Stars or Stripes (Week 2)

At Jingle Belles, it's our second week of Stars or Stripes, Forever; plus we are also the "Twisted Sister" option on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog's Christmas in July event, where there is a basic recipe: (three colors + two layers + one holiday image) required for all entries at Double Trouble. Then there's a TWIST: to add Stars and/or Stripes and also link with us at Jingle Belles. Then there's a DARE: to use one of two sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

Remember, you only need Stars or Stripes for Jingle Belles, but if you're up for a bigger challenge, consider hopping over to Double Trouble for all the details!

My card has ALL of the above:

I used one of the sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday (see below); I also incorporated the basic recipe from Double Trouble: three colors (red, green and blue); two layers (blue and striped papers from Basic Grey) and one or more holiday images (a cluster of MME diecuts). And of course I've got stripes and stars (admittedly just two stars lol) for our own Jingle Belles challenge. Woohoo!

Do hop over and check out Double Trouble's Christmas in July event, as well as Try a Sketch on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, at Jingle Belles, JB2614: Stars OR Stripes, Forever (for which you need only... as the title says... stars OR stripes!) runs until next Wednesday evening, July 15th.

Did You Say, "SOS500"?!

Yes! Yes, we did! It's time for our 500th challenge at Shopping Our Stash and we hope you'll come along and help us "Celebrate by the Numbers!" To mark an occasion featuring such a big number, we'd like to see projects with at least one numeral. Here's what I made:

Ok, yes, my card really does have only a single numeral, but what I really needed right now was a girly birthday card, so that's what I made. There is *SIGNIFICANT* use of older stash here; I don't think there's a single item that's less than 5 or 6 years old. I used up that sheet of cute chipboard critters; the oversized alphas were from the big box store yeaaaaarrrrs ago; the texty patterned paper was (I think) 7 Gypsies. This measures just over 6x6 and I confess it has exactly the vibe I was going for, which is always such a great feeling, isn't it?

Coincidentally, Seize the Birthday also has a (birthday-centric!) numerical theme this time, as well, though their challenge ends later this morning, so you'll need to be a bit quick. Still, they post a NEW theme every other Thursday and you can always choose their option of "Anything BIRTHDAY Goes" so you'll definitely want to check them out!

Meanwhile, head over to Shopping Our Stash to see what the crew have made to inspire you, then start thinking what you'll make to help us celebrate! ♥

SOS495: Fold It Up!

It's a fun and creative challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash. For "Fold It Up" we'd like you to create a card that features a non-standard Fun Fold design (easel card, gatefold, stair step, side step, trifold, etc) OR a card with interactive elements (shaker, mechanical, spinner... you get the idea...) If you need inspiration or tutorials to get you started, check out This Pinterest Page! Being emphatically NOT an engineer myself, I usually make a shaker card on these occasions; but when I clicked the link in the last sentence I stumbled upon something called an Angled Gatefold and it's funky design called to me. Ok, yeah... and the fact that I realized I could basically wing it and not do lots of measuring and things helped too. So here's what I made:

Two of my favorite kiddos who happen to be siblings both have birthdays in April, so I generally mail their presents and cards at the same time. It's not like they HAVE TO coordinate, but if I can swing it, I always think it's a bit more fun. I broke out some of my all-time favorite, well-hoarded, classic Basic Grey papers (from Skate Shoppe, Lollipop Shoppe and Out of Print) to make the cards, then a bellyband for each in a coordinating pattern, and finally a fussy-cut motif to be the focal point. Often I'm fairly lazy about decorating the insides of cards, but having used double-sided cardstock for the bases, they were kind of half done already, so I printed appropriately punny sentiments and called it a day.

I'm joining Inspire.Create.Challenges #141: Fancy Folds, you should check it out because the DT cards are very inspiring! Then, head over to Shopping Our Stash to see what the rest of the Crew have made and start thinking what YOU will link up with us this time!

Challenge #10: Hip to be Square

Welcome back to the big Paper Anthology 9th Anniversary festivities, I hope you've been hanging out on the Paper Anthology FaceBook page and following all of these cool challenges, there is some serious inspiration over there and there are raffle tickets awarded for however many you complete, with ten awesome prize packs to giveaway at the end! 

This is my last challenge for the weekend, and it's to embrace one of my favorite formats. I love square cards, they have such beautiful balance and they just always look good to me. Here's my square card, this one happens to be 6" square, which is probably my favorite size because there seems to be the best selection of envelopes:

For this card I was excited to be test-driving a brand new product at Paper Anthology: Picket Fence Studios Paper Glaze, which comes in sixteen beautiful colors AND can be mixed together to make even more. In this case I just used it straight out of the jar. I love how it retains it's bold color no matter what type of paper you use it on. I used a palette knife to spread Succulent Green through Taylored Expressions A New Leaf Stencil on glossy black cardstock, and also on white watercolor paper. In the second case, I also took a little bit of the Black Pansy, and spread it right on top of the green, so that it has a sort of feathery effect. However if you mix two colors together thoroughly (on say, a paper plate) you will get a consistent third color, which is handy!

After the glaze was completely dry, I trimmed around the white version of the design and adhered the cut out portion on top of the black one. I added Memory Box's Rose Sketch Flower Spray Die (cut from copper and purple shimmer paper) and finished off with some vintage lace trimming, stick-on pearls and Hero Arts Sequins.

Cue Elvis!

Have you been joining the fun of Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary Party on the Paper Anthology FaceBook page? We've been having a lot of fun and we love that our friends from all over the world are able to play too!

There have been some AWESOME cardmaking challenges revealed so far, now here is my latest, it's called Blue Christmas. Did you already guess that the brief is to create a holiday card which is predominantly blue? If so, you're ready to roll! Here's what I made:

I started with a base of blue chippy-peely woodgrain patterned paper from Craft Consortium's 6x6 Wood Texture Paper Pad, added a fussy-cut snow globe and a couple of pine cones from Ciao Bella's Northern Lights Paper Collection, and embellished with glittery blue foliage using Penny Black's Juniper, Holly Branches and Bountiful Berries dies. I stamped one of the sentiments from Taylored Expressions' Flip the Snowflake set onto Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum, added a Eyelet Outlet Cardinal and Pinecone Brads and called it a day.

I hope you'll join us at Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary Party, the fun continues through Sunday night! ♥

It's Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary!

In other years, we've celebrated this festive occasion over the course of a riotously fun weekend, in-person, at Paper Anthology in Kenvil, NJ. Obviously a party with loads of people jammed into one place with self-service food is not on the cards for 2020. But... we've come up with an alternative that features four days of fun, challenges and prizes on the Paper Anthology FaceBook page (which means our friends from all over the world are invited to play along!); plus four awesome Take and Makes for anyone who shops in-store or online during the party, and there might just be a few surprises as well.

There will be twelve awesome cardmaking challenges revealed over the next few days on the Paper Anthology FaceBook Page. I'll be hosting three of them, and the first is called Put a Doily On It. If you've already guessed that the brief is to create a card, layout or journal page with a DOILY ON IT... you are definitely on the right track, lol. Here's what I made:

My card is a bit like a Greatest Hits collection... it has all my favorite elements: Prima and Blue Fern Studios papers, dimensional florals, distressed edges, machine stitching and of course, the inspiration for the whole thing: a lovely 3" paper doily. Of course your card needn't be shabby chic, your doily doesn't have to be white and for that matter, you might make something besides a card! I can't wait to see what it will be.

I hope you'll join us at Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary Party, the fun continues through Sunday night! ♥

Crafty Tic-Tac-Toe

It's the last day of Challenge *REVEALS* for Paper Anthology's Creation Staycation, but of course the event continues until Tuesday night and there will still be trivia questions, daily prizes, Zoom chats and more! The last of my challenges as a hostess is a crafty version of Tic Tac Toe. First, here's my card:

Now here's the board, but of course if you're playing, you need to link up in the comments of the correct post on the Paper Anthology FaceBook Page! I'm putting the board here, though, because it makes it easier to explain what I did. I used the diagonal that starts in the top left corner, which gave me FLOWERS + Stash More Than a Year Old + BLING.

Pretty much EVERYTHING on this baby is more than a year old, so there's that out of the way. (The Indian-inspired background paper is from a store that I think closed in... 2012??) My flowers are for once NOT in your face, they are kind of cameo appearances, to the little wooden elephant with the henna design. The bling is a Prima "Say It With Crystals" and I cut it apart a bit and pieced it back together to fit the space better. There's also a scallopy bling border which was in the box with all my miscellaneous bling, which means it's VERY old and I have no idea whence it came. But for being a weird cobbled together card, I really love how it came out!

That's the great thing about challenges, they push us out of our comfort zones! 

Feelin' Blue?

Then I have the antidote for you! Because we are smack in the middle of Paper Anthology's Creation Staycation, a weeklong virtual crop of sorts, with sixteen (16!) different challenges to pick and choose from, plus prizes, games, live Zoom chats and more! Paper Anthology is, of course, my lss and located in Kenvil, NJ, but crafties from all over are welcome to play along! Hop over to the Paper Anthology FaceBook Page for all the details!

My friend Linda Duke is the hostess of this challenge, it's called Christmas With a Twist and the "twist" is that you cannot use red or green! 

I actually LOVE non-traditional colors for Xmas, so I was all ready for this one! One of the things Linda wrote in her introduction was that the absence of red and green meant no Santa in his distinctive suit, and no Xmas trees. I respectfully refute the latter! See?

blue landscape from an old ideals magazine; paint chips from benjamin moore; tree die: echo park: snowflake dies: sizzix and impression obsession; trees and hills dies: penny black; blue dotty cardstock: core'dinations; white patterned papers: bella blvd, teresa collins and best creation glitter paper; snowflake gem and snowflake sequins: eyelet outlet; sentiment tim holtz/ideaology; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, xyron, 3m foam tape, sookwang scor-tape 

My inspiration is the cyanotype landscape from a vintage Christmas Ideals magazine that I've used as my background. If Ideals could print pages that were all blue --and they sometimes also did other colors, but I think nearly EVERY copy I've ever seen had at least one page that was ALL BLUE-- then my card can be all blue too! If the design of this looks eerily familiar, it's because I cannot expect to play along in a bunch of fun flash challenges this week, and keep up with everything else, whilst "reinventing the wheel" every time. So I basically just made a second version of this week's Jingle Belles card. But without the green, obviously! :)

I hope you'll check out all the different challenges and maybe even pick at least one to play along with! ♥

his & her alcohol ink cards

i'm still fairly smitten with the new gold and silver metallic kraft-core cardstock from idea-ology that i got at paper anthology. especially now that i know how cool the combination of embossing and alcohol inks is. see?

metallic cardstock: idea-ology; embossing folders: cuttlebug/provocraft; ledger paper: pink paislee; cardstock: core'dinations; sentiment sticker: girls' paperie; alphas: making memories; dimensional rose: petaloo; fish illustration cut from a vintage book; alcohol inks: ranger; chalk inks: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

my first experiment involved using a swirly embossing folder on silver cardstock, then adding drops of various blue and green alcohol inks. it took a little time to figure out how to get the best mix of colors and how long to wait before blotting up the excess color. i found that the longer you wait, the more chance you will get blotches and maybe a little bit of "crust" at the edges of the embossing. but in this case, i like the grungy look of that, so i just went with it. when i had a mix i liked, i added mats and a rather handsome focal fish that i cut from a vintage book.

i used this cool sketch (#124) from sweet sketch wednesday 2 to design the layout of my card:

when i moved on to my second card, i used a flowery e/f on the gold color of the cardstock. to get a more even shade all over, i found that it was best to stick to one color of ink (this is raspberry) and to apply it in sections, spreading the excess over the rest of the card and sort of blotting up any puddles at the same time. i really love the soft "rose gold" shade that appeared. since on this particular folder the design is kind of half em-bossed and half de-bossed, i decided to sand some of the raised areas a bit, to get more variation in the design. i also serendipitously discovered that a piece of un-colored gold on which i had tested the same e/f just happened to line up perfectly midway down the design of the pink panel, so i matched up the flowers carefully and attached it on top!

this cool layout (#426) from tuesday morning sketches inspired my second card:

i'm sure there are still about a thousand more tricks and techniques i could try with this fun product... and i'm pretty confident you'll be seeing at least a few of them here in future! ♥

The Post With the Most

Don't get me wrong, I love technology, but there's something about finding an actual card or letter in the mailbox that makes the whole day brighter, don't you think? I love to send snail mail to my friends and family, especially cards! So I was pretty excited when I saw these Eyelet Outlet Mail Brads:

And I really love that each packet contains both mailboxes and envelopes!

Speaking of envelopes, I've become somewhat obsessed with making my own custom ones, that match my cards! And my favorite decoration for them is (of course) Washi Tape! 

In this case, I've used the same mixture of tapes on both my card and the matching envelope: Red White and Blue Striped Washi, Air Mail Washi, Skinny Heart Washi, Gold Script Tape and my favorite Hearts Tape. I've used them in straight lines on the card, to highlight the focal image with the Mail Brads on it; but placed them at a diagonal on the envelope, to add extra interest to the vintage dictionary paper. 

I've placed the Red White and Blue Striped Washi, around the edges of a pale blue cardstock panel on both the card and the address label, and trimmed it to slightly less than half its normal width... to mimic the look of old-time airmail envelopes. 

A few hand-cut hearts and a label-maker sentiment seemed to enhance the nostalgic mood, and instantly we're back to the 1970's, when this lovely old eight cent stamp could transport your kind thoughts across town or country!

I've used the current (rather fab!) layout (#464) from Sketch Saturday for my card design:

I'm also linking up with Brown Sugar Challenge Blog's current theme, "Washi Tape" (challenge #251):

And with Cute Card Thursday, whose current brief is, "Brads"!

Meanwhile my lovely Wednesday partner, Carri, has something wonderful to show you, so I hope you'll scroll down and see that when you're over at the Eyelet Outlet Blog! ♥

all buttoned up

as you may well have surmised from the title, this week's challenge at shopping our stash is to use (...wait forrrrr ittttttttttttttt...) BUTTONS! which is awesome, because if you're anything like me, you've got LOADS of them, but kind of tend to forget they're there. here's my card:

buttons and ribbon from my stash; patterned paper: echo park, doodlebug, october afternoon; paper flowers: eyelet outlet; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; embroidery floss: dmc; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, glue dots, sewing machine

ok, yes, i realize it's the most boring way in the world (possibly in the entire universe?!) to use buttons: as the centers of flowers. what can i say? it was a busy week, and i don't think i sat down at my worktable before about 8:30 on any given night, so there was not a lot of innovation going on, if you know what i mean. in my defense, the flowers in question are some amazingly lovely older eyelet outlet printed paper ones. and i've used LOTS of them, lol! :)

i was inspired by the beautiful pastel color palette from the house of cards may challenge (tho i did not use the secondary option of sequins, since i had the buttons):

i've also got a "hint of pink" which is this week's simon says stamp wednesday challenge blog theme!

as always, the SOS design team has gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to inspiring you... so be sure to hop over and check out their amazing creations! ♥

resolved: all baubles should be SPARKLY!!!

it's no secret that i love christmas, colorburst, and sparkly things.* so here's a card that's all of the above. oh and i should warn you that i realllllllllllly like this one, so i might get a bit obnoxious. sorry. (well, kinda sorry.) :)

patterned paper: glitz design + a bit of vintage sheet music and half a doily; watercolor paper: strathmore; colorburst pigment powders: fuchsia and alizarin crimson, by ken oliver crafts; glitter embossing paste: viva decor, in "champagne"; stencil: flourishes by tim holtz/stampers anonymous; pearl bling strips: eyelet outlet; seam binding: paper anthology; adhesives: elmers brand tape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

you may well be thinking, "hey lauren, haven't you made a few similar cards this year, with colorburst-ed baubles that also have modelling paste on top and some eyelet outlet bling?" and the answer is: YES!!! i've made a few, in fact, and i might make a few more. because it's just so fun, and so easy, and the variations are nearly infinite! if you either draw a few basic bauble shapes, or print out some bauble shaped clip art onto cardstock, you will have a little set of patterns you can use over and over. i recommend a heart shape, a classic bauble, and a sort of elongated tear drop. and of course circles are always awesome!

for this particular card, i used the little heart and the classic bauble shape. i traced them onto water color paper painted with fuchsia and alizarin crimson colorburst, respectively. i painted on a messy layer of each color, and before it was dry i sprinkled a little more colorburst powder on to each, so i'd get some little flecks of more concentrated color. when they were completely dry, i cut them out with scissors. and then i applied some glitter embossing paste (viva decor in "champagne") through a stencil (in this case tim holtz's flourishes) and let that dry completely, too. seriously, the hardest part of this whole process is waiting for the various media to dry. though you can use a heat gun, actually, to speed it up. i wish i had taken a photo of the ornaments at that point to prove that my next step was ENTIRELY optional, because really, they already looked good! but i wanted the flourishes to show a bit more, so yes, i outlined them with a black extra-super-fine faber castell pitt artist pen. yes, i am crazy. honestly, you do not have to do that part, as you can see from the photo above, more than half of my other baubles haven't been outlined and they still look totally cool. but so do these, lol:

i've done quite a loose take on this week's atlantic hearts sketch challenge (#188) so i promise not to be insulted if i'm disqualified. it totally got me going, though, and it's quite fab as you can see:

the current simon says stamp wednesday challenge is anything goes, and i'm pretty sure i qualify, lol, so i'm linking up there! oh and just a reminder that you can still post your holiday greetings at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ until christmas eve. while you're there, why not click on a few links and make your fellow card-makers' day?

*not necessarily in that order** though!
**and dark chocolate eaten during a daniel craig movie still beats all of them!

aloha... monday?

isn't it weird how a holiday weekend totally disorients one's sense of time? i've honestly woken up four days in a row thinking it was sunday! mind you *yesterday* i was actually correct, so there's that! meanwhile, i'm fairly certain today is monday, and i thought it'd brighten things up a bit if we all had a nice little daydream about hawaii, k?

white kromekote cardstock: the paper cut; dies: echo park (hibiscus) and spellbinders (foliage); vellum letter stickers: amy tangerine/american crafts; patterned paper: doodlebug; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

in keeping with my self-imposed mandate to try making more CAS cards, i'm jumping in on challenge #201 at CAS colours and sketches, it's a sketch this week, and apart from rotating it 90 degrees, i've been pretty literal with it. i do  have a teeny bit of pattern in my mat, which i hope doesn't disqualify me, but as anyone who knows *ME* will tell you, this is uber-CAS in the laurniverse, lol, and i'm fairly pleased with my take! :)

i'm also jumping in with the crafty friends challenge #45: blossoms, since i have this rather nice hibiscus!

have a good day and a great week! aloha, darlings! ♥

♥happy halloween♥

halloween falling on a monday is kind of a mixed blessing, isn't it? because on the one hand... it's MONDAY. but on the other hand: CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!! ♥♥♥

i confess that in the past, i have not always made halloween cards, but this year, i'm making up for lost time! so when the lovely and talented amy tsuruta sent me a link to a fab challenge featuring monsters i couldn't resist making just one more halloween card. the only catch was, it's a challenge at addicted to CAS. and we all know that whereas i *LOVE* to see cards with a CAS aesthetic, i am pretty hopeless at making such cards. but i was determined to have a go:

patterned paper: KI memories, from the paleolithic era; large chipboard letters: basic grey; small chipboard letters: american crafts; monster brads, spider brads and purple washi: eyelet outlet; glossy black cardstock: ranger; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

luckily i still had some eyelet outlet monster brads left, which is a considerable advantage in any crafty pursuit; as are mini spider brads and ancient KI memories orange paper. obviously. and yes, i'm still totally addicted to oversized sentiments rendered in chipboard at the moment, so i'm just going with it. arguably, my card could be more CAS... but for me this is downright minimalist (!!!) so again, i'm just going to call it done and be somewhat pleased with my effort.

if you would like to see some cards by people who reallllllly know how to pare down a design to its perfect essentials, be sure to check out addicted to CAS, codeword: monster!

♥PINK♥ halloween

one of my favorite groups of crafty blogging ladies happens to be the sisterhood of snarky stampers, and one of my favorite challenges they have each year is ♥PINK HALLOWEEN♥!!! so here's my card:

patterned paper: basic grey; black glitter cardstock: doodlebug; pink glitter cardstock: making memories; adorable spider mini brads: eyelet outlet; heart stamp: hero arts; scribbly alphabet stickers: sticko; chipboard alphas: thickers/american crafts; pens: faber-castell pitt artist pens in 1.5, S and XS nibs; ink: ranger archival and colorbox chalk; adhesive: sewing machine

ok, so, yes, my eyelet outlet mini spider brads are making another appearance, because i really love them! and also because, frankly, i don't actually own allllllllllll that much halloween stuff. i do own quite a few pens, though, and i was happy to have an excuse to try out my other arachno-centric halloween card idea, which involved doodling a zentangle-inspired web. which was absolutely as much fun as i hoped it might be, so you'll no doubt be seeing this idea again. like next halloween, i'm guessing. :)

i had so much fun with this part of the card that it wasn't until quite near the end that i realized i hadn't actually *STAMPED* anything. so the hearts are admittedly a bit of a retro-fit, but they kind of tie the card together, and focus the eye on the sentiment, so i'm callin' it a win.

i'd also like to join the fun with the simon says stamp monday challenge: halloween 

as well as the paper players' theme challenge #315: halloween

meanwhile, the unicorn challenge blog's current theme of "pretty pinks or halloween" suits me for both options, lol, so woohoo!

please hop over and see the amazing cards from the sisterhood of snarky stampers and link up your own ♥PINK HALLOWEEN♥ card!