SOS102: what's in your tool shed?

ok, this week at shopping our stash we're having my ♥FAVORITE♥ kind of challenge, because we can make ANY type of project, using any colors, any ingredients, any theme, any sketch, any... well... ANYTHING we choose. so what's the challenge, then? you may have guessed it from the title, actually, "what's in your tool shed?" because yeah, we want you to find a tool (punch, cutter, piercer, crimper, crop-a-dile, eyelet setter, etc) that you haven't used in ages... or maybe ever?! ...and use it. simple, right? any tool. just be sure to tell us what it is, because you know how we love to hear "the story"; and if you can incorporate scraps, leftovers, upcycling or anything else "stashy" too, so much the better!

i chose to employ my sadly neglected cuttlebug and for the first time used a cool rolodex card die i bought some time ago on a super-discount sale but hadn't yet test-driven. wahey!

(patterned paper: studio calico, provocraft, october afternoon, amy tangerine + bits of a vintage map + an illustration from an old gardening book; my own instagrammed photo of our house, formatted in PSE9 using segoe script font, printed on kodak premium photo paper (which... for the record... irl is NOT all horribly crosshatched and grainy, but for some reason just REFUSED to photograph well; apologies!) tape: bazzill, recollections; rolodex die: quick kutz; diecutting machine: cuttlebug; white index stock: staples; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, scotch gluestick, staples)

and yes, for the record, it's yet another use of that same instagram pic of our house, of which probably everyone but *ME* is thoroughly tired. but it happens to still be my favorite, and since i was the one making the cards, i won! :) this time it's the centerpiece of the "change of address" cards that i made, marathonically, in a rare fit of mass-production; which, by the way, totally reminded me why i swore off mass-production in the first place. yikes. is it just me, or is there nothing DULLER in the craftiverse than making elebenty gazzillion of EXACTLY. THE. SAME. THING. especially when the genius who develops the prototype thinks it'd be super-fun to have a wholllllllllllllle bunch of "casual" layers. yeah. can i please request, darlings, that next time i design a project which needs mega-duplication, one of you step in to act as spotter and "talk me down" from such folly. seriously. please. i must be stopped. thank you. :) :) :) having said all that... i do really like how this came out, and having already heard from the very first recipients, it seems to be a bit admired, so there's that. ♥

and now may i be so bold as to suggest a trip to shopping our stash to check out what my lovely DT-mates have concocted with the contents of their tool sheds. g'wan. you know you wanna! :)

putting the "doll" in dolphin

ok, so, i promised to show you the dolphin i crocheted for niece madeline's birthday, and i will; though i confess i'm not in love with this one. mostly because i don't think i did a brilliant job on the sewing up, attaching of fins, etc. it's still pretty cute, though, and as often happens on these occasions, maddie (and the rest of the gang at her party!) were so impressed by the fact of a crocheted dolphin materializing under ANY circumstances, that the details just sort of slid by. which is nice. :)

speaking of things that make one smile just by virtue of their sheer improbability, i absolutely HAVE TO share this pic my sis texted me on the day of maddie's "kid party",which had a campfire theme*. she and madeline made this gorgeous horse cake**, can you believe it?!

oh yeah... and the birthday girl is pretty adorable too, dontcha think?! 

happy *9th* birthday, 

maddie!!! 

♥♥♥

*my sister, amie, a brilliant elementary school teacher currently doing the part-time work, full-time mom gig, comes up with the most amazing activities for her kids and their friends! the campfire party featured make-your-own bandanas, twig art, a REAL campfire with songs and games and smores, etc etc; i keep trying to get an invite to these things, they are THE social events of the year!!! :)

**amie says i have to say it was made with this recipe from parenting.com!

now even *BRIGHTER*

we've been making cards that are merry and bright at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ but i bet you didn't think i could beat last week's flamingo goodness on that score, did you? nor did i, for that matter, but it happened all the same! g'head and grab your sunglasses before scrolling down... i don't want to be responsible for retinal damage. ready? 

here ya go:

(background papers formatted in broderbund printshop using bohemian typewriter font; patterned paper, glossy cardstock and glitter paper scraps: bo bunny, dcwv, k and co, doodlebug, the paper co, pearl paint, making memories... and many more! ribbon: michaels; bling heart: mambi; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, gluedots)

so yeah, let's sum up: merry? sure. bright??!  OH YEAHHHHHH!!! :) :) :)

if you remember the inspiration photo from last week, it won't take long to see where i got the idea for this one:

as for the layout, the fine folks at fetch a sketch could not have devised anything more helpful if i had specifically asked them for a wreath-friendly design!

i'm linking up with patrice's 52 card pick-up, and you can, too! you might also want to scoot on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see the festive goodness that stephanie has whipped up for you! then grab your neon colors and come and join us!

want to make the fastest card EVER??!

if so, this is the week for you at shopping our stash, because this week we're having a SCRAP ATTACK! what does that mean? it means that apart from your card base (or background paper, in the case of layouts) we don't want you to cut into ANY new, full, sheets of paper to make your project, just pull out your scrap box (or bag or file or folder) and *USE* some of those gorgeous off-cuts you've been saving!

(everything you see, except the texty prima flower, was a scrap or a leftover from another project that somehow did not get used, but saved for "next time"; turns out next time is NOW, lol! i've got a pre-folded kraft card base; a pre-computer-printed sentiment (when i'm using clear labels i always fill the whole sheet; if i don't have enough content to do so, i add generic sentiments in various fonts and colors); all the papers are from the scrap file-- they are basic grey, pink paislee and some gold-leafed art paper from pearl paint, i believe; even the doily was in the white scrap folder, woohoo! i just added a bit of distress ink and stitching, et voila!)

i arrange all of my scraps by color, in files. 

here in the new house, these live in the top drawer of one of two very elderly, hand-me-down filing cabinets, which lovely husband jeff just finished spray painting glossy white for me (one was previously tan and the other a sort of rusty mustard color).

said cabinets now reside in the very first dedicated art supply/crafting space i have ever had, which, as you can imagine is very VERY exciting!!!

as you can see, it's still quite a mess at the moment, because i've been concentrating on getting the "public spaces" of the house unpacked, furnished and decorated. with that process is in pretty good shape, i hope to be working on-- and eventually *IN*-- the art lair more, and will be happy to share my progress with you. i'm planning to dress the filing cabinets up a little bit, and will show you them again when that has taken place. (ps: i have lots more house pics to share, it's just a question of sitting down and uploading them, writing blog posts, etc; which still has not been happening as frequently as i'd like; ah well, i will get there eventually!) :) :) :) 

anyway, back to the card: to make the design process even quicker, you can always start with a sketch. i often use allison fillo's brilliant round-up feature at stampin' when i can; in which she has a place each week where all of the current challenges can link their sketches, and thus one can see them all in one post, which is soooooooo helpful! this time i started my card using the current retro sketch, but you can see that my design morphed away from it quite a bit, so i've decided not to link up; but i thank them all the same for the inspiration!

speaking of inspiration, i know for a fact that my SOS team mates have a heapin' helpin' of it for you over at the old homestead... why not drop by and sneak a peek, darlings! ♥

may your cards be merry and bright!

because this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are celebrating the warmer, brighter, sunnier days by making cards with super strong colors, we've even got an inspiration photo to get you thinking, see?

don't worry, you needn't use ALL of those colors; actually you can use any shades you like... just make them BRIGHT! want to see what i made? (be a sport and say, "yes" here, ok?otherwise the rest of my post will fall a bit flat. ta v much!)

(patterned paper: autumn leaves, my mind's eye, echo park, creative imaginations, doodlebug, love elsie; stars, frame, border sticker: mme "merry and bright" collection, of course!; glitter flamingo sticker: meri meri; star trim: making memories; adhesives: staple brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

for some reason the first thing i thought of was flamingos. then i kind of second-guessed myself and thought i should do something that was more obviously like that fabulous inspiration wreath. but then i third-guessed myself and decided i should go with my first instinct, afterall. so i did. in the last few years one of my favorite holiday color combos has been hot pink and bright green; since this seemed to fit the prompt, and also to complement the flamingo idea rather well, i didn't even bother to second-guess that idea, i just got right to work! :) i found the ancient rhonna farrer xmas paper with the "merry and bright" sentiment almost immediately; i added in  a few other embellies just to round off the design; ran the whole thing through the sewing machine and voila! another card for the december pile!

of course i'm linking up with patrice at 52-card-pickup; but also, i used this week's mojo monday sketch for my layout:

and now pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease jump over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ with me, because i just cannot wait for you to see stephanie's totally AWESOME card!!!

it's new header day! it's new header day!

and about time, too, eh?! not that i didn't love my old blog banner, but i do like to change things up once a year or so, just for the variety, and it's been a bit longer than that at this point! usually header-making is something i do on my laptop, on long car trips, but i guess we just haven't been traveling as much with the move, etc?!

digital elements: city maps #1 (manhattan) and lace from collageables #4, both by katie pertiet, designer digitals; multimedia flowers #1 and artplay palette #4 stitching both by anna aspnes, o'scraps; ephemera clusters by juliana kneipp, design house digital; washi love tape pieces by robin meierotto, dhd; antique prints paper by jen allyson, dhd; chunky stitching from spudunkity kit by corina nielsen, funky playground design; fonts: bohemian typewriter, porcelain; software: pse9

anyway, thanks to a longish wait at subaru yesterday, i was able to grab a few of my favorite recent acquisitions and knock this baby out! i figure that the specifics of digi-collage constitute one of those things you either already KNOW how to do, or don't really care about, so i'm going to limit myself to image credits, but as with all the things i make, i'm happy to share whatever minor insights i might have, and will gladly answer questions, if i'm able. in general, my best digi tip is, if you're only going to learn ONE THING in photoshop, it really ought to be layer styles; specifically the application and variation of the drop shadow. because there is no quicker way to elevate a combination of varied elements, and also make them much more dimensional (and thus realistic-looking) than by giving the impression of depth, and it's hard to beat shadows for that, in my opinion. so there. you now know my best digital-collage-making secret! you're welcome, darlings! :) :) :)

eta thursday morning: sorry for the re-post, after seeing the header full-sized on the big monitor i went back and tweaked a few of the background flowers, added some stitching, etc; isn't it funny how things can look totally different, just depending on the format??

SOS100: mother's day or ♥PINK♥

yes, that's right, this week at shopping our stash you get to choose your own challenge by making either a mother's day related project *OR* one that's predominantly pink... and by predominantly, our team of judges has determined this should mean 60% or more of your project should be pink. if you've read my blog even ONE OTHER TIME, you'll have no doubt already guessed which option i selected, and may have additionally sussed that the 60% threshold was no problem for me. of course, it really NEVER is a problem for me, but especially not when niece madeline margaret has a birthday coming up, which she does (her 9th! can you believe it?!) so i made this:

(patterned paper--mostly scraps and pre-cut items, wahey: crate paper, glitz design, my mind's eye, amy tangerine, doodlebug, anna griffin, basic grey, fancy pants, scrapbook wizard, crafty secrets, creative imaginations; thickers: american crafts; pearl flourish: prima; gems: recollections; border punches: recollections, fiskars, easycut craft; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i haven't decided yet if said embellished panel is going to be the adornment for a pretty gift bag or the topper for a biggish card, so i'm keeping my options open. either way, if i come up with something really fab in terms of gift wrapping, i'll be sure to photo and post it! i should have photos of her main (handmade) gift later this week, too. i have, at maddie's request, crocheted a little dolphin for her. all the parts are done, i just need to stuff it and sew it together. isn't it weird how the "finishing" in yarn projects, despite being the smallest proportion of work always seems to take the longest, and require the most effort? why *IS* that? or is it just me?! anyway, i will have it completed in time for her party on saturday night, and i hope it will be a big hit!

and now i'm sure you're longing to head over to SOS and see what my totally awesome fellow DT-mates have created, and whether they've made something for mom or taken the second option. of course, we all know leslie* will have chosen ♥PINK♥ but the others may well surprise you, so do go and take a peek!

*ok yeah, i'm totally lying, leslie is actually not at all a fan of "light red" but luckily SOME OF US are willing and able to pick up the slack!!! :) :) :)