UFO sighting...

...at shopping our stash! not cuddly aliens from far away planets, but "UnFinished Objects"; you know the kind we mean, everyone has one or two half-colored images, things that got fussy-cut but never used, origami trees that were surplus to requirements. well, this week we want you to retrieve one of them, *finish* it up... and use it on a card or project! sound like fun? here's mine:

i painted several ornaments and other xmassy things over the summer, and i used some of them, but for some reason these two ornaments were still on their original watercolor paper, not outlined, not cut out and not used; just sitting in one of my embellishment envelopes. i'm not sure how or why it happened, but i definitely felt that they needed to go on a card right now! so here they are:

watercolor ornaments painted with artists loft watercolors on strathmore paper outlined in faber castell pitt pen; patterned paper: hambly; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; silver glitter paper: american crafts; gems and silver sticky pearls: recollections; seam binding and lace from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i used the very awesome crooked stamper sketch challenge #11 which looks like this, except i rotated it 90 degrees clockwise:

need more inspiration? well the SOS team have been rounding up their own UFO's all week. why not stop by and enjoy them right now?! ♥

gettin' figgy with it! :)

figgy pudding, that is. because we're celebrating the foods of christmas at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight. won't you join us? here's my card:

patterned paper: pebbles, elle's studio, echo park; chocolate brown cardstock: core'dinations; cardstock cookies and popcorn sticker: pebbles; candy cane flair: studio calico; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

you can see i've concentrated on the sweets and treats... two of my favorite things about the holidays! there were several years of my childhood in which we really did string popcorn and cranberries for our tree. i remember that it took aggggggggggggggggges to complete; mostly because we kids (and my dad!) ate most of the popcorn before it could become garland, lol!

i've used miss leslie's awesome crooked stamper sketch challenge #10 for my card's layout, i think you'll agree it's pretty easy to see why!

head on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's card and link up your own fabulous feast-based greeting!

you say it's your...

...BIRTHDAY??!? well that's awesome because this week at shopping our stash we want to see your oldest birthday-themed supplies!

patterned paper: dcwv, junkitz, sei, basic grey; balloon stickers: susan branch/colorbok; cupcake sticker: martha stewart; paper flowers: making memories; brad: american crafts; tape: love my tapes; heart gem: queen and co; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

if you've been papercrafting for a while, you'll no doubt recognize with nostalgia how much golden-oldie goodness is on this card. because YEAH, we're goin' back a bit! suuuuuuper-old dcwv birthday stack paper without which the early-21st-century craftroom was incomplete... cupcake and greeting from the front and back of my favorite junkitz ('member them??) pattern... susan branch balloon stickers so old i had to put new foam adhesive on them... ok, so you get the picture, this is OLLLLLLLLLD stuff. and yet, i have to say, i still kind of like all of it, and i think it makes for a fun card. so there!

something else that pretty much guarantees a fabulous outcome is the use of a crooked stamper sketch challenge sketch in the making of one's card. as you can plainly see. (ok, yes, admittedly i've piled quiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite a bit of stuff on top of miss leslie's glorious CAS lines, but it's there, i promise!) :)

speaking of miss leslie, of course she has made an awesome card to inspire you... so have all the other lovely SOS ladies... won't you hop over and enjoy those right now?! ♥

upon reflection...

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "mirror, mirror" and we want to see something reflective on your card. i used metallic chipboard letters and this cool silver mylar deco tape. plus a little bling for good measure!

color burst pigment powders by ken oliver; watercolor paper: strathmore; bling: recollections; silver chipboard letters: mambi; white foam thickers: american crafts; reflective silver mylar deco tape of unknown origin (dear tape manufacturers, do you have any idea HOW MANY repeat customers you're losing by not putting your brand name on the inner cardboard roll thingie that holds your tape? seriously, how can we thank you for making something awesome if we don't know who you are??!) ink: stewart superior; pen: faber castell pitt; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

the lovely miss stephanie was here for a few days and we did some serious eating (of shake shack burgers, amongst other treats!) some serious shopping (at the very awesome paper anthology!) and some very seriously UN-serious playing around with art supplies at all hours of the day and night. so basically, it was like a slumber party for crafty grown-ups; or you could call it ♥heaven♥!

we're both a bit hooked on ken oliver's color burst-- it's basically powdered watercolor pigment that produces the most vivid colors ever, as my background papers and festive star will attest! for the right-hand side, i used 3 or 4 different shades through a stencil; for the left-hand side i used a couple of shades of blue and green kind of randomly on watercolor paper; the star is made from a scrap of dictionary paper i used to blot a totally different essperiment involving blue and purple, so it's considerably more muted. there doesn't seem to be a *bad* way to go with these, though. 

another great use for a sketchbook is writing down all the ideas you have when there's no time to be crafty. then when there *IS* time you'll remember all the stuff you wanted to try! (for this lettering i used the colorburst powders exactly like regular watercolors and they worked brilliantly in every sense of that word!)

i didn't wind up with many *finished* items apart from the mirror, mirror card, but then i consider these "art camp" experiences to be a time to have fun and just play around with new supplies rather aimlessly. afterall, that's the only way to learn!

just a few of my essperiments from this weekend; as you can see pigment powders, stencils, modelling and embossing pastes, stamps and vintage paper all played a prominent part. (so did sushi, burgers, and the best smoked pork ribs i've ever had in my life, but sadly none of those lasted long enough for me to photograph them, lol!)

something i learned a long time ago is that miss leslie is awesome at making inspiring sketches that i will enjoy, and her CSSC#8 is no exception:

miss leslie is also rather good at making cards... as are the rest of the lovely SOS ladies... won't you stop by and say HOWDY to them today?! ♥♥♥

make a spectacle of yourself!

yepper, that's what we want you to do for this week's challenge at shopping our stash! so will we all be channeling our inner kardashian? ummmmmmm... no. howsabout we just make projects with eyeglasses on them? yeah, that'll work. to this end, i constructed a somewhat fab pair o'shades, if i do say so myself... and apparently, i do! :)

black and white photo pages from a very old falling-apart book about hawaii i found at the library booksale; palm tree stamp purchased in a pearl city giftshop by my friend barb, c.1995 (!); epoxy palm tree + tiki sticker: (very old) creative imaginations; yellow chipboard thickers: american crafts (via the lovely miss leslie, ta v much!); sunglasses constructed from a scrap of ranger glossy black cardstock using a free clipart image, see below for details; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, xyron, sewing machine; book covers made of paper accents medium weight chipboard; endpapers: frances meyer; bookring and interior cardstock pages: staples; font: splash

ok, so yeah, i'm still stuck in hawaii mode. and let's face it, there are only so many "aloha" birthday cards a girl can use, lol. on the other hand, my etsy shop's stock of travel books is sadly depleted, so i just shifted gears and made one of those with a sort of vintage hawaiian vibe. the cover is 5x7; the interior pages are just over 4x6.5". it's bound by a single book ring to facilitate adding postcards, brochures and other fun "vacation stuff" while on the road.

but my favorite thing is the pair of shades, which i built from the ground up. it was easier than you'd think, too, want to see? the main thing is knowing how to cheat, which i'm pretty good at. yes, i could draw a pair of sunglasses, and in fact the idea of this was inspired by something i drew for ICAD, but i wanted this pair to be symmetrical, and i also wanted to be able to re-use the same shape in future, so i found a free clipart image online, and printed it within the size of a 3x5 photo on some sturdy index stock.

it's well known that i loathe cutting with a craft knife, but this one i found at staples last winter is by far the most comfortable handle i've ever encountered, and for interior cuts you just have to sort of suck it up. to maximize my results i attached a scrap of clear inkjet transparency to the cardstock, so i'd wind up with a stencil as well as a template.

two stencils, actually... one positive and one negative; or i suppose you could call it one stencil and one mask? plus the cardstock template, which is what i used for this project.

i traced the glasses frame on the back of some glossy black cardstock, cut it out, and then backed it with the palm trees i'd stamped on a scrap of bookpaper that looked a bit like a sunset. i adhered the little collage of glasses, palm tree, tiki and "aloha" to the beach photo, which i left large enough to wrap around the front cover of the book. since i like the front and back covers to coordinate, i found a second black and white image that went pretty well.

i trimmed up some pretty hibiscus-patterned cardstock to use as endpapers, and made two week's worth of pages with the days on them, some fun hawaiian word pages, and a bunch of blank extra pages, and attached everything with a sturdy book ring:

i've used leslie's gorgeous crooked stamper sketch challenge #7, though you can see that i've rotated it 90-degrees counter-clockwise; and admittedly, it's still a pretty loose take. but it's an awesome sketch and it really did inspire me, so i bet you'll like it, too:

speaking of stuff i *KNOW* you'll like: all of my darling dt sisters are making a spectacle of themselves at SOS this week, too;  and there's no way you want to miss that! ♥

gingham style

possibly my all-time favorite challenge title at shopping our stash, this week; and not just because i still secretly sort of love psy's gangnam style video, lol. for "gingham style" you don't necessarily have to use gingham as such, but we're definitely hoping to see checks, plaids, or a strong theme of squares in your project. as it happens, i did use actual gingham, but only because this particular yellow from crate paper is one of my all-time favorite patterns and it goes so well with so many other designs.

patterned paper: crate, prima, my mind's eye, fancy pants; sentiment sticker and brad: amy tangerine/american crafts; florals: prima + a very old sunflower with a fuzzy center from bouquet i got for .10c at a garage sale :) glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i used leslie's gorgeous crooked stamper sketch challenge #6 for my layout, though i have flipped it both horizontally and vertically, so i hope you can see the sketch in my card?

there are lots more SOS design team projects just loaded with "gingham style"... why not hop over and feast your eyes upon them right now? (you can thank me later, darlings!) ♥

squeEeeeeEEEEeeak!

that's the sound of me getting in just under the wire for sketch #5 of the crooked stamper sketch challenge, which i will show you in one second, but first here's my card:

patterned paper: glitz design, girls paperie, american crafts (dear lizzy and amy tangerine); stickers: basic grey; feather from my stash; border punch: recollections; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

it's an anniversary card, for my sister and her husband, so of course i chose some super-cute lovebirds, lol! and yes, i used leslie's fab CSSC#5 sketch, though of course, me being me, it's a loose version! :)

leslie's challenge is coordinating with little tangles #57 on the neat and tangled challenge blog, so i'm gonna link up there, too, though i haven't used one of their fab images or even stamped at all... i hope that doesn't disqualify me.

meanwhile there are loads of fab cards in the CSSC#5 gallery, not to mention the awesome versions leslie has made, so why not go and check those out?! ♥

happy and hybrid... with BELLES on!

...over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ again this week, because we've got a fab kit called "jingle all the way" to work with, courtesy of our lovely sponsor, deedee's digis! jealous? no need to be, since deedee's digis is offering this kit absolutely free for the length of the challenge! how cool... and generous... is that?! head on over to the "try before you buy" section of the shop and grab that fun kit, and be sure to say a big jingly THANK YOU, ok? then hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and link up a hybrid holiday card (using ANY digital element, whether it's from deedee's or not) for a chance to win a $15.00 shopping spree in the deedee's digis shop!

want to see what i made this week? i hope so, because it's what i'm planning to show you right now!

digital bell paper and "jingly" sentiment from the "jingle all the way" kit at deedee's digis; printed on a 3m inkjet transparency, enhanced with machine stitching and framed with ranger black glossy cardstock and paper company textured red cardstock. florals: prima, making memories, k and co; jingle bell brad: oriental trading co; scallop scissors: michaels; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine 

one of my little tricks for making my favorite digital elements look brand new is to print them on an interesting surface. you'd be surprised how different the same paper or stamp can look when printed on smooth cardstock, glossy photo paper, clear labels, sticky-back canvas, etc; the variety is AMAZING! in this case i've used one of my all time faves: an inkjet transparency. i've talked about these before, so i won't go into detail here, but the reason i love doing this is that the layering possibilities are absolutely endless. also... they are pretty much the best (and easiest!) way to make a shaker card, imo!

the other great thing about digis generally, and deedee's digis in particular, is that she gives you at least *two* versions of every image: a plain background for coloring and a transparent background, so you can easily place... say... a fabulous sentiment right on top of a pretty paper and print the whole thing as one layer. niiiiiiiice! :) being a texture junkie, i couldn't resist machine stitching over the beautiful script of the word "jingly" to make it stand out even more, and popping on a few flowers held with a jingle bell brad before backing the edges with foam tape to hold the tiny heart confetti inside the shaker part of the card.

i told you earlier this week that i was going to take another shot at crooked stamper sketch challenge #4, so i think you've probably guessed by now that this is it... what with the dramatic sentiment over a fab background... but let's see leslie's terrific sketch again, shall we?

want to see another cool idea for using the "jingle all the way" kit? hop on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's gorgeous card; then start planning what *YOU* want to make! ♥

happy ♥11th♥ birthday, madeline!!!

i'm having a really hard time believing my youngest niece is eleven already, but last night we cut into an ice cream cake with enough candles to risk melting it, so i suppose that makes it official! miss maddie is even more beautiful than the day she was born (which is saying something!) and is as lovely in character as she is to look at, which is pretty awesome. of course we had to mark the occasion with a present or two, so i had to make a fancy bag to hold them:

pink croc-embossed giftwrap backed with plain white index stock and cut into the shape of a capital M in "sherwood" font, printed at almost 8x10" and then used as a template, with white machine stitching around the edges to look like a fancy monogram; florals: petaloo, prima, recollections, making memories and some funky ones from the flower section of michaels; butterfly: prima; epoxy flowers: making memories; brads: american crafts, my mind's eye, making memories, doodlebug, oriental trading co; bling flourishes cut apart and scattered around the design: recollections; adhesives: xyron, elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots; ok YEAH, there's A LOT of stuff on here, but my nieces share (or at least humor, lol!) both my love of PINK and my maximalism in design. so it's all good. :) :) :)

i was inspired by the flowers, the awesome springtime vibe, and of course the dreamy PINK-ness (!) of the shabby tearoom's current challenge, "pretty in pink"... here's the inspiration photo:

i also set out intending to use miss leslie's current crooked stamper sketch challenge (#4), which involves a bold sentiment on a fun background. as it turns out, i only hit one outta two on that, so i'll be having another go ASAP... luckily it goes until the 21st. it's a great sketch, though, so i thought i should mention it:

hope everyone who is celebrating has had the loveliest mother's day imaginable, and lots of extra ♥♥♥'s to my own mother, my mother-in-law, and all my mom friends!

SOS197: lost and found

can you guess what we want to see for this week's challenge at shopping our stash? it's called "lost and found" which should give you a pretty big hint: we're looking for creations that feature something you lost track of for a bit... whether it was actually lost, or perhaps you just forgot about it? i've got a bit of each on my tag, which i'll esplain in a minute.

ok, i realize as i start typing this, there really aren't any official papercrafting products in this one, unless you count the (admittedly awesome) dymo label sentiment, the tiny mrs. grossman's heart sticker, and the basic grey patterned paper i used as background for the photo. lots of vintage and thrifting goodies tho: sheet music and chinese text from two seriously elderly falling-apart volumes found at book sales; little buildings cut from a new york tourist brochure; a real (tho expired, obviously) metrocard and o'course my "FOUND" items: plastic slide mount of which i have nearly an entire box (yahoo!) and that funny little heart pin (jeff ripped the back off it for me) which was in a box of treasure i'd started to think got lost or donated when we moved! oh yeah and a fab tag from amy tsuruta, who rocks, as i'm sure you already know! ♥

the thing i thought i'd lost is the little blue plastic heart pin; but actually i thought i'd lost my whole entire tin of little pins acquired at various garage sales over the years. worse yet, i knew that was in the same box as my buckle collection, a bunch of game pieces and cards, lots of weird funky earrings and other dimensional "treasures" i haven't seen since we've moved. i'd love to say i suddenly found it now because i've been doing a major organizing project in the basement, but in fact, it was a fluke discovered whilst looking for something else entirely for lovely husband jeff! the thing i'd forgotten i owned was the cool half full box of plastic slide mounts i got at goodwill, i think, quite some time ago. those guys turned up while linda was here, and we had fun playing with them.

the layout of my tag is based on miss leslie's latest crooked stamper sketch challenge (CSSC #2 to be precise); though admittedly i've done a pretty a loose take on that fab sketch:

i've been doing a lot of mixed media backgrounds lately, so it felt really cool to be making an old school collage this time. oof i nearly forgot to mention my favorite bit of this, which is the tiny picture of the queensboro bridge-- it's from an illustrated children's encyclopedia-- which is the absolute perfect size for the slide mount. even more exciting is the fact that the book in question has LOTS of illustrations about this size, so yeah, you'll be seeing this trick again for sure! :)

the other sos designers have been busy finding treasures, too-- you really need to hop on over and see the fabulous things they've made! ♥

mission EMBOSS-ible?! :)

yep, that's the title of this week's brand new prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and yes, sadly, i am the one responsible for the pun... and proud of it, lol! but the brilliant idea-- which is to make holiday cards which feature wet or dry embossing-- comes from our lovely and talented guest star steph c, so i hope you'll check it out and leave her some love while you're over there! meanwhile, here's my card:

patterned paper: pebbles, dcwv, basic grey, gcd; aqua blue cardstock: dcwv (embossed with cuttlebug swiss dots e/f); glossy white cardstock: paper accents; plain chipboard letters: basic grey (painted with pearl white craft paint, stamped with hero arts damask background and embossed with psx powder; felt snowflake and scallop scissors: michaels; metal snowflake: making memories; brad: october afternoon; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i was planning to dry emboss my painted chipboard letters and heat emboss the cardstock oval, but when i found that cool hero arts damask cling stamp i thought how fab it would look on the letters, so i changed my mind. i deliberately used some inexpensive textured cardstock with a white core in my swiss dots embossing folder so that when i sanded it the dots would look a bit like snow. i've actually got a third embossed element here, but it's a bit of a cheat: the ancient red GCD background has a sort of plastic-like texture on it, and the little asterisks (or snowflakes?!) are lightly textured; i suppose technically they are de-bossed rather than em-bossed, but they still look pretty cool, i think.

i started out using leslie's latest crooked stamper sketch challenge (#2) again, but sort of veered off in another direction when i added in the horizontal band. it's a great sketch, however, and there's still plenty of time for you to play, so i figure i might as well remind you what it looks like, eh?

speaking of things i know you'd like to see, we've got twice as many stephanies as usual at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight, and both of them have made gorgeous holiday cards for you to enjoy. why not hop over and see those right now?! ♥

SOS192: counting on you!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is pretty much by the numbers... and i do mean that literally, lol; we want to see projects with numerals on them! fun, right? i definitely thought so. here's what i made:

patterned paper: my mind's eye, making memories, basic grey, k and co, recollections, glitz design, studio calico; black and white glossy cardstock: paper accents; lg brads: mme; sm brads: queen and co; alphabet stickers: kelly purkey/simon says stamp; labels: dymo; cardstock arrow: scenic route; cloud punches: fiskars; deco scissors: michaels; ink: colorbox; pen: faber castell pitt xs; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

if you suspect that i built my entire design-- including the car i paper-pieced from a customized clipart image-- around a desire to convey the sentiment on a tiny handmade license plate, you are quite right. but it's not every day that my friend carlos turns EIGHT YEARS OLD (!) so clearly some special preparations were called for. luckily, i had the second crooked stamper sketch challenge to help me think of a great way to use those elements (you can see that i've rotated it 90 degrees clockwise, but otherwise i've been pretty faithful!):

meanwhile, there are lots more lovely numeric masterpieces awaiting you at SOS, why not hop over and check those out right now?!

here we come a-WASHI-ing!

happy friday the thirteenth everyone! we're feeling pretty lucky at JINGLE BELLES since we have a fabulous new prompt; which, as you may guess, involves making a holiday card that includes some washi or other decorative tape. this great idea came from our lovely friend and fellow belle lela meinke (aka serenity stamper) who'll be hanging out with us this fortnight, so be sure to come along and leave her some love! we've also got a bit of a prize, which miiiiiiight just include a few rolls of washi tape, as well! so what's not to love, right? i'm pretty happy with my card this time, as well:

washi and deco tapes: october afternoon, glitz design, my mind's eye, recollections, martha stewart; patterned paper: pebbles; journal card: october afternoon; flowers: prima; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine  

i'm excited to be joining in with miss leslie's very first crooked stamper sketch challenge, which looks a bit like this:

i couldn't decide which tape i wanted to use on my card, so i chose to use lots of different ones and make them into a cool woven-look panel to place in the center of the sketch's layout. i did this by starting in the middle and adding one strip at a time, at right angles, so that each addition is over the last tape but under the next. since many of my tapes are somewhat sheer, you can also see a bit of the design on the lower tapes through the ones on top, which gives even more variety.

after i filled up the whole panel, i chose a pre-made journal card to be my focal point, a bold red print for the background, and added in some skinny skinny white mats to set everything off. this is a *VERY* pared down card for me-- as befits a crooked stamper challenge-- but since i got to use 10+ different patterns of tape and a few sparkly flowers, i don't feel too deprived! :)

be sure to hop over to JINGLE BELLES to see stephanie's and lela's gorgeous cards and link up your own washi masterpiece!