hello ST--remember me??!

ok, YEAH, it's been farrrrrrrrrrr too long since i've partaken in the wonderful weekly revels over at sketchy thursdays, but finally here i am and i couldn't be happier. because for one thing this week's sketch (devised & presented by miss heidi) is FAB*U*LOUS, see?!

and thus it was merely the work of moments-- (ok, well, probably 60 of them, lol!) --to make a card i totally LOVE:

(patterned paper: tim holtz, prima, pink paislee, cosmo cricket, basic grey; eiffel tower tag: k&co; floral & chipboard alphas: recollections; leaves, charm and (partial) pearl flourish: prima; rub-on: american crafts; inks: ranger; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i stuck pretty faithfully to the sketch. i swapped the two square photos for one rectangular tag, and i compressed everything a bit, but other than that, it's all there-- well heck, how could i improve it right?!

so if you have a chance between now and wednesday night, why not swing on by the sketchy thursdays blog and test drive this baby? ...you can thank me later... ;)

happy birthday ♥KIRSTY♥!!!

as you may have guessed from the title, it's my dear pixie-in-chief, kirsty vittetoe's birthday today, and the lovely miss ros and the gang at city crafter challenge blog have arranged a little bit of a surprise shindig for her!

so without further ado may i present this card i made as a token of my considerable affection:

yeah, it's pink and it's frilly and it's got a lot of shabby chic style layers, because that's the sorta thing we pixies love!

and now i will once again say,

*HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRSTY!!!*
i hope this is the first day of your very best year yet!
xoxoxo
lauren

JB22: we three kings

happy friday everyone! this week's prompt over at jingle belles, WE THREE KINGS, invites us to use three or more different patterned papers in our design. do i even need to tell you this was right up my street??! more on that in a minute, but first, the really exciting news: we've got a sweet little prize this week for a random card-maker, courtesy of our lovely sponsor NIKKI SIVILS SCRAPBOOKER!

yes, there's a gorgeous nikki sivils 6x6 holiday paper pad and LOADS of awesome stickers, and one lucky cardmaker is going to be randomly selected to win! plus, this week we have very special and very lovely guest star, julie tucker-wolek! so we're reallllllllly excited and we hope you'll head over and say "HI" to her!

ok, so now, my card: you know i ♥LOVE♥ combining loads of patterns, and often use holiday items with regular stash to stretch my crafty budget. i'm pretty excited this time, though, because i think my card might just be a new record for me: i've got SEVENTEEN (17!!!) different papers on this baby! can i get a "WOOHOO"?! :)

here's the reason i was able to pull this off... it just so happens i was cruising the round up of sketches on allison fillo's blog, stampin' when i can, and the very first thing i saw was this week's waltzing mouse sketch, by edna morrisedie:

could there *BE* a more perfect sketch for combining patterns? i think not! i was able to use mostly scraps, as well, which is always a good thing, right?! here's my card:

(patterned papers: basic grey, sweetwater, daisy d's, anna griffin, dcwv, k&co, love elsie, we r memory keepers, making memories, cosmo cricket, creative imaginations, doodlebug; cardstock sentiment sticker: little yellow bicycle; holly sticker & ribbon: michaels; ink: colorbox)

ok, so you will probably *NOT* combine 17 different papers to make your card... or heck, maybe you will! maybe you'll beat my record and use 18?! but you only need THREE to play along with us, so head on over to JINGLE BELLES and check it out before 6pm next wednesday, june 1st! ♥

if blogger's being run by CATS...

...it essplains *EVERYTHING*!!!

i don't know if you're having the same problem, but over the last few days i have intermittently been unable to leave comments on blogger posts with word verification. what happens is: i type my comment, the form insists i need to SIGN IN (even though i know i've already done so b/c i've edited m'blog!) but i sign in again, (successfully, they assure me!) and go back to the comment, and AGAIN it asks me to sign in!!!

duuuuuuuude! how SIGNED in do you want me to be??!?!

once again i reiterate my appreciation of, and respect for, blogger. it's FREE for pete's sake!!! it gets more features every year... and STAYS free! it almost always works so seamlessly that i take it for granted. obviously, it's the height of bad manners to criticize a *gift*, but then something as goofy as this happens, and after a couple of days, i get frustrated, and start to whine. things we can learn from this post:

1. lauren is as spoiled as any other 21st century american, which is saying something!

2. it is wise not to leave things until the last minute, to back up one's posts and ideas, and have a "plan b" for when technical issues happen.

3. word verification is occasionally more trouble than it's worth.

4. the LOLcats can provide one with an illustration to cover pretty much ANY situation! :)

...so... it's not ALL bad news then, eh?!

♥happy thursday, darlings♥!

flowery ring-bound pixie notebook

today's project, made from this month's pixie dust paperie kit, LA DOLCE VITA is a pretty fancy little notebook i made from scratch!

i love how it looks... well heck, it's covered in sassafras "sweetly smitten" goodness, so how could i go wrong??! as for the experience of building a little book from the ground up using a tim holtz ring binder mechanism, i'd have to say my bottom line is: it was not realllllllly worth the time and engineering involved. i think i'd've saved a lot of time by starting with an ugly little blank book from the dollar store, actually, and just making cosmetic changes; and henceforth that is what i'll do! but i'm happy to have *TRIED* it once, and can now file it under "lessons learned"! :)

there's more detail and loads of photos on the pixie blog, so do feel free to hop over and see 'em! ♥

ETA tuesday morning: sorry, folks, this is embarrassing; the lovely notebook you see above is actually the featured post at PDP *tomorrow* wednesday, may 25th! i got myself a little muddled there, sorry for the confusion!!! do stop over today and see kirsty's fab card, however; and then mine is on in the morning!

a SUPER-easy card!

sometimes it's all about letting the PRODUCT do the work. case in point this "my mind's eye" paper with the stars on it?

all that thing needs is some SUPERHEROES to stand in front of the stars, lookin' super and heroic, dontcha think?

(superhero photo downloaded from t'internet and printed on staples plain white cardstock for a "comic book" look; patterned paper: mme, cosmo cricket; glitter paper: dcwv & best creations; star dies: nestabilities; alphabet stickers: american crafts; labels: dymo; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

yeah. a bit like that! wow. that was easy. anybody got a a dragon that needs slaying, or perhaps a metropolis that needs to be freed from a ruthless (but for some reason jauntily *costumed*) crime syndicate?

...'cause i've got a bit of free time now... :)

pixie dust sketch challenge!

our dear pixie-in-chief, kirsty vittetoe, has become quite the dab hand at creating fabulous papercrafting sketches for us to try out at pixie dust paperie, and here is her latest effort:

awesome, am i right? i love that it has loads of detail to get me started, but it's still totally flexible. so helpful, in fact, that it inspired one of the fastest cards i've ever made!!!

(patterned paper: tim holtz, prima; florals: recollections; diecuts: k&co; cardstock sticker: sass; rub-ons: ki + american crafts; pearls: prima; seam binding: pixie dust paperie; pen: copic outliner; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, glue dots)

i am LOVING kraft as a background right now, and my tim holtz paper pad is officially an indispensible "go to" for card bases. the scalloppy sticker was leftover from the giant 12x12 sheet of sassafras that was in this month's LA DOLCE VITA kit, the seambinding is from the same source. the frame, tag and butterfly are all from a pack of diecuts i bought at michaels like a year ago; i still have plenty left, and i still ♥LOVE♥ them! and of course once i had assembled the "bones" of the sketch, it only needed a few finishing touches: a couple of florals, some tiny rub-ons, part of a pearl flourish, etc; and i was DONE!

if you don't believe me, have your own go with this lovely sketch, i BET you will have something awesome finished in no time! and then c'mon over to the pixie blog and share it with us for a shot at the prize!!! :)