Merry Monday on a Friday

The other day I encountered a blog that I really enjoyed and I was especially enamored with this card here.  I liked it so much that I went right over to Ebay and found one for myself.

It just came in the mail the other day so of course I had to make something with it.  I've been talking about staying on top of Christmas cards this year and as such people have been pointing out various themed challenges for me to participate in. 

I'm entering this card into the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge.  This time they ask that you use ribbon or twine on your holiday themed card.  I think this card just screams for ribbons so here you have it.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stamps Happen, designer paper by DCWV, ribbon from my stash, glitter glue by Stickles.  I can see I'm going to have to futz with my camera some to get a better photo out of it.  I hate futzing with things. I'm serious when I say I just want to point and shoot.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

I needed to make a card for a swap that involved the use of felt. I found myself sitting around thinking, "Now who the heck came up with that idea?" which is kind of ridiculous because it was my idea.  I've seen some really nice cards that have felt pieces on them which is what inspired me to come up with the idea.  However, beyond thinking it was a cool theme I was stumped for what to do with it.

Then while I was puttering around I came up with this ide and I have to say I impressed myself.  This card does double duty because not only will it work for my felt swap but I can do it for an A Muse card make and take too so I made a second one.  Did I say double duty?  Well, triple duty really because I made a third one that is birthday themed (Squeeze the Day).

Here's the inside of the card.  I used the lemon slice to help anchor down the ribbon that is wrapped around the card.  Plus you can add some drips and really enhance the greeting.  I was quite tickled with this card and hope you like it too.

The Fine Print:  All products by A Muse Studio.  Stamps used--"Squeeze the Day" and "Silver Lining" (for the drops); cardstock used--Bermuda chevron, Bermuda, lemon whip and sugar; dies used--"Squeeze the Day" matching dies; other supplies--Bermuda satin ribbon. Memento ink, corner rounder and Y18 Copic marker.

Workdesk Wednesday 2014

I thought I'd pop in for my first round of the biggest blog hop around Workdesk Wednesday for 2014.  Yeah, I know y'all did it last week but I wasn't up to the task.  I'm here this week though, with bells and whistles on....  or not.  That's kind of loud and obnoxious.

Here is my desk. It looks like it looks the majority of the time I share it with you... I confess I'm terribly boring like that.  I worked on lots of projects over the holidays in between bouts of coughing but I've since picked it up in anticipation of back to work this week.

Some things to note are a Michael's gift card (whatever will I get with it??!), some snowflake patterned paper for me to play with, a Valentine's card that I was going to CASE (can you really CASE your own card?), and a brand spanking new Lawn Fawn set that I hope to play with soon.

Here are a few other random things... the flowerpot and red paper were going to be a card but haven't come into being yet.  The upside cat image was stamped for a card and then got lost.  I've since made another one and of course this missing shows back up.  The circles are leftover from the bonsai card shared the other day and I'm hoping to make a snippet card with.  The Dunkin' Doughnuts card I got from a friend today.  She and her hubby have a weekly date for DD for coffee and she often sends along coffee themed things.  Fun, huh?

That's it for me for this week.  If you want stay tuned during the coming week to see if anything comes out of these bits on my desk.  If not, you have my permission to taunt me (but be nice).  No kitty pictures are they were too busy chasing each other around to be photographed.  That and they are demanding higher modeling fees.... 

The Fine Print:  Did anyone notice that I have less crap stuff piled up along the edges of my desk than I usually do? I've been trying so hard to be better about that.  The card I want to copy has products by A Muse Studio and my friends DD card is made with Stampin' Up stuff.

Blue Day

I made this for a card exchange at my big stamp club.  The theme was monochromatic and I was feeling the blues. I really like using the medallion stamps for monochromatic swaps because you can layer light on top of dark (or vice versa) and have a stunning card with a minimal of effort.

Well, minimal effort as long as you don't lose track of which medallion layer you are cutting out at the time.  You'll note I even went all out and heat embossed by layers.  That's big for me, She Who Hates Heat Embossing.

The Fine Print: Medallion stamp by Holly Berry House, faux brads by Stampin' Up, designer paper from stash, foam tape from Office Max by the giant roll (buy one, you'll be glad you did).

A Tale of Two Bonzai

I have lots of random crafting goals for the new year.  I don't really want to focus on any one of them because it might be at the detriment of the others.  Plus have multiple random goals gives me the chance to change my mind, switch my gears, pretend it never happened...

And best of all, if I'm not sure what I'm doing, then there is no chance of me doing it wrong!  Right?!

Anyway, one of my random goals is to use some of my old stamp sets and make sure I really love them enough to continue to let them live with me.  I know some gals that are making plans to use every stamp in every set this year.  Yeah, I'm not that ambitious.

I'm not sure what year or how old this stamp set it but I have had it awhile. I got it off eBay and I got it specifically for the bonsai tree although it does have a couple of other trees and a saying (that is inside the second card, not that you can see it, but trust me it is there).

I still love it enough to keep it because it has this bonsai tree in it but maybe I should try out the other trees in it as well? Whaddya say?  That could be coming up soon.  But my camera up and died so it may happen and you may never see it.  'Tis a cold sad day today as we take a moment of silence for the dead camera.

The Fine Print: Stamp set by Stamin' Up "Plant Hope," designer papers and ribbon from my stash, dies by Spellbinders.  In hindsight that camera has been acting up for awhile.  Darn thing.

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!

Circular Reasoning

The problem with being off for winter recess and then getting sick is you lose track of what day it is.  Actually that whole month and year thing have gone kind of slippery on me too now that I think of it. I have the curtains open today so I at least know that it *is* day, although it is a pretty dreary gray one. 

I was ready to come play in the snippets playground but I'm a day late and a buck fifty short for that, so I'll show off this card I made that very well could have been made with snippets but wasn't. 

I wanted to make sure all my pinks and shimmery browns all matched so I dragged out large sheets to make this one but you could use up pieces of this and that was well.  I CASEd a card I made at a workshop a long time ago.

Card swaps involving the use of circles crop up from time to time and I always sign up for them. Then I promptly regret it because I never know what to do with circles.  I'm more of a triangle girl myself.  Once I made this card I made sure to keep it around for inspiration.  I thought about doing it with a circle embossed background but got worried that might make for too many circles in one card.

The Fine Print: Smile by Hero Arts, circle punches by Stampin' Up and EK Success, brown ribbon from stash, embossing folder from Stampin' Up.