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.

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers

So imagine my glee when I found a new blog on the block called the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.  I had to check them out right away as they sounded like my kind of folks.  They are doing their inaugural challenge right now through February 21st, so you have plenty of time to put on your evil head and let you inner snark fly!

As you see, the theme is the ANTI-Valentine and after so many Valentine challenges I am very tickled to have this one to play in.  I have wonderful snarky ideas rolling around in my head and I allowed one of them to come to fruition.  It involves conversation hearts...

..remember those chalk flavored little hearts with their sweet words of wisdom on them?  Yeah, these are so much better.  Happy VD* to y'all!

The Fine Print: Heart outline stamp by DeNami Designs, flourish by Magnolia, ribbon from A Muse Studio, designer papers by Martha Stewart because you know I just had to bastardize something by Martha for this challenge.  I did tone it down some though and rejected the "LMP DCK" heart.  * VD = Valentine's Day you silly.  Don't let that herpes heart go to your head!

Love on Demand

Imagine my surprise when blog hopping to get demanded, commanded, coerced and cajoled into joining the Crafty Little Fairies challenge by one of their design team members, Squirrel.  The theme is Love and who could pass up such a loving request as that?

So here is my lovingly distressed love card.  I flocked the bunny's tails and glittered the mushroom they are sitting on, all details that get lost by my amateur camera skills.  Besides getting to play with the Crafty Fairies, I was pleased to use up some random bits and pieces I had lying around, like the strip of corrugated pink cardboard and the "cutie pie" sticker.

The Fine Print: Who knew that strong arming people was the latest technique to get people to join a challenge?  Next thing you know there will be design team mobsters making sure you play up or else they will send the knuckle breakers after you!  Stamp by Lili of the Valley, sticker by K & Company, other supplies unknown.