ribbon-fanciers of the world, untie!

hello, darlings and welcome to another fabulous CAARDVARKS challenge day! this time around we're sponsored by the exceptionally fine folk at may arts who not only provided the design team with our choice of their lovely ribbons and trimmings, but who are giving a biiiiiiiiiig box of assorted fabulousness as the prize to our lucky winner!* all you have to do to qualify for said bounty is make a *NEW* card with some ribbon on it, and link it up by midnight, october 17th. in the meantime, why not check out the expanded gallery of caard-crew goodness over at our flickr gallery?!

before i show you today's card, can i just warn you...it doesn't have *ribbon* as such...it has a trimming--by may arts, naturally--these fabulous wired silver beads:

aren't they cool? i love how they give dimension and almost a sense of movement when you swirl them around a card. you know, a bit like this:

(wired silver beads: may arts; patterned paper: prima; bling word: mambi; other: vintage silk flowers, corrugated cardboard,

i've been known to spend *HOURS* when i'm in "collage mode"...but actually, this was a VERY quick card to make! the whole center bit of it was "fussy cut" out of this prima patterned paper. (it's called "coy"; it's from the "flirty" line.) i'd actually only BOUGHT it the day before...but i was dying to use it, so i kind of just built everything else around it.

as it turned out, i could've just paper-trimmer-cut a rectangle slightly larger than the frame, & glued it to my card base... (since i wound up mounting it on a similarly colored background!) ...but at the time i thought i'd be making either a diecut card in the shape of that fun frame, or mounting it on a transparency base. ah well, no harm done: this way i could use the surrounding bits for something else. for instance, the flowery bits at the edge make great hearts!

once i had the frame and the hearts...and of course i already knew i was going to use the silver wired beads...all i needed were some embellishments. i love these vintage silvery silk flowers my aunt found at a garage sale, and i'm never averse to bling, as well you know! lately i am also loving torn bits of corrugated cardboard, so i threw a bit of that on. (it also hides the hot glue i used to anchor the center of the wired beads so that the ends could be loose and swirly!) i finished off with a bit of dymo label, and that was that!

back tomorrow with another may arts card...

...this one has actual *RIBBON* on it, honest!!!

*i think we may just have found the challenge for which miss leslie breaks her "i don't need MORE stuff" rule!!! ;)

happy world amigurumi ice cream sundae making day!

or i s'pose we could just call today:
♥ ice cream SUNDAY!!! ♥

(orrrrrrr...we could pretend this is the blog of someone sensible, and not call it that, afterall...)

witty nomenclature aside, would you like to see the amigurumi ice cream sundae i made for niece lindsay's birthday?!

(say yes! say YES!!!)

TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! didn't you start that thing in like JUNE??!?!" well yes, i did. and in "real time" it sort of only took 2 to 3 evenings to complete... it's just that there was a 2 to 3 month interval in between my 2 to 3 evenings! and then suddenly it was the end of september and i realized i had better finish this baby before the party next week. so i did. but seriously, the hardest and by far most time-consuming part of amigurumi is choosing what to make next!!!

for those of you interested in the wooly details: the pattern for this--and several other cute ice creams--is available here; the yarn is lion brand's wool-ease; the other ami's i've made since trish & i took a fun class in february can be found here.

happy world card making day!

today i am extra-excited, since i'm celebrating by doing a 2sketches4you challenge for the first time in waaaaaaaaaay too long! it's kazan's sketch 36, actually, which looks like this:

i also found a really FUN way to use my brand new JustRite christmas stamp ensemble in conjunction with my seriously old-school decorative scissors to make a cool holiday wreath...so how fab is it that kazan's sketch has a lovely big circle as its focal point?!?

(JustRite christmas stamp ensemble; patterned paper: dcwv, basic grey, rhonna farrer/autumn leaves, making memories & a bit of glittery red giftwrap; gems: mambi; button: michaels; pens & pencils: prismacolor, sakura, zig; adhesives: tombow mono runner,
uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

i stamped my image in black on a scrap of basic grey cardstock, colored the holly leaves with a prismacolor pencil and then went back over them with a clear glittery sakura glaze pen. i enhanced the holly berries with tiny red gems and glued a fun poinsettia button to the top. then i glued my circle to some two-toned green patterned paper and cut around the whole thing with decorative scissors. i inked the edges, placed foam tape on the back, and repeated the same procedure twice more, et voila: joyeux noel, mes amies!

be sure to hop over to CAARDVARKS, as well...we're having a whole entire day of fabulous reader spotlights! i realize that halloween is still nearly a month away, but if you're jonesin' for a bit of eye candy, i assure you today's features will not disappoint!

♥ happy weekend, darlings! ♥

...and now for something COMPLETELY different...

so different, in fact, that i'm not entirely sure what it *IS*! see, it all started with a castle. this castle:

cute, right? it's actually a dingbat from a font called "db once upon a time". i got it specially at scrap-n-fonts because i wanted to paper-piece it on niece lindsay's birthday* card. and it came out reallllllllllly well, if i do say so myself. but then i thought, "should this be for the card, or should i put it on a giftbag, and make a coordinating card?"

i was inclining to the latter, so i thought it'd be cool to use some of the other images from the same font to make a paper-pieced rebus-style card. but there were soooooo many cute little pictures, that i got carried away; and there's no way i could paper-piece something so fiddly. instead, i colored it in, using adobe photoshop. and it came out pretty well, if i do say so myself.

see?

then the question was: what do i do with it? printed, it's nearly 8.5 x 11". which is a bit big for a card...even one of MY cards...though i could re-size it slightly smaller. but it doesn't totally match the finished paper-pieced castle, and it's not really as fancy as certain nieces are accustomed to having their cards be. there are no rhinestones or jewels or sparkly bits, for example. clearly, this is NOT a card. maybe it should be the inside panel of a (fancier, bling-encrusted) card made to coordinate with the castle? ...OR...maybe the castle SHOULD be the card, afterall; and a slightly shrunken digi-masterpiece can be the centerpiece of the giftbag? i'm still mulling it over, but i kind of think that's the way to go.

one thing i'm sure of: the beautiful princess lindsay WILL have an enchanted birthday...and she WILL live happily ever after! ♥♥♥


*her birthday is today--she's *SIX* can you believe it?!--but her party isn't until the 10th, so i am not as far behind as you think. ...yet...

52Q: 36 (never forget)

well, september certainly FLEW BY, didn't it? are we sure it had the traditional 30 days this year? it kinda seemed more like 19 or 20 to me, tops. one of the many things i didn't do during september, was work on my 52Q's. so i'm gonna catch up now, ok? (be a sport and say, "ok", ok? because you know i'm postin' them anyway!!!)

question 36: what do you never want to forget?

(materials: photos of adorable nieces & nephew printed on kodak premium photo paper; journaling in k&co rub-ons & manual typewriter on basic grey patterned paper; bling heart by gartner studios; hand-cut felt heart; colorbox ink)

answer, "how anything--or NOTHING--can crack up one...or all...of these guys at any given moment!"

(at nana's 8-09)

adorable nieces and nephew from l to r: riley (7.5), maddie (5.5), lindsay (6 tomorrow--happy birthday, sweet girl!), and matthew (just turned 2); r & l are my brother's girls; m & m are my sister's sproglets.)

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! why are the photos printed upside down?!" well, actually they're not. it's the kids who were upside down. this was madeline's idea. many of the cousins' photo poses are madeline's idea.* i always let them try out their photo suggestions, provided they're safe...i figure it's only fair...plus sometimes they come up with really great ideas! (& the best thing about digital is, i can always delete the 147 blurry shots of them running straight at the camera!) i also never force them to pose; i ask if they'd like to or not. i am still going to take candids, of course, but they don't have to pose and they don't have to smile if they don't want to. we haven't yet reached an age where anyone has said, "aunt lauren, i don't want you to take my picture AT ALL!" we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

*many of the cousins' activities, generally, are madeline's idea. many of the activities of any group she happens to be in at the time are madeline's idea. she will either grow up to be the first female president of the united states or the first female mafia don, i honestly don't know which. either way, i can guarantee: she will get things done! :)

possibly the silliest card i've ever made...

...so OBVIOUSLY it's my favorite!!! :)

i'm ashamed to say that last week, in the flurry of sketchfest and a massive project at work, i suddenly realized on the morning of my wedding anniversary that i had forgotten to make lovely husband jeff a card! i grabbed a pre-made card base and some paper scraps and took them to work with me, an during lunch, i made this:

(patterned paper: mustard moon, basic grey, my mind's eye, sei; cardstock: hobby lobby; vinyl letter stickers: staples pens: sharpie, uniball signo)

the monsta is based on my favorite from the paperchase monsta giftwrap i love so much. he's become sort of a mascot in our house; i often draw him on notes i put in lhj's lunch. :) like all monstas, he speaks in beeps. in this case he is thanking my dearest darling for the happiest and most wonderful 24 years of marriage any woman...or MONSTA...could imagine.

i'm thrilled to report that lhj loved this card. (in fact, to get this photo, i had to steal it back from the frame of his dresser mirror where he displays his "treasures"!) but my favorite thing about it was the expression on the faces of the two co-workers who saw me making it: i considered explaining the occasion, the monsta-mascot connection, and the text translation, but then i thought, "naaaahhhh...let 'em wonder!" i'm pretty sure no one will try to steal my diet sodas from the communal fridge for a while! :)

christmas is JustRite around the corner

so isn't it lucky i have a cool new JustRite christmas set to inspire my holiday cards? i chose the 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble. it comes with 6 center icons and 6 round borders that can all be mixed and matched together. i tend to work kind of biiiiiiiiig, so i like that i can make it the centerpiece of a card. it's a great size to make tags for packages, too! another great thing is, it comes with the wood mounting block included, so it'll work with any other 3.25" JustRite items i acquire later! ;)

on my first card i've used the snowflake center and border, to stamp in vivid blue on some basic grey holiday paper. i punched a few nice big snowflakes out of the same pattern and had a blast inking, distressing, and adorning them with little pearls before affixing them to my card:

(justrite 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble; patterned paper: basic grey, ki/love elsie; cardstock: core'dinations; pearls: kaiser: inks: psx, colorbox; other: vintage silver metallic ribbon; adhesives: tombow mono runner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

for my second card i only used the center element, to stamp "merry christmas", then i cut out the circle and mounted it onto a slightly expanded snowflake punch... (it's cut & taped at the back so my greeting would fit in the center!) ...i used the custom embellishment as an accent to this fun vintage santa illustration:

(justrite 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble; patterned paper: ki/love elsie, we r memorykeepers, k&co, plus an illustration from a vintage children's book and some red glitter giftwrap; inks: staz-on, bazzinks; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

ok, so clearly i am going to need to make a few MORE of these...which i will show you as they are completed, but can i just say how very *PSYCHED* i am to be working on christmas cards at the end of september?!! thank you JustRite and thank you mr. christmas mojo!!! :)