Hip Hip Hooray

I've had these unfinished cards sitting around my stash for like forever so I decided to finish them off. Someone somewhere will be amazed that I did this. That person might be me.

They are bright, quirky and fun. I'm not sure why they languished for so long.

The Fine Print: Stamps and most products by Close to My Heat, exceptions: teal polka dot and solid taps by MME and card bases from my stash.

Wild Tag Art

So I was poking around in the depths of my craft closet and I found four sheets of punch out tags with various sayings on them. The four sheets all had the same tags on them and came two different colors. I figured I should at least use one of the sheets and I set to work making these.

For some reason I felt the need to include a wild animals theme along with these tags. As you can see my version of "wild animal" is pretty tame.

I ran out of steam after 3 cards but at some point I may just finish off that sheet of tags.  I am kind of pondering one of the tags though, thinking maybe I should cut off who said the quote. He's kind of a controversial figure these days but back when these were printed he was just a run of the mill millionaire businessman.

The Fine Print: tags by Club Scrap, giraffe stamp by Magenta, wee lion by CTMH, water buffalo die by Nellie's Choice, other stuff from my stash.

Namaste

I hate it when it is too late in the day to start drinking early.

The Fine Print: Designer papers from Close to My Heart, seam binding from my stash. Happy Happy Hour, my friends!

Hip Hip Hooray

I mustache you a question.  Is this the coolest stamp or what?

I really like it. I could not get a good impression from it when I tried to use it back when I first bought it but this time I persevered until I got it all figured out. I also made cards with the other stamps in the set as you saw from my post yesterday and this one here.

The whole kit and caboodle (in this case 'caboodle' is code for "stamps") was stashed in an out of the way place and with me it is out-of-sight-out-of-mind so I forgot I had them. I'm quite pleased that I unearthed them. Hip, hip, hooray!

The Fine Print: Cards, parts, and stamps by Close to My Heart, Cloud 9 Kit.  Seriously, is that mustache not the coolest?!

Bright and Happy

I'm not really feeling the Christmas vibe. The tree is up, the decorations are hung, presents are bought, cards are made... but somehow something feels off.

I don't want Christmas. I want summer! I want bright! I want happy!  I want to be as far away from Christmas as humanly possible!

These cards are what I came up with to achieve that goal.  They are bright, happy, and not at all Christmas-y.

The Fine Print: See that I said the Christmas cards are made but I did not note that they were mailed.  That's cuz they aren't and are nowhere near being so.  It's because I don't want to fuss with Christmas any more.  Card, parts, and stamps by Close to My Heart, Cloud 9 Card Making Kit.

Up, Up and Away

After those last few masculine cards I've shared I thought it was time to bring a little femininity into the picture with this sweet hot air balloon card.

The Fine Print: Balloon stamp by Close to My Heart, corner notch punch by Stampin' Up, shell organdy ribbon and hibiscus card base by A Muse Studio, and floral paper from my stash.

From the Garden

The other day I made a couple of cards for Darnell's Never Before Used Stuff challenge (which is still going on if you want to join).  The cards came from a workshop kit a friend passed my way.  It was to make a gift bag and several gift cards.  Given that the theme was for babies and pastels, there is no telling why I wanted to be included in the workshop since I don't do babies and I don't do pastels... well, not very often.  Just this past week I was pinching baby toes and offering to eat them up (baby toes are good eating) and occasionally I've done things with sad washed out colors (also known as pastels).

This card was to be a 3"x3" gift card, which you can see in the center.  I added some more layers to it to round it out to an A2 sized card.  The original pink flower was pretty tattered so I substituted for random  fancy flower from my stash.  

Next was supposed to be one small rectangular gift card the size of the green piece in the background.  I chopped that up for a background to make a 4-bar note card. The first card is pretty much how the directions called for.  I did change out their butterfly for a punched one.  They had us fashioning one out of cut up paper flowers but I thought it looked too distracting.  For the second card I raided my stash of snippets to bring it to life.

After that I just used the concept of the next gift card to make these note cards.  They had one cut up paper flower with a baby peeking out of it and I opted to layer lusher flowers and tuck the baby in.

I still have some pieces left to make some more gift tags and the gift box. I'm sure I'll use their suggestions as a starting point, but I know I won't be making what they suggest.  Since I thought outside the kit and used some of my own snippets I'm going to join in at Pixie's Snippet Playground.

The Fine Print: Twine, Buttons and Stamps used by Close to My Heart "Color my World" and "Flower Child."  Other supplies used: Martha Stewart Butterfly punch (the one with 3 butterflies on it), bling by Hero Arts, leafy designer paper by unknown, and fancy flowers not by Prima, pink & white striped ribbon from my stash.  Now a couple of you go have baby girls so I have someone to send those last two cards to!

Seriously, Take the Sunshine

I made this card at a workshop a couple months ago but didn't finish it.  There were some more chipboard elements to glue on and I didn't much care for the color sentiment was stamped in so I hadn't tacked it down.  I found it on my desk today so thought I should finish it off and call her done.

I left off the extra chipboard pieces and did a similar sentiment stamped in black and edged in pink.  I think I'll add some bling to either edge of the sentiment piece now that I think of it.  If I could package it up and send it I'd definitely send you some of our sunshine.  Now I love the sunshine and am a big fan of vitamin D, but a little less heat and sun would make this desert lizard happy.  Just for day, mind you.

The Fine Print: Sentiment by DeNami Designs, card base, papers, and chipboard by Close to My Heart.

NBUS Challenge!

Woot!  My bestie Darnell is hosting a challenge for Never Been Used Stuff.  I'm not sure that she's going to get any participation though because none of us have crafty things lying around the house that we haven't used before!  Amiright?!  I say for the sake of humoring her, we'll "pretend" we have stuff we haven't used before, okay?

We'll pretend that I found a kit from 2008 that had papers, stamps, and directions in to make gift cards and bags that I never used before.  We don't have to pretend that I made full-sized cards instead of gift cards because that was reality and here are my cards!

You can check out and join in Darnell's NBUS Challenge #1 right HERE.  The theme is anything goes with an emphasis on friendship.  The friendship portion of my cards is that both of these are already in the mail being sent to crafty friends.  There is also an unseen friendship element to these cards in that this kit came with two stamp sets in it and I lent one to a friend the night I opened the kit.  Amazingly, all these years later I remembered who it was and she still had it.  She knew it was borrowed but didn't remember from who, so how exciting that I can get that back to finish off the rest of the cards and gift bags (although I'll probably make cards with supplies instead of bags).

I want to give an extra shout out to Darnell for hosting this challenge and getting us to use our mythical never before used stuff.  This is a great motivator!!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Close to My Heart (Color My World), striped embossing folder by Cuttlebug, big dot embossing folder by CTMH, butterfly punch by Martha, glitter glue by Stickles and Tim Holtz, bling from my stash, and inks by Memento.

Bee Happy

Today is like a bonus day for me because I had forgotten that May had 31 days in it.  I was ready for it to be June but then.... bonus time... we get one more day for May.  And how nice of the bonus day to be on a weekend!

I went to a card workshop today and let me tell you, Honey, we had a great time bee-ing happy.

The Fine Print: Most supplies and products by Close to My Heart except the three dry embossed border folders by Darice, the hexagon embossing folder by Stampin' Up, and the Chalk Time die cut also by Stampin Up.  I hope your bonus day was just as good as mine!

Foreign Flair

My stamp club met today and I made this card for the "Foreign Flair" card exchange.

I know a lot of people thought "oriental" for this swap and I originally did too, but then I went for Russian Nesting Dolls because.... well, because that is the only foreign thing I had with me (remember I was just in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, which I think qualifies as a foreign place too now that I think about it).

I received a nice Parisian card in exchange, so see, not everyone thought oriental.

The Fine Print: Doll stamps by Close to My Heart (March stamp of the month), greeting by Hero Arts (Tree, Birds, and Messages set [seriously that's its name]), paper by Pebbles (Garden Party).

Houston, We Have Lift Off

Today I did that most dreaded of tasks: cleaned the craft room.  I had new stash from our anniversary, a convention, and craft yard sale to put away, along with all the usual and unusual debris I had out.  Then I felt very crafty and made cards.  Then, I did something I very rarely do....

...I finished an incomplete card that I brought home from a workshop!  I always have good intentions, but I rarely actually do it as I get easily distracted by shiny things and papery things.

I made most of this card at a Close to My Heart workshop.  The balloon image I stamped on a separate piece of cardstock and brought home.  I colored it with pencils and fussy cut it today.  When I went to look up the name of the set, I realized we pretty much copied the sample from the catalog.  Hey, it's all good!  It is still a very cool card.  And now it's finished!!!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Close to My Heart "Give a Lift," all other supplies most likely by CTMH as well except the orange bling on my balloon, which is by Hero Arts.  I wonder how long all those ladies who colored and fussy cut at the workshop had to stay? I know I left early.

Limited Hobbling Abilities

My hip tried to pop out of its socket last night (for no good reason, I might add) so I'm like that wounded animal that needs to be put down. So you should cherish these words as they may be the last ever that I write.  LOL!  I wanted to share with you the cards I made at the convention this weekend but I was unable to find them due to my limited hobbling abilities, so I'll share these cards with you instead.

This one is one a friend of mine had several of us make before the convention.  I think we were tester guinea pigs to see how it would go as she had this as a make and take there.  The twine was supposed to be around the brown Happy Birthday piece but as you can see I didn't leave enough room for it.  Also, I got carried away with the distressing and about tore up my embossed pieces.  These were good lessons for her so she could better teach her make and take. 

This card my friend sent me as a RAK.  I love the bright cheery colors of it and how the stamped images are different colors. Fancy schmancy!

The Fine Print: Top card stamps and products by Close to My Heart.  That distressing I did was supposed to be in ink not a sanding tool, just proving you can't trust us crafters to get it right.  No idea about the products on the RAK card.

Make Up Monday

Lest you think every Make Up Monday will be about Club Scrap cards from the past, here are some holiday ones that never made the cut last holiday season.

Here's a Thanksgiving card that didn't get shown because it took the ultra-scenic route to the recipient and arrived long after the turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey omelets, and turkey soup had been devoured.

This fun and kicky Christmas card got overlooked somehow. I absolutely love the stamp set he comes from and I have to pull it out and use it at least once a season.  It was one of those awesome eBay finds.

This big card was from a card workshop I took last August.  Yes, the hostess was trying to get us to think of all things holiday already, but it was 100+ degrees that day so it didn't really take.

The Fine Print: Wheat sheaf stamp by Taylored Expressions, Santa by Stampin' Up, tree faux postage by Close to My Heart. Stay tuned for next week, when we return to our regularly scheduled Club Scrap update.  hee hee hee

Christmas Card Workshop

I went to a Christmas card workshop today because I knew it would be fun but also to see if it motivated me into making Christmas cards.  I had a fabulous time with great company and made some wonderful cards. I even felt motivated until I came home and saw my new Club Scrap kit sitting there.  Then I decided I wanted to play with that instead...  Oops.

The Fine Print: What do I know about these cards?  The dotted embossing is a Cuttlebug folder, the trees, the tag and poinsettia shapes (which are really snowflakes) and Circuit cartridges.  The stamps in the Joy card are by Clost to My Heart (not so sure about the greeting). And after I cut up my new CS unmounted rubber and put tack it again adhesive on it I went back to coloring Santa Clauses.  Truly.

Never to Old too Learn

So I work at a school.  Not just any old school, mind you, but an Institute of Higher Learning.  But not too high, though, don't get carried away.  I've probably mentioned that before, but it is worthy of mentioning again, because for one-it is who I am.  I am a person who works at a school. I divide my life into fall semester, spring semester and summer, which is turns out that normal people do not do (or so my husband says).  And for two-you learn stuff at a school.  You don't even have to go to class to learn stuff.  I am a big proponent of learning stuff.  You can learn stuff from all sorts of situations.  Like yesterday...

I had to deliver some papers to a room that is off our cafeteria seating area, which was full of random students, or anyway I assume they were students because why else would they be there since they weren't employees except for they could have been just random people since this is the end of the line for the public bus system.  Anyway, while walking through I learned that Canada is its own continent!  I know!  I know!  And here, like me, you thought it was a mere country. Or maybe you did know that Canada was its own continent and I'm the idiot.  Anyway, the argument lecture on Canada went a little like this:

Dude, Canada is too its own continent!

Naw, I don't think so, man.

Yeah, it is.  Why do you think they call them Canadians?  Cuz they are in Canada, Dude!  That's why we're Americans because we're in North America!

Oh yeah, man.


Now everyone who reads this blog (all 3 of you) are much smarter for reading it. Although, I do suspect this topic may be more controversial than evolution.   Some of you will bring up that whole "United States of America" bit. You know it.  And some of you will want to know how Mexico feels about this. But let's not bite off more than we can chew.  Let's just do one continent at a time, shall we?  Speaking of Canada, did you know the number one export of Canada is hockey players?  Now you are doubly smart!

Or not.  Maybe that was just a lesson to show you that you can't believe everything you read on the internet.  Or hear in the cafeteria.  Even if the cafeteria is in an Institution of Higher Education.

Oh, and here's a card:

The Fine Print: First off I'd like the thank the little people who made this post possible.  And by "little people" I mean midgets who work in the p0rn business... and actually I'm just thanking them so that when people google "midget p0rn" they get my blog which will be a big disappointment, but also an important lesson about how you don't always get what you want out of life, like an entire continent to yourself  (I'm talking to you, Canada!).  I'd also like to give a big "You're Welcome!" to all those countries and continents who have a much smarter population than those here in Americanland.  Someone has to ride the short bus, you know.

And also, those stamps were by Close to My Heart.