike because folks could pick different papers, different twine, and different greetings.  It was widely received, so much so that now people want to do a Christmas card version of this class in the fall.

The Fine Print: While this workshop shows a great use for those scrap strips of patterned paper one has left over, the reality is for the class I cut up entire sheets of paper for it.  I have plenty of left overs so perhaps this will become my signature card.  Papers by various companies, greeting stamps by DeNami, Hero Arts, and A Muse Artstamps, twine (bottom cards) by May Arts, twine (top card) from PaperMart.com (however, I don't recommend them).