happy leap day!

this seems like as good a time as any to share some of my current pursuits, so let's get right to it! 

this photo has nothing to do with the rest of the post... i just really like it! :)

marvelling
at netflix's first original-- and boy, do they ever mean *ORIGINAL*!!!-- series lilyhammer. it's dark. it's weird. it's funny as anything... in a totally foul-mouthed, R-rated, northern-exposure-meets-the-sopranos-in-norway sort of way. definitely not for everyone, but we're enjoying it very much indeed.

bumming
that nabisco have discontinued their "oreo dipped delight" bars. i've enjoyed one of these after lunch pretty much every single day since i discovered them about a year ago; and still contend they are by far the chocolate-iest thing one can consume for a mere 100 calories. but apparently, i was the only one who liked them? (rats!) can anyone suggest a non-ruinous replacement snack??!

oh how i will miss you, my darlings!!!

watching
tcm's tribute to san francisco in film, which took place most of this past saturday. i managed to see all of the maltese falcon and bullitt; missed the house on telegraph hill and most of after the thin man--though admittedly, i've seen the latter at least a dozen times already! (though i'd've watched it again, quite happily!) if you're only going to watch ONE of those, i recommend bullitt, seeing as it has steve mcqueen AND it was actually shot in the city!

folk who say this film is "hard to follow" are totally missing the point, imo!

suspecting
that now i've mastered "pinning" i will find myself spending waaaaaaay too much time over at pinterest! you see, darling stef sent me an invite nearly a year ago, but somehow, at that time, using IE with windows 7, i just couldn't get it to work. at all. i switched to chrome a while back, and finally gave it a second try, and of course it's effortlessly easy--and VERY seductive!!! (having lately heard of several friends having weird problems with various google-based websites such as blogger, all i can say is, try switching to chrome for your browser... even if it doesn't seem like that could POSSIBLY be the problem!)

reading
andrew graham-dixon's brilliant book about caravaggio. if you're at all interested in the time period (late italian renaissance, which i am) it's totally fascinating with a wealth of detail about the time, the place, the art, the political/religious climate, and of course the man's life... which was pretty interesting, anyway. (think "sixteenth century keith richards"!)


regretting (yet also revelling!)
in having tried my first-- but definitely not last-- pint of talenti's sea salt caramel gelato, available, surprisingly enough, "from my grocer's freezer"! i really think they should stop making us show proof of age to buy benadryl and keep this stuff behind the counter, available only to those with valid id and loose waistbands, instead. amazingly, wonderfully, deeply DANGEROUS!!!

ok, stretching a bit; unfortunately i could not find a salted-caramel-themed lol

listening
to trent's last case on my free audiobooks app; whilst also podding some golden age mystery novel cd's from the library: hercule poirot, lord peter wimsey, and thursday next (ok, so she is not "golden age") would make pretty good traveling companions, dontcha think?

packing
for a very exciting trip to california and nevada! i'll be gone for a couple of weeks, but have some great pixie dust and jingle belles posts auto-scheduled for you... and hope to be popping in with travel photos and so forth! please forgive me if i'm even worse than usual with regard to comments:  it's one of the few things that is just totally NOT FUN to do on i-phone. not even a little bit!!!  :(

we planned the trip around this museum exhibit, is that weird? ok, then, i'm weird!

looking
forward to: the cult of beauty exhibit at famsf; chinatown--especially dim sum; the cable car museum... and many other "san francisco treats"!  (though probably NOT rice-a-roni, lol!)  

"oh snap" card

if you read the pixie blog (and i hope you do!) you'll know that each designer writes her own posts, something i enjoy doing very much when it's my turn. we do 'em in advance, and then our dear pixie-in-chief kirsty comes along and schedules them, etc. this month, she has just happened to have saved my FAVORITE project for last, woohoo!

yep, it's this month's "guy card" which i made with our february kit, YOU MAKE LIFE FUN, and miiiiiiiiiight actually be my all-time favorite masculine design i have ever made. i am particularly proud to say that the recipient, my friend juan (who is an AMAZING photographer, which is what inspired the idea!) sent me a specific and separate email just to say how much he liked it, which is verrrrrrrrrrrry cool indeed! more details-- and a nice close-up photo-- over at pdp! ♥♥♥

'ello (& goodbye!) EAD blog hop

how is it even possible that february is already over? how can this be my last official EAD Designs blog hop??!?! the last time i will tell you that if you're doing the hop in order, you should have arrived from the lovely shellye's blog, the papered cottage, and that if not you should pop back to the EAD Designs blog so that you can comment on each post for a chance at an awesome EAD prize?

sadly, it *IS* the last time for all of that, but happily i have a really cool card to show you, so let's get right to it!

(EAD stickers: london town set; vintage: underground map, bobby and union jack illustrations; patterned paper: k&co + scraps of basic grey, doodlebug, dcwv; black glossy cardstock: ranger; transparency: making memories; black pearls: kaiser; ribbon: basic grey; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

i used EAD's these awesome london town stickerz, which i ordered on the clear backing so that i could do exactly this sort of paper-piecing with them! once again, i found cause to be extra-glad that stickerz are re-positionable, since midway through my design i realized that i didn't have enough contast going on, and i needed to swap out the papers i'd used under a couple of stickers. luckily, it was, as this sheet itself says, "easy peasy"!!!  :)

apart from the stickerz, i didn't need much in the way of supplies: a few london-themed vintage illustrations from a children's dictionary, a bit of an underground map, scraps of patterned paper, lovely clouds as a background, and a bit of ribbon to (sorry, i can't help saying it!) TIE everything together! (it's a sickness... truly... i apologize!) :)

and thus this concludes my post and my last official duty as february's EAD guest designer. i'd like to thank miss emily, and the entire design team for the warmest of welcomes, and an entire month of the most fun a card-makin' gal can have! all that remains for me to tell you one final time about the fabulous free shipping on stickerz and rub-ons:

and now i shall send you off to your next stop, tsuruta designs, because i know my dearest darling amy has something ♥WONDERFUL♥ to show you!

ps: for a little more EAD Design goodness, why not check out the current JINGLE BELLES prompt, stuck on you? we're using stickerz and rub-ons... and many of the lovely EAD DT ladies have made gorgeous holiday cards to inspire you!!! ♥♥♥

"so beautiful" tall card

hello, darlings! ♥  i am proud to say that today on the pixie blog, i'm helping to put the *SUN* in sunday, with a card that is (for me, uncharacteristically) both tall and monochromatic, made with some gorgeous papers and embellishments from february's kit, YOU MAKE LIFE FUN!

i do hope you will check it out, along with the gorgeous work of my DT sisters and all the FUN STUFF miss kirsty has planned for ya! :)

JB12-05 + EAD = ♥STUCK ON YOU♥

like my amazing ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ partner stephanie did last november, i was lucky enough to win a spot as guest designer for EAD DESIGNS all this month. since both stef and i are *HUGE* fans, and emily was gracious enough to sponsor one of our prompts last year, we asked if they'd like to team up again. not only did emily say YES, she sent along the uber-talented EAD design team to help out! we all made cards that feature stickers or rub-ons, and we hope you'll come along and join us for a shot at a fabulous prize!!!

here's my card:

 (EAD DESIGNS: celebrate the season stickerz; vintage: page from "ideals" christmas magazine; xl diecut journaling card: making memories; patterned paper: basic grey, my mind's eye; brads: doodlebug; inks: ranger; pearls: recollections; adhesives: tombow monorunner,  3m foam tape)

i chose this set of celebrate the season stickerz... 

...specifically because my friend, fellow BELLE, and EAD design team member extraordinaire miss rose used them to make this gorgeous card a couple of weeks ago, and i was *smitten* by it! my intention was to CASE it, but as often happens with me, i became slightly distracted... (if you've ever seen a cat react to a laser pointer, you have a pretty good mental picture of my "process" lol!) ...and in the end it doesn't look alllllllll that much like rose's, but i'm pretty pleased with it anyway.

i stuck my clear ornament stickerz to some vintage xmas themed text paper, cut them out, and adorned them with snowflake brads that coincidentally were exactly the right size, shape and color (wahey!!!) then mounted them on a bit of foam tape and used lines of sticky-back pearls as "hangers". i attached everything to that fabulous oversized journaling card, and then just had to create a fairly large (7" square) card to hold it all. i love the way the colors on the stickerz coordinate perfectly with so many prominent holiday paper lines, including my favorite "oldie", basic grey's "fruitcake"!

of course, you don't have to use EAD stuffs to play along with us at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ (but i bet you have some, don't you?!) you can use any stickers or rub-ons, so c'mon over between now and wednesday, march 7th, see the gorgeous EAD DT creations, and start planning the cards *YOU* will make for your shot at the prize! ♥♥♥

meet horace, the stegosaurus*

at age four, nephew matthew is *SERIOUSLY* into dinosaurs. he knows quite an impressive amount about them, too: the names of many different species, which ones were carnivores, herbivores or omnivores (and yes! he uses those words!) where they lived, and so forth. i was actually slightly worried that this particular example might not be deemed anatomically correct enough to pass muster with such an expert, but fortunately he also has a nice sideline-interest in stuffed animals! plus, he was VERY IMPRESSED to learn that i had made it by doing something called "crocheting"... enough, in fact, that he asked me *HOW* does one crochet and could HE learn to do it??!?!!?! ♥♥♥

measuring about nine inches from nose to tail, horace is quite a bit bigger than the other amigurumi dolls i've made, but that is mostly because i wanted to use this gorgeous variegated cotton yarn my (non-blogging) friend cheryl hand-painted a few years ago. it's *PERFECT* for dinosaurs, don't you think? i used this pattern from a rather fab etsy shop called planet june. it was well written and easy to follow, and as you can see it's positively OFF THE CHARTS in terms of cuteness!!! i'm proud to say that, according to my sister, (who kindly texted to tell me!) apparently, matthew went around for several days excitedly telling everyone he encountered that he now has, "a yarn dinosaur my aunt made!" ...hard to beat in terms of crafty satisfaction, no?!

if real stegosauruses (stegosauri??!) had been as adorable as horace, i'm preeeeeeeeeeeetty sure they would not be extinct right now!!! :) :) :)

*after a bit of deliberation, matthew has renamed horace... who shall henceforth be known as MORRIS the stegosaurus. awesome. ♥♥♥

SOS40: sooooooo inspirational!

phew. for a minute there, i really thought the entire month of february might be going to somehow sliiiiiiide by without my getting to play with my amazing DT darlings over at shopping our stash! i am especially thrilled to have snuck a card in just under the wire this week, because the challenge is SUCH a good one!

SOS40: Open-Inspiration Challenge  

use the picture as inspiration... colors, subjects, etc. 

so yeah, you can use ALL the colors... or just some of them; you can go with butterflies and flowers... or not; you can interpret this one ANY way you'd like! awesome, no? here's my card, and YES, it really is *MY* card, i didn't accidentally get it mixed up with someone else's, lol:

(patterned paper: 7 gypsies, my mind's eye, basic grey, the paper co, prima, g45, k&co; diecut flower: k&co; velvet stickers: making memories; vinyl stickers: american craftys; dimensional tiny flower stickers: joannes; bling: prima; glitter glue: stickles; ribbon: may arts; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

because YEAH, ironically, although i am inarguably the QUEEN of the girlie colors... and although we were given an inspiration palette with both PINK AND PURPLE in it... somehow, i managed not to use EITHER of them--go figure!!! :) :) :) it wasn't intentional, i assure you, it's just how this one happened to come out. i think i kinda love it, though!

some SERIOUS stash-usage here: even the die-cut and fussy-cut bits (as leslie would say, "parts is parts") were already in their current form, i just gathered them all from various scrap-based locations and assembled--woohoo. i think the youngest thing on this card is the luscious green background paper, i know i grabbed that last summer when my not-very-local-lss (sob!) was closing; the oldest are the velvet word stickers which i'm pretty sure i bought to make a valentine/birthday card for miss riley elizabeth when she was a toddler... so at the very least they are six/seven years old! (for the record, i still like them... and as you can see, i still use them from time to time!)

so what elderly but continuously-beloved goodies are in your stash? and when was the last time you made something with them? why not take a nice long look at the inspiration picture, grab up some fun ingredients, and link up the results over at SOS this week? g'wannnnn... you know you wanna!!! ♥

have a dino-mite EAD blog hop!

they say time flies when you're having fun, which explains why february is rushing past: i'm in love with my role as EAD DESIGNS guest designer! so once again it's time for another monday blog hop... you'll have most likely arrived from the amazing miss shellye's blog, the papered cottage; but if you're lost just hop back to the EAD blog; remember there is a lovely prize for a lucky random commenter each week!

before i show you what i made this week, there are two main points you need to know: 

#1-- it's dino-themed in nephew matthew's honor

and

#2-- it's an "inside out" accordion card

 (more on that in a minute)

ok, here's the front of the card:

to make it, i used these utterly adorable dinosaur stickerz: 

and a couple of these super-useful birthday sentiments, though you can see i've cut them apart a bit to fit my dino-themed scheme!

ok, so i mentioned this card is "inside out"... by which i mean, instead of having its main design on the cover and a simple greeting within, i've done the reverse; it's also an accordion card, so that thanks to a couple of extra folds, the inside is BIGGER than the outside... big enough, in fact, to hold an entire mesozoic landscape!

(EAD DESIGNS stickerz: dinosaurs and birthday sentiments; patterned paper: my mind's eye, prima, doodlebug, bo bunny, scenic route, making memories; ribbon: michaels; inks: colorbox; pen: copic outliner; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

since i knew i wanted to make an entire scene, i thought it'd be good to have a few extra lansdcape bits... but i wanted them to MATCH the stickerz, so i chose scraps of coordinating colored patterned papers, and held them together while i cut out the palm tree and the rocks; i also fashioned some hills and a bit of grass in a similar style. the cloud paper is one of my all-time faves from a couple of years ago... luckily i still have a little stash of it hidden away! :)

the above is sort of an odd angle, but i like that you can see the front, the back and the inside all at once! and here we are again, all tied up and ready to be given to our favorite dinosaur-loving birthday boy!

and now you'll be wanting to hop along to the fabulous miss amy's blog, tsuruta designs, to see what awesomeness she has created... actually, i will come with you, because i KNOW it'll be amazing! but first a reminder:

yes, as always, there is free shipping on all stickerz and rub-ons... so if you start to feel a bit enabled during the hop, and crave a few EAD goodies... why not GO FOR IT, darlings?! :)

a little bird told me...

something i realized recently is that i've never made a get well gift! because, i suppose, luckily, most of my friends are fairly healthy; also it tends to be a "last minute" type of thing, doesn't it?  but upon consideration, i thought it might be nice to make a pretty little thing in advance, just in case, using the YOU MAKE LIFE FUN. so i did:

you can see lots more lovely photos... and a bit o'text about the process... on the pixie blog today. why not stop over and check it out?! ♥

you are just my type!

this month's pixie kit (YOU MAKE LIFE FUN) happens to contain one of my all-time favorite embellishment selections: a 12x12" sheet of october afternoon "thrift shop" stickers. do i even have to tell you how much i ♥♥♥LOVE♥♥♥ this pink vintage royal typewriter? nahhhhhhhh. surely not!

in fact it kind of makes me want to scour my local flea markets and rummage sales until i find one just like it, but there are two things holding me back: for one thing, it'd be an act of the most shocking disloyalty to my current vintage royal typewriter, sister klara; for another, ever since i saw this post of julie balzer's (scroll down almost to the bottom) i have been positively craving a cursive typewriter... something i had not even realized existed until that moment! :)

something you should ALWAYS be craving is a peek at the pixie blog, where you can not only see my projects, but also those of my amazing DT sisters, details on our current challenge, loads of lovely pics of the  YOU MAKE LIFE FUN kit and LOTS MORE!!!

even more ALL BUTTONED UP!

ok, so here is my second card for the current ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt in which we invite you to show us your most creative holiday cards which incorporate buttons, brads, or eyelets! i went with buttons again, mostly because these adorable xmas-shaped ones have been in my stash for a really reallllllllllllllllllly long time, waiting for me to "get a clue" in terms of button usage! :)

(patterned paper: love elsie, ki; buttons and rickrack: doodlebug; stickers: reminisce, creative imaginations, pebbles; feltie: basic grey; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, hand- and machine-stitching)

ok, so clearly i am somewhat button-impaired... but i assure you that i'm most definitely the only ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ who is.. so hop on over there and check out the awesome gallery! you still have nearly a week to link up your own card, for that matter, which is even more reason to go, isn't it! ;)

speaking of collage...

...ok, granted, we were only SORT OF "speaking of collage"... and that was last week, when i posted my entry for february's greenpaper challenge... but having a monthly reason to sit down and make a free-form collage has renewed my interest in the whole genre, and made me realize i've never blogged my favorite links. so, if i may, i will now! thus, here are some collage blogs i love, interspersed with a few older collages i have made-- since all blog posts NEED photos-- it is written!!!

not paper
probably my favorite all-time blog in this category, because they showcase a different artist every time and they ask the questions i would ask... as well as showing lovely photos of the work!

oiseaux
probably my favorite single artist's blog. i would like to move into one of her collages and live there. i wish she posted more often, but that's just me bein' greedy!

this 12x12" piece (blogged here) was inspired by one of my favorite artist quotes

nostalgic collage
cool, fun, interesting, inspiring, lots of content... everything, in fact, you'd like a collage blog to be!

orly avineri's blog
an amazing multi-media artist, who can seemingly work in any style with any materials. unbelievably cool.

this 5x24" piece (blogged here) is hanging in my friend paul's office-- the greatest honor it could possibly receive!!! 

waterhalo

an amazing minimalist collage/mixed media/journal who only posts sporadically, and sadly may have now stopped altogether... but her archive will keep you going for a bit!

sparkleface's collages on flickr

i don't think she has a blog, which is saddens me; on the other hand, i kind of just want her to make art 24/7, and not be distracted by things like t'internet!!! (not that i'm selfish, or anything!)

chinese, japanese and hindi text turn up a lot because i find them so very beautiful to look at (blogged here)

ghosts of the great highway

not technically a collage blog, but he features many really wonderful artists, and arguably the "10 shining examples" posts are a sort of collage in blogging form?!  (ok, mebbe not, i just wanted to link to this, k?!)

jane maxwell

is technically not a BLOG... there is no "continuing" or personal content, but you can see some of her amazing work and find out if she'll be having a show anywhere you could get to, in which case GO b/c these things are huuuuuuuuuuuge and textural and (like almost all non-digital art) so much better in person!!!

"from the heart of bollywood" (blogged here) was made specifically for someone... before i found i couldn't quiiiiite give it away

greg miller
another artist's website; and coincidentally, an artist i discovered a few weeks ago during a fun NYC day when miss kirsty was in town!* i love the way he incorporates iconic images, comic book style, fonts, and... well... sort of EVERYTHING... and yet his works are bold and cohesive.

sarah bridgland
again, this is her artist's website, and not her blog (tho she has one and it's cool) but if you only click one thing you have to see her work! if you don't GASP outloud when you see her amazing 3-D creations, you may be in some sort of mild coma--seek help immediately!!!  :)

*remember on feb 1st how it was suddenly like 60 degrees and sunny in the northeast? well, that just so happened to be the day that miss kirsty was in town and we were lucky enough to spend most of our time wandering aimlessly around soho, looking at artsy and crafty stuff, exclaiming over the divine weather! we went--amongst other places--to kate's paperie, purl soho, and the campton gallery. the latter whilst we were looking for a noodle place which seems to have closed. as it turns out, having had the astonishing special restaurant week prix fixe lunch at kittichai instead, we ended the day saying, "noodles, schmoodles"!!!  ♥♥♥

bon jour, EAD blog hop!

one of the many cool perks about being guest designer* at EAD DESIGNS this month, is that it makes me pretty excited about mondays, since that's the day of our bog hop! so let's get right to it: if you're "hopping" in order you should have arrived from shellye's blog, the papered cottage; but if you've got lost, jump on back to the EAD blog... because, remember, there's free vinyl for one random commenter!!!

the very first sheet of stickerz i chose for my GDT gig was this PARIS LOVE set and it was 100% because jessica, amy, and lauren brewer used it to make such totally adorable cards for the january color challenge!

for me, the only problem with such gloriously specific inspiration is avoiding the temptation to just make EXACTLY the same cards as those i admire! i genuinely didn't realize i had "copied" the little paris flag from amy's card until i went and grabbed the links for this post, lol! :) but hey, it was a BRILLIANT idea and i've done it "my way" so i'm cool with that, and i hope amy is, also!

(paris love stickerz by EAD DESIGNS; vintage: paris travel book page, layered under the stickerz before cutting out AND vintage map of paris, copied and re-sized to fit my card; patterned paper: kaiser, glitz; bling: recollections; ribbon: heidi swapp; stick pin: joann essentials; glossy white cardstock: ranger; inks: colorbox;  outlining pen: copic)

i'm pleased with how this came out, c'est tres jolie, non?! :) now i really cannot wait to see what the rest of the gang has got for us this week, but before we go, lemme just remind you about EAD's shipping policy:

yep, you read that right: *FREE* shipping on all stickerz and rub-ons every single day! how cool is THAT?! now off you go to amy's blog, tsuruta designs and check out her gorgeous creation! ♥♥♥

*an honor i achieved by winning the random draw for EAD designs' january's color challenge; if you'd like to be in with a shot as march's GDT-- and scoop a $20 EAD gift card, to boot!-- be sure to enter amy's awesome B&W color challenge (#21) before february 23rd! oh and did i mention that everyone who plays automatically gets 25% off in the EAD store?! you might want to enter that challenge... i'm just sayin'... :) :) :)

patchwork party gift bag

on saturday, we celebrated niece riley elizabeth's ♥10th♥ (!!!) birthday, something i'd find even more impossible to believe if that young lady were not as grown-up and beautiful as she is! of course i made a lovely birthday booklet for her, and also a poncho for her american girl doll, so i needed something in which to carry those tokens! the gorgeous my mind's eye "patchwork party" paper in february's pixie dust paperie kit, YOU MAKE LIFE FUN, inspired this gift bag, which is featured on the pixie blog today... i hope you'll hop over there and check it out! ♥

"before you find your handsome prince...

...you have to kiss a lot of frogs!" or so they say; this little guy is sooooooooo very regal, i don't think he has a lot of problems in that area, do you?! :)

believe it or not, i found him on the cover of a "rewards" catalog which came in the mail for one of LHJ's credit cards; and it just so happened that the very next day pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe told me that our february pixie dust challenge theme would be "FAIRY TALES"... needless to say, that catalog was coverless before nightfall, lol!

everything else you see here is a leftover from one pixie kit or another: the chipboard bits and ruffly ribbon are from LOVE NOTES, the fairies are from last year's SPRINGTIME PIXIE, the fancy cardstock frame (from CHRISTMAS IN PARIS) has an image in the center that i wasn't actually in love with, which leads me to my "top tip" for product usage: never be afraid to alter, cover-up, distress, paint, mist, re-purpose, or in anyway change the items that come in a kit... (or anywhere else!) ...to better suit your needs, your color scheme or your style! creativity is kind of the POINT on these occasions, right?! so forget about what the manufacturer THINKS their product is for... use it the way YOU WANT!!!

and now, something i *know* you will want is to go and see what our uber-talented challenge design team have done with the "FAIRY TALES" theme, and to discover how you can link up your own project for a shot at a fabulous prize. so off you go to the pixie blog, darlings!!! ♥

JB12-04: all buttoned up!

hard to believe we're almost halfway through february, isn't it?! on the other hand, i am NEVER sorry to see the end of winter!

something else i'm never sorry to see is a new ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt! and i think this one's pretty awesome: create a holiday card which incorporates buttons, brads, or eyelets! i have loads of all of the above, partially because--it must be said, a bit sheepishly--i am somewhat creatively impaired as to using them in interesting ways! thus i am excited to see what everyone else does this time... and then i will have a whole bunch of new ideas to try out in future! :) :) :)

in the meantime, here's what i did this week:

(transparency: hambly; patterned paper: best creation & paper co with scraps of... bo bunny, pink paislee, doodlebug, prima, glitz and maybe a few more i've forgotten; letters: american crafts; ink: colorbox; poinsettia die: boss cut; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape)

yep, it's the old "buttons as the centers of flowers" trick... one of my favorites! ok, ok, it's pretty much the way i use buttons 99% of the time! in this case the lovely purple ones were on a vintage-ish card that came from... ummmmmmm... somewhere... (my mom, possibly?!) and the poinsettias were leftover from another project last december so this was quite a quick and easy thing to whip up!

but now i am longing for all my lovely belles to show me how it SHOULD BE done, so please link up your button, brad and eyelet-festooned cards at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ between now and wednesday, february 22nd as an educative service on my behalf, ok??! thanks, darlings!!!

february EAD Designs color challenge

i mentioned on monday that i could not be more excited about being the february guest at EAD DESIGNS. for one thing, i get to play along with amy tsuruta's* fabulous color challenge 21! which looks a bit like this:

here are the coordinating stickerz that amy chose for the DT gals-- (YOU can use any products you like; they needn't even be EAD... although i bet you HAVE SOME, dontcha?!) --this set is called vintage treasures and i think they're FAB!!! remember all stickerz and rub-ons ship for free, every day; no code or coupon needed!

and now, here is my card:

("vintage treasures" clear stickerz by EAD DESIGNS; patterned paper: prima, pink paislee; journaling card: echo park; brads: making memories, oriental trading; ribbon: michaels; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots)

i am pretty psyched about using the word sticker in a sort of non-traditional way by cutting off the "S" and printing a couple of lines of text on a clear label to affix above it! there was a certain amount of discussion between myself and lovely husband jeff as to whether or not the sentiment is "too mean". i voted "no"... and it's my card... so luckily i also got the tie-breaker vote! :)

i do think the elegance of the stickerz and the classic simplicity of the black and white palette make the rest of the card sophisticated enough to take the "sting" out of the joke. (but you know me... i'd've done it anyway, lol!!!)

check out all the details (did i mention there's an awesome prize for one lucky participant?!) and link up your own card at the EAD DESIGNS blog!!!

*one of the best bits is the chance to be the same uber-talented team which includes my friends miss amy and miss rose! wahey!!!  ♥♥♥

i try to never even think in terms of "prizes"...

 ...when it comes to creative challenges. surely the reward is the inspiration we feel when someone comes up with an approach or a theme or a technique we would never have thought to use on our own? or even a potential "roadblock" where the first thought is, "i don't think i'm gonna pull THIS off"... that forces one to think outside the box. having said that, i confess that the set of gorgeous antique french digital ephemera that's on offer to a random participant in the february collage challenge at greenpaper was enough to make me hurry up and finish, photo, and post my creation NOW rather than this weekend, just to get a shot at the prize. ;)

for the challenge miss mary gave us three images, and we must use at least a bit of each:

we are allowed to alter and combine them in any way we like, so i did: i put a few photoshop filters on the lovely lady and printed her on photopaper*; i made the ledger a little bigger and printed it on an inkjet transparency; i made the calling card HUGE (because i knew i mostly just wanted the swan) an printed it on some slightly yellowed matte cardstock. and then i combined everything, and a few more bits, besides!

(digital collage images: greenpaper; patterned paper: glitz; journaling card: mme; glitter stickers: unknown; charm: prima; inks: ranger)

truth be told, there was a lot of aimless moving things about in this session, and for quite a while i thought i'd be happier about the process than the outcome... which was FINE with me. usually when i am stumped i "stall" by doing some methodical tasks like fussy cutting, playing with inks, maybe a bit of distressing of edges, or a little hand-sewing; and often, at some point, i have an "AHA!" moment where everything comes together at the very last minute. i really didn't think this was going to be one of those times... and then, somehow, magically, it WAS. (and right there you have everything i ♥LOVE♥ about collage!!!)  

*i generally fill a whole sheet with various sizes of images... filling in with random digital papers if needed; so i absolutely ALWAYS have leftovers, which are a nice starting point for the next project... ;)

yet another reason to ♥LOVE♥ february!

because-- having been lucky enough to win the EAD Designs awesome january color challenge*-- not only did i get to GO WILD in the EAD shop, but also, for the entire month, i get to play along with their amazingly talented design team.  see?

so i will be showing a fabulous project each monday as part of the weekly EAD Designs Blog Hop! can i get a ♥WOOHOO♥!!? here's the order of the hop, in which you'll definitely want to participate, since there is a LOVELY PRIZE for one lucky commenter each week!!!

• EAD Designs Blog
• February Guest Designer Lauren B (that's *ME*!)
• Amy T
• Candace
• Jenn
• Jessica
• Judith
• Julie Ranae
• Lauren
• Liz
• Rose 
• Shellye

and now here is my card:

i always think it's a good policy to start any new assignment with a MONSTA CARD! especially when you've got ones as cute as these MONSTER BIRTHDAY stickerz:

just for the record, no, i didn't use the entire sheet of monstas on the front of this card. that would be silly; of course i saved a couple... to put on the INSIDE... and the envelope!!!  :) (in my defense the only other items i used on this 6x6" shaped card are DCWV and kaiser papers, plus my dymo labeller!)

here's something to remember as you hop around and see the DT's gorgeous work... if you find yourself craving a few EAD Designs of your own:

yep--you get free shipping on ALL stickerz and ALL rub-ons... no matter HOW MANY you buy! which is excellent, since there are soooooooooo many fabulous ones, it's VERY hard to choose!!!!

feeling enabled yet???!!?! awesome! then i think my work here is through! now hop on over now and see what the delightful amy t has whipped up for us... because you know it will be worth the trip!!! ♥

*the awesome FEBRUARY color challenge starts thursday, so c'mon back, see my card, and find out how *YOU* can get a shot at the prize this time!!!  :)