wanna play crafty tic-tac-toe with us?

because that's the challenge this week at shopping our stash. just pick any row, column, or diagonal and use all three items in your card or project--easy peasy!

want to know which line i chose?  ALL OF THEM!!! why? because in any given group there always has to be a wise guy, doesn't there? and i can't leave it to leslie EVERY week, lol! :) :) :) 

(vintage: text page from an encyclopedia; patterned paper: making memories, the paper co, hambly; kraft cardstock: hobby lobby; transparency frame: best creations; flowers: prima, doodlebug; black gem flourish (on frame): imaginisce; tibbon: tim holtz, michaels; tag and brad: my mind's eye; border punch: recollections; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

ok, so, i *think* you can see most of the elements, but just in case i will clarify: the sparkle (gem) brad is attaching my sentiment; which along with my card base is kraft. the black damask print paper (& the little border strip) just happened to have some embossing in their patterns; the black and white gingham ribbon is sewn down under my lovely stack of sparkly white and yellow gingham flower(s). and thus all nine elements of our tic-tac-toe board have been incorporated.

one of the things that made ALL of that as easy as pie is that i was, as always, inspired by the lovely laurel seabrook's gorgeous photo challenge for this week (#41) which is totally rockin' the white+neutral+hint-of-yellowish color palette, along with the goth/elegant "grown up halloween" vibe. very me, right?!

in terms of placement, the current unscripted sketch (#179) was tremendously helpful (plus, fun!):

you can see that this is yet another occasion when, by dint of using that fabulous prima blossom, i've got quite a bulky "profile" to my card:

if i were sending this through the post, i'd either slide it into a padded jiffy mailer or enclose it in a roomy gift bag or box with a present; as it happens, this is the birthday card of a friend i shall see in person on friday, so i'll just wrap it in a bit of pretty tissue paper or part of a vintage sewing pattern and tie it with ribbon.

and now i really must insist you pop over to SOS to see the rest of the design team's glorious creations; and be sure grab that tic-tac-toe board so ♥YOU♥ can play along!!!

whaddaya do with "partial" images from the edges of patterned paper?

put 'em on the edge of your card! problem solved. :)

(patterned paper: dear lizzy, amy tangerine, glitz design, echo park; seniment sticker: amy tangerine; pearls and sparkly stars: queen and co; banner rub-on: hambly (how i MISS YOU!!!); twine: the twinery; butterfly punch: martha stewart; paper doily from... the grocery store? agggggges ago; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, scotch gluestick, sewing machine)

because while i'm sure there has to be somebody somewhere who's used a full sheet of adorable dear lizzy mason jars *without* cutting them out... i confess that i just have not happened to see it yet; and i most definitely haven't done it, myself. and yeah, this one was right at the edge of the sheet, but there's still plenty enough of it to use! i love the printed star elements inside the jar, so i added some sparkly dimensional stars to those; and then grabbed some amy tangerine goodness, a doily, some banners, and went from there. my starting point was the gorgeous color palette my lovely blogging friend linda robinson has chosen for this week's city crafter challenge (#129); which was rocked in a big, biiiiig way by ALL of the ladies at CCCB, naturally!

for layout, i grabbed kimber mcgray's blueprint for this week's two peas saturday card sketch challenge; though you can see that i flipped the design horizontally because i happened to use a "left-handed" jar.

i'm sneeeeeeeeeaking in on the very last day of moxie fab world's jars of joy challenge. i don't know if i've used mine in an "innovative" way... but it's pretty cute anyway, i guess.

you know that i am OBSESSED with texture, and this card happens to be a good example of a few really easy ways to add some o'that: first, the mason jar is popped up on a layer of foam tape. i don't mean pop dots, (which i find too thick) i mean the 1/16" thick 3m brand foam mounting tape they sell in rolls at staples, of which i use A LOT; and the reason is, that tiny gap between base and focal point-- and the teeny little shadow it casts-- really makes whatever you use it on literally stand out! then of course things like flat-backed sticky pearls, sparkly star embellies, baker's twine and machine stitching automatically add dimension and interest. but you can get even more texture from flat old paper... just by the way you attach it. if you look at the green bunting, the white scallop border, and the doily under the mason jar, you'll see what i mean: i haven't glued them all the way down, but left the edges just a liiiiiiittle bit loose. don't worry, everything is securely ON THERE; the doily and scallops have layers on top of them, and the bunting's machine stitching turns out to not be only for decoration. ;) 

well, i think that's all for today, except to wish my american friends a very happy columbus day; my canadian friends a wonderful thanksgiving weekend; and to everyone else, ummmmmmmm... well... another monday is at least halfway over-- gotta love that, eh?! ciao, darlings!

i believe in pink ♥

this is one of my all-time favorite audrey hepburn quotes, and i've used it a few times; no doubt i'll use it a few more in future, as well; but somehow, in october, it takes on even more meaning! the photo is one i clipped from a film magazine and have been saving; the size of it is how this became an 8x10 piece of "wall art" instead of a card, lol... i just sort of scaled everything else to match! (b/c yeah, most of the time, that's how scientific my "process" is!) on the plus side, it means i can link up at my lovely friend carla's new challenge blog, anything but a card, where the current brief is shiny, sparkly, blingy; coincidentally, this is also my personal mantra! :)

i formatted the text of the quote in broderbund's printshop and printed it on an inkjet transparency. in retrospect, i really *WISH* i'd used the entire transparency sheet so that the blank edges would've covered the entire top panel. i really should have gone back and re-printed when i realized my mistake, but it was 11pm and i was just ready to wrap it up. ah well. live and learn, eh audrey?!

(patterned paper: echo park, recollections, silver metallic cardstock: the paper company; gem flourishes: want2scrap; ink jet transparency for ink jet printer: 3m; fonts: bohemian typewriter, susie's hand; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick)

i used this week's lovely and dramatic pink-pink-black-white-grey palette from colour q (#157);

it's difficult to tell from my photograph but on my bottom layer of patterned paper the swirls are light pink and not actually white; whereas the ones on the top layer ARE white. i quite like the way they (and my stragetically clipped pink gem flourishes) all flow together.

speaking of things that are fun and pink and can be as blingy (or non-blingy!) as you like, i heartily invite you to pop in at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and celebrate pink christmas with us! stephanie and i are raising money for the komen fund this fortnight; but also, as we move inexorably closer to the holidays, each card you make now is one less to be stressing over in december, right?! (just sayin!) plus the group dynamic really *IS* inspiring... trust me... more IS merrier, darlings! ♥

i'm dreaming of a ♥PINK♥ christmas!

if you were a reader of this blog or of ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ last october, then you probably remember that for our first prompt of breast cancer awareness month we challenged our fellow belles to make PINK christmas cards, and that stephanie and i each donated $1 per linked card to susan g. komen for the cure. we raised $75 for that worthy organization, which was cool, but this year our prompts last twice as long, and we'd like to make AT LEAST twice as much, so we're each putting up $2 per card. i'd really REALLY like to raise some money here, folks, so even if you hate christmas, or pink, or both... maybe you'd think about making a card? pretty please??!

of course it was no problem for me, being a lover of both PINK-- in pretty much any shade-- and of making my holiday cards all year long. there are plenty of holiday lines which feature pink these days, as well, but i mostly used "regular" non-holiday stash, just to show it's really not HARD to pull off! you needn't go ALL pink, you know, you just need to have a little bit, somewhere, on your newly made holiday card to qualify! perhaps predictably, i used quite a bit, and added in some kraft, plus lots of white. i'm pretty pleased with the results:

(patterned paper: studio calico, doodlebug, making memories, creative imaginations, scrapbook wizard, sei, glitz, dcwv; lace paper snowflakes: ki memories, pink doily: crate paper; brad: basic grey; pink gem sentiment: tps studios; fabric tape: love my tapes; embroidery floss: dmc; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i used mojo monday sketch #261, though admittedly, i tweaked it a bit:

the flourishes boutique is hosting timeless tuesday challenge #189: think pink for which one can enter ANY pink card or project; the same is true for cupcake craft challenge #202 and lexi's creations challenge #75; and of course miss patrice's 52-card pickup welcomes ANY card at any time!

i hope you'll check out ALL of those fun challenges, and then hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and help us raise some money!!! ♥♥♥

no more daily paper prompts?!

ok, so on the one hand, i'm very sad that the amazing creative experience of following tammy garcia's brilliant daily paper prompts on the daisy yellow art blog for the last two months is over. on the other hand, i am very proud indeed that i finished the entire thing (ok, granted, i'm a couple of days late) and now have a lovely DPP journal to go with my ICAD journal 

from earlier this summer. 

i have journaled every single day since june 1st!

go, me! 

(and YES, i'm planning to keep it up on my own!!!) 

here's the last group of DPP pages:

DPP#54 and #55: organize ephemera
this excellent idea gave us two days to spend organizing our collection of items saved for journaling. i already have a pretty good system established, but it was over-flowing a bit, and some folders needed to be cleaned out, some needed new hanging files, some got re-labeled, etc; you can see the results, below, of an evening spent in tidying up the drawer i use to store both ephemera (right hand side) and all of my scraps of cardstock and patterned paper (left side).

above, you can see my OTHER favorite way of "cleaning up" all the little bits and bobs that wind up on my worktable or on the little pile that accumulates on our coffee table (i work in the living room in the evenings) i like to just glue as many of them as possible into a quick little random collage; sometimes i like the finished piece, sometimes not (this one is about in the middle) but i absolutely ALWAYS like making one of these more than i would putting away this many teeeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiiiiny scraps!!!

DPP#55: organize ephemera (2 of 2)

DPP#56: playing with paper with diane of crafty pod

you should really click through the link above and see the amazing results of diane's own paper-folding experiements, because they are BEAUTIFUL! mine are much less impressive, but i had a lot of fun mangling lots of tiny paper scraps into a sort of rough flower shape. since i haven't quite mastered the art, mine really REALLY didn't want to lay flat... heck, some of them didn't even want to stay ON... so i sewing-machined them into submission. because when i PLAY with paper, i play to WIN, by golly!!! :)

 DPP#57: one word journal page
for this one tammy challenged us not just to build a page around a single word, but to try PAINTING that word on the page, rather than resorting to markers or stamps; i sort of compromised by painting the word, but then "neatening" the edges with a fat sharpie outline. (all on top of a random collage of vintage crafty bits, with a little stenciling on top!)

DPP#58: observations with leslie herger
i really realllllllly wish i'd watered down the gesso a bit before using it to create a journaling spot on top of my very grand magazine-page tiger. because i think it's just TOO opaque, and i wish more of the stripeyness showed through. ah well. other than that, i quite like this page which illustrates an observation gleaned from a recent thrifting trip.

DPP#59: altered maps
i love maps, as you know; especially vintage ones. and i've been punching circles out of anything that'll stay still all summer. what can i say? it seemed like a natural partnership for this page. the end.

DPP#61: decadent doodling
ok, yeah, technically, this is the LAST prompt, but the nice thing about being a couple of days behind is that i had the luxury of knowing what i wanted to do for my very LAST page, so i made (and am showing them) out of order. this page illustrates my single favorite discovery from the whole discovery-and-epiphany daisy yellow experience: I LIKE DRAWING!!! no, i'm not great at it, and i certainly cannot render anything very realistically or in 3d, but i LIKE it, i find it relaxing, and i have a semi-flair for patterns. go figure!

DPP#60: cut paper typography with katie licht
ok, yeah, so now you can see why i wanted to save this one for last, in order to proclaim my gratitude to tammy garcia for devising and hosting this whole entire astonishingly fun and inspiring lark!  and also to thank all of my fellow journalers and flickr friends for their lovely support, comments, etc; and of course to thank ♥YOU♥ for coming along for the last 122 days!

i am very much hoping that we'll be seeing the return of the index card a day project NEXT summer; and i hope i can convince a bunch of you to come along for that ride, as participants, because i can GUARANTEE you'll be glad you did it!!!
♥♥♥

yes, this is really MY card!

i know, i know, it's quite pared down isn't it? but i needed a somewhat minimalist guy card, for a somewhat minimalist guy, lol! by order of this week's challenge at shopping our stash we are "going green" for which you can either make a card which incorporates a recycled element (mine uses an old army green hanging file-- from which the hanger part had detached itself-- as both its base and the mat layer under the sentiment panel) or features the color green (i think that bit is fairly self-explanatory on my card!) or, of course, you could do BOTH!

(recycled: dark green hanging file folder; patterned paper: basic grey, 7 gypsies, echo park; alphas: making memories fabric letters, woodgrain thickers, jenni bowlin tiny type; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

for my layout, i used this week's retro sketch, and pretty faithfully, at that!

thus i'm linking up with my lovely and uber-creative friends at opus gluei who are feeling a little sketchy this fortnight; and also with patrice's 52-card pick up, at the old back porch!

and now, i hope you will have a little look through your stash... and maybe also your TRASH? and then join us this week at SOS! ♥

sorry to neglect you...

...the weekend totally got away from me! please accept a few gratuitous LOLcats in lieu of anything creatively crafty, and i'll be back tomorrow with my card for the new challenge at shopping our stash!

  

 

hope your weekend was awesome in unexpected ways... or even just in same-ole, same-ole regular ones!!! and now...

HAPPY MONDAY, DARLINGS!

♥♥♥