who are you and what have you done with lauren?

it's a really fun challenge this week at shopping our stash, it's called "OPPOSITE DAY" and we want to see you try something that is the opposite of your usual style. for example, if you're a CAS kind of girl, try using a few different patterned papers... together! on the other hand, if you're the queen of collage layers and embellishments, why not attempt something a bit minmalist? will you be out of your comfort zone? yeah, maybe, but one of the great things about playing along with challenges is that they are meant to challenge us! (hence the name, lol.) in my case, i ♥LOVE♥ seeing other people do super-pared down, minimalist designs; but i find those to be realllllllllllly hard. so obviously i had to take a shot at it:

you can see i've made giftbags, for my lovely young friends carlos and isabel. they are brother and sister, both have birthdays in april, and i generally give them their presents together, so i really like their gifts to look quite obviously equal, but still personal. i saw these cool stamped burlap bags online a few months ago, and loved the fact that they had big bold letters, but running sideways. i didn't have enough huge stickers to spell both names, so i did what i usually do in these cases: format the text in a font i like... (this is impact) at the correct size... (about 2-2.5" in height) and then use a print out of the names to use as a template. yes, it takes a bit of extra time and effort to hand-cut them, so if you have an electronic diecutter, just feed it your choice of paper and have it do the work.

i knew right away that i wanted to use pages from a fun fractal calendar i've been hoarding; my friend emma creates these for her mom's birthday each year and i am lucky enough to be given the past years when they are finished... and permission to cut them up (because yes OF COURSE i ask first!!!) i figured the bold colors and intricate designs would make AWESOME patterned paper; plus they're printed on heavy, glossy cardstock that is perfect for something like this.

the other SOS gals have been stretching out of their comfort zones, as well, with amazing results; you should go and see those right now! ♥

missus miscellaneous

it was a somewhat uneventful week in these parts, but in a good way. is it a sign that one is officially middle-aged, when the prospect of life being "dull" for a bit seems rather wonderful? yeah, probably; but hey, i'll take it! :) meanwhile, i did do a bit of art journaling and sketchbook experimentation, so for the first time ever i'm linking up to the current "art journal every day" feature on julie balzer's blog.

i'm still pretty hooked on stencils, modelling paste and doodling vaguely indian-ish flowers and mandalas, as you can see from the page above. on the other hand, collage will probably always be my favorite technique, especially when i can work in lots of vintage paper. the page below is the first time i've tried adding some maud-vantours-inspired paper folds into a collage, rather than a card. i'm fairly sure it will not be the last time, though.* :)

meanwhile, in my practice sketchbook, there are lots of random combinations of lettering styles, sketches of fabric patterns i like...

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...ideas for christmas cards... illustrations of random facts i saw on television...

...and, for reasons i cannot possibly explain (or understand, for that matter, lol!) a VW microbus, parked under some palms!

meanwhile i wish you a happy and creative sunday evening, as well as a week that is "dull" in the best possible way! ♥♥♥

*apologies if you've already seen this one-- and the microbus that's furth down-- on my instagram account!  :)

there is sketchy goodness...

...at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight, courtesy of our awesome resident sketch-maker, miss stephanie:

pretty fab, right? you could basically take that thing ANYWHERE! at the moment, as you may know, i'm pretty addicted to water color paints and hand lettering, so i thought i'd try to incorporate a bit into my card:

watercolor paper: strathmore; paints: artist's loft; pen: faber castell pitt w/XS tip plus a grey tombow for shadow; patterned paper: echo park, dcwv; scalloppy ribbon/trim stuff: my mind's eye; white glossy cardstock: paper accents; glitter from michaels attached with the BEST GLUE PEN EVER, that elisabeth from paper anthology recommended and she was soooooo RIGHT: sakura quickie glue pen; ink: ranger archival; other adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

the nice thing... or at least, one of the nice things... about a sketch with segments is that you can put something different into each; thus i was able to work the sentiment on a separate piece of watercolor paper just in case it didn't come out well on the first try. i also had fun painting a bunch of multi-colored holly leaves using a cool "wet into wet" method i saw on a blog somewhere (which, alas, i cannot find now, sorry) where you paint the shape with clear water and then add brushfuls of a few different shades of green and let them mix, randomly. in the midst of fussy-cutting those (especially the tiny flippin' BERRIES!!!) i was wishing pretty strongly i had just drawn a circle like the sketch has and put the leaves INSIDE it... but i do like the texture and dimension the cut-out leaves give the panel, so it was worth it in the end.

well i think i'll stop typing now, so you'll have time to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see stephanie's beautiful card! ciao, darlings!

SOS198: texture me!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is technique-based: we want you to use your oldest embossing supply, whether that's a folder, powder, or even kickin' it old school with a stylus and brass template. sound like fun? awesome-- go grab your supplies! meanwhile, i'll show off my card:
 

(scraps of) patterned paper: teresa collins, doodlebug, sei, basic grey; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; pale pink cardstock with a darker pink inside: core'dinations; swirly cling stamps (that actually don't cling very well anymore so i just used them loose... which turns out to be harder than it seems like it would be...): rhonna farrer/autumn leaves; white embossing powder: personal stamp exchange; embossing folder: cuttlebug; ink for edges: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i may have semi-cheated, because my first embossing supplies consisted of the original psx blue-ish/clear embossing ink and gold powder, both of which got used up quite some time ago. like seriously, during the clinton administration*. so in the spirit of the challenge i used the closest thing i still have: a versamark pad and some ancient psx white to emboss the swirls i stamped as cupcake icing. to hedge my bets, i also used my very first embossing folder, which-- coincidentally-- also has swirls; i embossed a scrap of core'dinations cardstock so that when i sanded it the texture would show up even more. paper-wise i'm all scraps here, and some of those are impressively elderly; the only full sheet i cut into was the white glossy cardstock i used for my card base. so i feel like i'm pretty firmly on the moral high ground of meritorious stash-usage. which is always nice, right? :)

i started out using the current (#121) cardabilities sketch and intended to load up on flowers and other girly embellishments, but somehow nothing really looked quite right on top of all those awesome swirls. so eventually i gave up and just stretched the basic shapes of the sketch, which is quite lovely:

speaking of lovely things, each and every one of my SOS design team sisters has a glorious card to show you, why not go and see those right now? ciao, darlings! ♥

*holy carp, you guys, i just did the math: that was TWENTY YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!!! how is that even possible??! i think i just freaked myself out a little bit. sorry, nevermind, let's go back and look at the cute card again, k?

now i understand...

...why people who work in mixed media journals have a few different ones going simultaneously; because if you don't, you spend waaaaaaaaay too much time waiting for stuff to dry! and patience is not really my strongest point.* right now, i'm in the middle of three books that i expect to be ongoing for at least the whole summer, so i figured i'd show you a page or two. some are finished, some are in progress, some are just practice pages that are as done as they're going to be. i told you about the journals linda brun made for sandi t and myself, and i've posted some pics on my instagram account but here's a page i finished last night. and yeah, i'm still pretty obsessed with hand lettering! :)

the other BIG project i'm super-excited about is my book for the sketchbook project. participants can choose from the official 2016 themes, or just wing it. i've chosen "distance and time" and i *think* it's going to be mostly about hawaii, but in a sort of abstract visual way, rather than a traditional travel journal. at least that's how i feel right now. i've only done a few pages so far; partially because i'm slightly struggling with the paper, which is very thin and does not love wet media. at all. i now understand why previous participants have talked about reinforcing or replacing the pages in their "official" sketchbook. haven't quite decided what i will do, but meanwhile, i've got collagey goodness:

and zentangly/mandala sketchy type things that i loved until i colored them in, and now... not so much... ah, well:

the third book is my everyday working/practicing sketchbook. one of my goals for this year is to draw more, so i try to make sure this book and my basic drawing tools are nearby so that i can mess around and try out different ideas, usually at the end of the evening. there aren't any finished pages, just lots of random patterns, little sketches, color combos, etc. i used to do this sort of thing on scrap paper, but it's kind of cool to see the progress you make; also i use it to remind myself of ideas i want to fiddle around with later. so there are a lot of pages that look like this:

today i'm headed up to paper anthology to teach the last class of my "scraptastic" cards, which is about as much fun as a papercrafter can have. i hope you are finding time to do something you ♥LOVE♥ today, darlings!

*if you are related or married to me you may have to pause here for 10-15 minutes in order to recover from a debilitating bout of hysterical snorty laughter. it's ok. join us when you're ready.

the bad news is we're out of band aids...

...the good news is i recycled the box to make some pretty washi flowers for this week's ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ card in celebration of earth day. want to see?

recycled elements: band aid box used as a base for the poinsettias, red heart earring used in place of a brad; patterned paper: echo park, my mind's eye, studio calico; journal card: echo park; poinsettia die: bosskut; washi tapes: october afternoon, my mind's eye, recollections, heidi swapp, martha stewart, love my tapes; ink: colorbox; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i covered the inside of the flattened box-- which is nice thin white chipboard-- with strips of all my pretty red washi tapes, then used my bosskut poinsettia die:

i've also up-cycled a garage-sale earring, to use in place of a brad; jeff bent the back over for me, so it would hold the flower together:

i used the sketch and flowery elements of kirsty vittetoe's awesome card, the CASE-ing of which is this week's challenge at city crafter:

this is a pretty restrained card, for me, but i love the bright colors and i'm pretty excited to have at least one greeting which will be mail-able with just *one* postage stamp, lol!

meanwhile, stephanie has also made another lovely card for your inspiration, why not jump on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see that right now?!

SOS197: lost and found

can you guess what we want to see for this week's challenge at shopping our stash? it's called "lost and found" which should give you a pretty big hint: we're looking for creations that feature something you lost track of for a bit... whether it was actually lost, or perhaps you just forgot about it? i've got a bit of each on my tag, which i'll esplain in a minute.

ok, i realize as i start typing this, there really aren't any official papercrafting products in this one, unless you count the (admittedly awesome) dymo label sentiment, the tiny mrs. grossman's heart sticker, and the basic grey patterned paper i used as background for the photo. lots of vintage and thrifting goodies tho: sheet music and chinese text from two seriously elderly falling-apart volumes found at book sales; little buildings cut from a new york tourist brochure; a real (tho expired, obviously) metrocard and o'course my "FOUND" items: plastic slide mount of which i have nearly an entire box (yahoo!) and that funny little heart pin (jeff ripped the back off it for me) which was in a box of treasure i'd started to think got lost or donated when we moved! oh yeah and a fab tag from amy tsuruta, who rocks, as i'm sure you already know! ♥

the thing i thought i'd lost is the little blue plastic heart pin; but actually i thought i'd lost my whole entire tin of little pins acquired at various garage sales over the years. worse yet, i knew that was in the same box as my buckle collection, a bunch of game pieces and cards, lots of weird funky earrings and other dimensional "treasures" i haven't seen since we've moved. i'd love to say i suddenly found it now because i've been doing a major organizing project in the basement, but in fact, it was a fluke discovered whilst looking for something else entirely for lovely husband jeff! the thing i'd forgotten i owned was the cool half full box of plastic slide mounts i got at goodwill, i think, quite some time ago. those guys turned up while linda was here, and we had fun playing with them.

the layout of my tag is based on miss leslie's latest crooked stamper sketch challenge (CSSC #2 to be precise); though admittedly i've done a pretty a loose take on that fab sketch:

i've been doing a lot of mixed media backgrounds lately, so it felt really cool to be making an old school collage this time. oof i nearly forgot to mention my favorite bit of this, which is the tiny picture of the queensboro bridge-- it's from an illustrated children's encyclopedia-- which is the absolute perfect size for the slide mount. even more exciting is the fact that the book in question has LOTS of illustrations about this size, so yeah, you'll be seeing this trick again for sure! :)

the other sos designers have been busy finding treasures, too-- you really need to hop on over and see the fabulous things they've made! ♥