sketchy thursday, on wednesday, like always

*SOMEDAY* i will turn one of these in with more than a 12-hour window left 'til the deadline... and that is how you'll know i've been replaced by a realistic (but crafty) android! please alert the authorities! :)

in the meantime, here is the sketch, which rocks, naturally:

oof and btw, i should mention that last week's awesome and minimalist sketch (which i so ruthlessly maximalized) was conceived by the brilliant miss heidi and not the lovely miss diana like i told you. i apologize for the error, but since both ladies are equally ♥FAB♥ and also co-founders of the very cool sketchy thursday challenge site, i hope they will not mind too much!

oh yeah and in addition to the ST sketch, i used this week's rather dishy color palette of bright yellow, kraft and white from design dollies...that miss leah can sure rock the neutrals, no?!

and now, finally, here is the card in question:

(patterned paper & chipboard corner: basic grey; black cardstock: core'dinations; glossy white cardstock: ranger; vintage: sheet music, butterfly illustration & lace; perfume label sticker: laughing elephant; eiffel tower rub-on: tulip; diamond border sticker: heidi swapp; flowers: prima; rhinestones: kaiser; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

♥

happy

wednesday,

darlings!

♥

heart the art: week 32 (tell yourself)

for this week's HEART the ART prompt, gina has invited us to tell ourselves something...an affirmation, a wake up call, whatever...as she puts it, "a message from you to you"! i decided to give myself a bit of much needed advice:

(monsta stamps: tyggereye art; patterned paper: prima, my mind's eye, love elsie, scenic route, basic grey + vintage map & vintage ledger paper; chipboard letters: heidi swapp; alphabet rub-ons: making memories; palm tree sticker: frances meyer; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

as i've mentioned before, i am a figure of some repute amongst worriers. it is (i feel) my worst (but far from ONLY) fault. i come by it honestly: my mom is a worrier, my aunt is a worrier, my sister is a worrier; it's what we do. i'd like it to be something i do A LOT LESS. i'm workin' on it. as you can see, in this endeavor, mick-n-keef* are here for me. thanks, lads! ♥


*the one-of-a-kind monsta stamps gina carved for me last year. you cannot buy them, but she has lots of other awesome stamps in her etsy, and yeah...she takes custom orders! :)

goooooood eeeeeeeveniiiiing

i am nosferatu, king of the vampires, minion of evil! i have come for your soul... you are powerless to resist... i am invincible!!!

hey! what the heck is *THAT*?!?!??!


rats. nevermind. as you were.


the end
~♥~



note: no amigurumi vampires were harmed in the making of this blog-post, and afterwards we all enjoyed a nice shrimp scampi.

another note: if you've guessed that this is my latest ami from the creepy cute crochet book, take two pints of O-negative from petty cash!

the sketch is IN THERE, honestly!!!

ETA sunday night: HOLY WOW! i am beyond thrilled and beyond proud to have been chosen by kazan and the 2S4Y team as card of the week, especially as it's a card that i had such a wonderful time making! thank you!!!!!

kazan's #58, i mean, from 2sketches4you:

i mention this because i've done a kind of funky and really reallllllllllllllly (really REALLLLY!) embellished version of the sketch, but it IS there; i've even had this confirmed by an independent observer! (ok, well, it was lovely husband jeff, but that still counts, doesn't it?!) right, here's the card:

(patterned paper (almost entirely scraps--wahey!): k&co, basic grey, creative imaginations, making memories, doodlebug, rouge de garance, prima, scrapbook wizard; transparency: hambly; princess bling & castle epoxy: mambi; stickers: sandylion, susan branch, oriental trading, sei, k&co, recollections, paperchase +tiiiiiiny nail art stickers from kmart(!); rub-ons: fancy pants; stickpins: joann essentials & making memories; misc chipboard & cardstock diecuts: basic grey, gin-x, sassafras, oriental trading; leaves: prima, brads: making memories & doodlebug; butterfly punch: martha stewart; pom pom trim and flowers cut from woven ribbon, both from a fabric store; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

is it a bad sign when one's product list is longer than the whole rest of the blog post??! ok, yeah, there is A LOT of stuff on here, but weirdly enough, this was a really economical card because almost everything that is on here is a) TINY and b) a scrap or a leftover...the last brad in the packet, a couple of stickers that didn't get used & i would've thrown out, loads and loads of tiny offcuts of pink paper used in other projects (from which i punched all those butterflies) etc, etc; the only thing i "cut into" freshly here was an 8x8 piece of patterned paper and a 12x18 piece of plain old white cardstock!

ps: my favorite part of this is the butterfly banner which i lifted wholesale from this post of heidi swapp's (i love her!) ok, hers are circles and triangles and little pennant shapes, but the idea of using the sewing machine to freehand sew them as garland and then attach THAT to the main piece is utter genius and i am going to use it A LOT more, so i hope ya like it!!! ♥

tomorrow's post, tonight...

...because i am not exactly sure what the deadline for cardabilities #8 is...and the sketch is a corker, see?

so i wanted to be sure to get my card in under the deadline!

(monstas cut from paperchase giftwrap; patterned paper: dcwv, sassafras, christina cole, basic grey; journaling card adrienne looman for prima; acryllic stars: heidi swapp; velvet rick-rack: basic grey; ink: stewart superior; labels: dymo; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i've done round cards before, and i've done groups of monstas before; i've even done this sentiment before...but somehow, putting them all together (via said fab sketch!) makes all three concepts look new... and kinda cool! dontcha just ♥love it♥ when that happens?!

i was going for "clean and simple"

so obviously this week's scheme by diana over at sketchy thursdays was just the ticket:

of course it is possible that brilliantly clean and graphic sketch notwithstanding, i may have overshot the mark just slightly:

(patterned paper: creative imaginations & sei + handmade paper from pearl paint; letters: american crafts; epoxy heart stickers: sticko & recollections; crown chipboard: maya road; crystal frame: prima; ink: prima; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

in retrospect, i suppose a highly ornate curlicued frame made entirely of rhinestones (yeah, i know, they look DARK--but they're clear crystals) doesn't exactly scream "minimalist" does it? hmmmmm. i should probably make a note of that. :)

admittedly, it's not what i was going for, but i kind of like it...and i think we can be fairly certain that the recipient will not get *TWO* of these babies, eh?! ♥♥♥

city crafter guest designer--♥YUM!♥

i am very honored to have been asked to be guest designer for week 16 on the city crafter challenge blog, particularly since this week it is my very lovely and always inspiring friend cheryl nelson's turn to act as hostess! cheryl's theme is ♥YUM♥ and the only requirement is that your project be in some way food related--you can use food images, or food-related items... (an apron, recipe card, kitchen utencils, etc) ...there's a lot of room here, so feel free to go wild in any direction you like! :)

this week's sponsor is digital delights, who are offering a $10 prize voucher to the winning entry! the design team was given a selection of adorable digital delights digi-stamps with which to work, but like all ice cream cones everywhere, this one was really calling my name!

i couldn't decide whether to go all techy with my project, or get seriously hands-on and traditional. 'cause that's the best part about digi-stuffs, isn't it? you have so much *CHOICE*! finally i decided to make something with each mindset, to show how flexible these babies are!

first i went entirely computery:

ok, not to be braggy, but how cool is custom-made, one-of-a-kind giftwrap??! and it was EASY AS PIE...or, in this case, ice cream!

first i opened the uncolored ice cream cone image in photoshop and used the paint bucket tool to color the cone and the swirls of soft serve. after i saved each color of image (so i can use them later, for something else!) i went into broderbund printshop and opened a blank 8.5 x 11" page, and placed my brightly colored ice cream cones all over it. i flipped some of the images, and rotated others, to get a nice "random" placement of images. i even let some of the cones dangle off the edge of the digi-canvas, the way they do on "real" giftwrap. when i was happy with my design, i just printed it out; then all i needed was a little bit of tulle (embellished with tiny epoxy hearts from my stash) and one cut-out cone as decoration...et voila! my favorite part of this is that by saving the file i can print out as many of these as i want; plus it'd be really simple to add a child's name, or the occasion (wouldn't this be great for birthday party "goodie" bags?!) to make it even more personal!

on the other hand, sometimes you just want all the fun of touching and cutting and pasting REAL PAPER, dontcha? so for my second project i went hard-core old skool:

yep, it's still the same image, but the vibe couldn't be more different, could it? again, the great thing about digi is the convenience and choice...but you don't always have to use it in a super high-tech way. for this one, i merely printed the blank cone, cut it out, and used it as a template to paper-piece in the traditional way, which i then embellished with lots of hand- and machine-stitching to add loads of texture. of course, you can do that with rubber or stencils, too; but what's nice about these digi-stamps is, you can make anything from nice BIG birthday cards (this one's 5 x 8.5) to tiny inchies...using just one stamp! gotta love that, right?! :)

many thanks to cheryl and kirsty for this awesome opportunity. the ♥YUM♥ challenge will run until 11:59pm EST, next monday, august 9th; be sure to check out the city crafter blog to see all the fabulous designer projects, and i do hope lots of you will play along with this super-fun challenge! ♥

(~materials for giftwrap~ ice cream cone digi-stamp from digital delights by loubyloo; plain inkjet paper from staples; tulle & epoxy heart stickers from michaels; made using adobe photoshop & broderbund printshop software; ~materials for paper-pieced card~ ice cream cone digi-stamp from digital delights by loubyloo; patterned paper: making memories, laura ashley, scrapbook wizard, bo bunny, doodlebug; glossy white cardstock: ranger; purple & tan cardstock: core'dinations; stick pins: joann essentials (re-colored with a sharpie pen!); ribbon: making memories; embroidery floss: dmc; other: sewing machine; adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)