a very happy♥happy mail day!

so i came home last night from a truly *AWFUL* day at work, and guess what was waiting in my mailbox to cheer me up bigtime??! ok, you'll never guess so i'll just show you... it was this amazing piece of stamped art from my lovely blogging friend mari!!!

i found mari's blog, m'ija stamps when she sent in a card for a caardvarks challenge last spring. i don't think anyone else even got a comment that day because i spent the rest of the morning scrolling ever downwards and drooling over one masterpiece after another! 'cause holy moly m'ija does indeed stamp! and color...and do realllllllllllllly awesome fancy things with ink and glitter and sparkly stuff!!!

there is a description in this post of how she made the amazing card above. i only really understood the beginning part, where the image was stamped and colored with prismacolor pencils...and i assume that at some point there was a magic wand involved...but if you're a TRUE STAMPER you will love the fact that mari shares all of her cool techniques and tricks! even if you're a bit remedial like me, you'll still love that she is fun and funny and mega-talented and leaves really fabulous blog comments! :)

but wait, there was MORE in that envelope! knowing me to be a "technique-free zone" (who nonetheless covets the amazing looks she achieves with her stamply wiles) mari sent me a bunch of "bits and bobs" with which to enhance my own cards!

thank you thank you thank you miss mari, i absolutely ♥ADORE♥ everything (i am hanging maribel on the "treasure wall" above my desk!) and you could not possibly have chosen a better day for morale-boosting purposes!!! ♥♥♥

say it in flowers (& fonts!)

when i found out from my lovely blogging friend jana that this week's theme (#23!) over at opus gluei is "say it in flowers" obviously i was excited...because as you know, the only thing i like more than glitter is flowers! ok, and a nice bit of cake...preferably chocolate. oh yeah, and daniel craig...attired in tiny swim trunks...mmmmmmmm...

oof! lemme start again.

when i found out that this week's challenge was "say it in flowers" of course i was excited...because as you know, the only thing i like on a card more than glitter is flowers! (phew!)

but then, there's no reason i can't have glitter *ON* my flowers, now is there??!

(wooden stamper and font: justrite; glossy black cardstock: ranger; patterned paper: hambly, basic grey, adrienne looman for prima; inks: colorbox; pens: zig & tombow; glitter glue & tiny pink gems: michaels; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

while i was playing, i decided to test drive one of my new stampers: see, the rather lovely people at justrite were gracious enough to let the caardvarks try out some of their awesome products! i chose a very cool christmas stamp ensemble (which i hope to show off later this week.) and also this neat 2 3/8" stamper on which you can place an image in the center and use the included font set to make a custom phrase around the outside! in this case, i only used the phrase part, to go with my flower, but later this week i'll be posting some ideas that use the center's image, as well.

speaking of stamping custom phrases, have you seen justrite's font sets??! it must be said, they are EXTREMELY cool! so cool, in fact, that they will be the stars of their very own mega blog hop later this month. see?

...and yes, before you ask, i will be taking part...because you know how i feel about alphabet stamps!!!

♥ ciao for now, darlings! ♥

whoooooooose birthday?!!

i made my third card for the current CAARDVARKS challenge, appropriately enough from heidi van laar's sketch #3, which is quite awesome, as you can see:


i did rotate the sketch 90-degrees counter-clockwise, but other than that i was 100% faithful to the layout. i used DRS's awesome extended birthday stamp again... (even stamped on patterned paper again!) ...but this time i outlined the letters by hand for a slightly more funky look. i inked up just the word "happy" (protecting the rest of the stamp with a post-it note) and stamped it on some lined paper, then cut the word "birthday" apart so it would fit nicely into the square space in the sketch, and mounted it on foam tape. i used the fun lots of lines background to jazz up a frame for my text block, then decorated around it with a cardstock sticker and some fun bits cut from various patterned papers. et voila:

(rubber stamps: extended birthday and lots of lines background by DRS designs; cardstock: bazzill; patterned paper: iod/prima, my mind's eye, sassafras, we-r-memory keepers; border sticker: sassafras; flowers: prima; pearls: kaiser; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots)

remember you have until midnight on september 14th to make a card using any of heidi's three awesome sketches for a chance to win a lovely prize package from DRS designs! by the way, if you've not been over to the CAARDVARKS blog recently, prepare yourself to be dazzled! our resident computer goddess miss nathalia has completely redesigned the look and reorganized the content, making it easier to use and even prettier to look at--who knew either of those was even *possible* eh? check it out!

helloooooo again, cupcake!

welcome back to the new CAARDVARKS challenge, sponsored by and featuring *fab* rubber stamps from DRS designs! today i've used the second of the three awesome sketches my uber-talented colleague heidi van laar's devised for this challenge:

i wanted to make a fun card for nephew matthew which would coordinate with the minibook i made for his birthday...without being matchy-matchy...so i grabbed up scraps from some of the papers i had originally used, plus a few more that sort of went nicely, and made the central block out of strips. i stamped the birthday greeting on some old basic grey polkadots and cut it out, substituting a strip of dymo labelling for the "happy" to make it show up a bit more prominently. i paper-pieced the cupcake out of more scraps, highlighted the pieces with colored pencils, and popped them up on foam tape for added dimension.

(rubber stamps: extended birthday and cherry top cupcake by DRS designs; patterned paper: kaiser, basic grey,sei, bam pop, imagination project, dcwv, doodlebug, ctmh & corrugated blue paper that was packaging of some kind; diecut journaling box: sassafras; inks: colorbox & staz-on; pencils: prismacolor; other: stars cut from vintage game tokens & dymo labeler; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

yes, i have paper-pieced the cherry top cupcake again. here's a small confession for you: sadly i am *NOT* one of those fabulous artistic colorers who can blend and do shading and come up with utterly professional-looking stamped images. plus, you'll have noticed that i really REALLY like pattern-on-pattern... (my mother is an avid quilter, and though we work in different media, we do tend to approach design in eerily similar ways!) ...so nine times outta ten, if i want a stamp to look rather *FAB* i'll paper-piece it.

as usual, all the info you need to partake of the festivities (and have a shot at a rather cool prize!) can be found on the CAARDVARKS blog, so by all means surf on over there and check it out! if you'd like to see *ALL* the amazing cards made by our crew, check out the special DRS Designs Crew Gallery!

triple-threat sketch challenge!

can you believe it's september already?? holy moly, summer just FLEW by, didn't it?! but it *IS*september...in fact it's the fifth...and you know what that means: time for a brand new CAARDVARKS challenge! this time it's a sketch challenge, for which my wonderful fellow crew-member heidi van laar has devised not one...not *two*...but THREE fabulous sketches from which you can choose to make your card!

we're sponsored by the rather lovely people at DRS designs, who kindly let the design team loose in their online store to choose some of their fab un-mounted stamps. i've been looking for a nice *BIG* happy birthday stamp...and DRS had a grrrrrreeat one: big enough to build a whole card around, or just totally jazz up the inside.

of course you know how i love my texture and pattern stamps, so i selected a cool cross-hatch pattern that can work in pretty much any space, large or small.

finally, a girl cannot have too many cupcakes...in real life OR art supplies...so i could not resist this adorable one! (isn't it cool how all the illustrations on the DRS site show the exact dimensions of each stamp? i found this unbelievably helpful!!!)

for my first card, i've used the first of heidi's three awesome sketches. it looks a bit like this:

i rotated the sketch 90-degrees clockwise, and then somehow it became a bit foreshortened, mostly because both the pink and green panels you see before you were leftovers from other projects...and i decided i reallllllllly liked them together...and they were just not quite big enough to make a taller card. (this card-makin' lark is dead scientific, innit?!) :)

(rubber stamp: cherry top cupcake by DRS designs; patterned paper: sei, prima, basic grey; black glossy cardstock: ranger; bling circle: heidi swapp;diecut journaling flower: urban lily; inks: colorbox & staz-on; pencils: prismacolor; pen: zig;other: manual typewriter; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

the rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory: i've typed on a pre-made journaling card, blinged it up a bit, and assembled all my bits according to the sketch, adding layers of foam tape for the flower and various levels of the cupcake for extra dimension. inking just didn't feel quite right for this card, so as a finishing touch i outlined the panels slightly wonkily with a nice thin zig pen. and that's about it, really.

be sure to check out the design team's gorgeous work, and hit the freshly re-vamped 'varks site for details on how to submit your own creation for a shot at some awesome DRS rubber!

best tag swap *EVER*!

last week i saw miss anna profumo's fabulous tag on her mom, amanda's blog, and of course i left a comment saying how much i liked it. next thing i know, miss anna very kindly offered to send it to me! of course i agreed, on the condition that we could swap. yesterday, this gorgeous envelope turned up in my mailbox:


so already i was smiling, and then i opened it and found said tag, which is EVEN COOLER in person! i also got a pretty card, signed by miss anna:


...oh yeah...did i mention anna is FOUR??!?!? if this is the future of papercrafting, i'm pretty sure we're in reallllllllly good hands! of course anna's got the right genes: her mom, amanda makes lovely things which you can see on her blog, crafty paper girl and also on her website, paper doll stationery. she sent me some of her gorgeous folded notecards, they have my name on and everything!

oh right, seeing as this was a swap, you might want to see the tag i made for anna. since i knew she liked flowers and gems--you know, like i do--i went with a sort of modern princessy theme. 'cause what girl...of any age...doesn't like something fancy that's personalized, eh?!

(patterned paper: dena by creative imaginations; chipboard tag: k&co; chipboard oval: basic grey; chipboard crown: maya road; chipboard letters: targert $ spot; florals & leaves: prima; gems & ribbon: michaels; rub-on: kaiser; flower sequin: queen&co; white paint & glitter coating: folk art; ink: colorbox)

be sure to tune in tomorrow morning for the
brand new caardvarks challenge!

52Q: 35 (goddess)

and now here is one of my very favorite 52Q's ever! in fact it may well be my ABSOLUTE favorite for the entire year, but i s'pose i'll have to wait till december to know for sure. for now, without further ado, may i present...

question 35: what kind of goddess am i?

(materials: indian princess cut from a magazine, bits of a hindi newspaper, making memories journalling card & rub-ons, anahata katkin clipart circle, heidi swapp ghost clock & pink bling circle, prima flowers, autumn leaves brad, colorbox inks,
uhu gluestick, manual typewriter)

answer, "i am the goddess of embellishment: ye shall know my presence by the rhinestones you find under the couch, by the sticker you find days later adhered to the seat of your jeans, by the small metal brad you find with your bare foot, and by the tiny microscopic particles of glitter you find...well...pretty much EVERYWHERE! (sorry about that!)"