Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Desk Time and Balloons

Another Wednesday, another desk, another card.  Yep,  I managed to get some desk time yesterday and you get to see one of my cards along with the "famous" desk blog tour instigated by head desker Julia at the Stamping Ground almost 5 years ago!  Are you ready?  Get your favorite beverage to enjoy as you hop around the world?  Here we go!!


I had just finished making 4 photo cards for Mother's Day and a card shown below.  Therefore my desk isn't too busy. Let's see.... left to right:  paper trimmers & Cricut, stamps, craft mat with cards & black ink pad, acrylic blocks, ATG gun with new package of foam mounting tape.  At top are the shelves full of stuff.  I really need to go through that stuff but no desire to do that yet.  ( The photo cards will be the focus of my post on Friday.)

And along with my desk I have a card that I made to go with the Tuesday Morning Sketch #247.  There's no stamping as the paper collection, Simple Story's "Summer Fresh", has some great stickers that I decided to use.  This card will be for my mom on Mother's Day.


Mom and Dad have been to Albuquerque, NM a couple times to see the Balloon Fest.  I think she will like this.


I added the 3 little red stickers under the text for some bling.  I used my Spellbinders "Beaded Ovals" die for the red gingham piece. I should have had a red layer under the card-sized yellow but I wasn't planning on the red on the balloon and ribbon until they wouldn't stand out enough with just the yellow.  Oh well.

I hope you enjoyed my desk and card and now, after you leave a comment if you so desire, pop on over to the Stamping Ground and Tuesday Morning Sketches to see more! I did get more visiting done last week for the desk blog tour than the week before but today I'll be taking care of mom while dad goes golfing for his birthday.  I'll be taking mom out for lunch then a couple errands but won't have much computer time until Thursday after work.  For those deskers who visit, I will get back to you this week.

P.S. Friday I'll be getting fast internet speeds!  Going from 1.5 Mbps to at least 20!  Amazon Prime Video will work again!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

A Glittery Christmas Card

I know I'm a bit late but it's been a busy past week. I decided to accept the challenge from 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  We had to make a card using glitter.  Well, I'm not a "glittery" person but I had some glitter cardstock and some Stickles so I wanted to do this.


I used some Spellbinders snowflake dies and some A|Muse Studios sequins along with a stamp from an old The Angel Co. set called "Noel Noel".


It was difficult to get a good photo of the glittery snowflakes.  You may have to click on the photo to see them better.


And each sequin has a dot of Frosted Lace Stickes in it.  The Stickles really reflects the color of the sequins!

So now, pop on over to  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown for the challenge! There's a lot of really great cards for inspiration!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Freshly Made Sketch

I had a great Saturday and got 4 cards made!  I already posted 2 and today is the 3rd.  This is my version of the 133rd sketch on Freshly Made Sketches.


The stamped image is from the "Mother's Day" set by CTMH.  Paper is from a pack from The Angel Co (closed) called "Uptown Girl."  The white oval is made with the largest die in my new Elegant Ovals die set by Spellbinders and the small one is from the Labels 3 set.


I get a kick from some of the text stamps in this CTMH set.  The colors of this card is bright enough that I didn't want a lot of embellishments but the 4 rhinestones was just enough.

Pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the fun ideas!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Tuesday Morning Sketch 246

I've had some cool CTMH stamps called Mothers Day for a few weeks and have been playing with them a bit.  I did learn to use Momento ink instead of my Palette Hybrids in order to get a good crisp image.  I also just got in my new Elegant Ovals Spellbinders dies Tuesday and wanted to play with them, too.


This layout is from Tuesday Morning Sketches 246  that was posted last Tuesday.  I colored my ribbons with coordinating Copic markers and used the CTMH paper piecing ruler for the scallops on the ends of the card.  That ruler is pretty cool!


This die needs a bit of shimming and I still didn't get all the itty bitty pieces cut out on the sides. Quite noticeable in the first photo. I'll have to do more playing with these dies to get the right "sandwich" in my Big Shot. I'm still waiting on the Spellbinder's Tool 'n One that's on backorder and not due to ship until sometime next month.

Pop on over to Tuesday Morning and check out the fun inspiration projects and the challengers! And don't be shocked that this is my 2nd post today!  I plan on getting some more cards done today for next week's posts.

My "Van Gogh" Card

I purchased a couple stamps at a recent yard sale and had a few minutes to play.  This stamp was wood mounted and is by Stampourri! dated 2002.  It would NOT give me a good image so I ripped it off the wood and mounted it on cling cushion.  Made all the difference!  It's called Sonoran Nights.


I black embossed on some glossy paper then colored with Copic markers.  The markers streaked heavily but I like the effect! The background paper is by LazerLine and is only available at the AZ Scrapbooking store in Green Valley, AZ as it was made to order.


My close up photo washed out the yellow of the moon and stars along with the green in the cactus, to some degree.  I used my clear Wink of Stella brush on the moon and stars and the effect was very subtle but almost dimensional.  Pretty cool to my way of thinking and a perfect image for southern Arizona.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Flower Punch Board

I've been eyeballing this tool for a couple months in the magazines and on a YouTube and AZ Scrapbooking in Green Valley, AZ finally got it in.  Of course, I got one to play with. (I did purchase it.)


It's called the Flower Punch Board made by We R Memory Keepers.  It comes with a rolling tool and "bone folder" of sorts and they do store in the pockets at the bottom of the board.  I proceeded to try it out yesterday.


These flowers are quite simple but I didn't try dimensional yet as I wanted to be sure I had the hang of it.  Well, piece of cake!  I'm just using some scraps here but the effect is cool. The centers on the flowers are made with punches.  I did not get the stem kit as I didn't see it at the store. I glued my flowers to a 2" circle to hold them together.  I do have some floral wire somewhere but haven't yet decided how I'm going to use these.


This is the "small" flower, 5" across.  The 2 pink ones are "extra extra small" and are 3" across.  I hope to make some more and try some other ideas.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Another Workdesk and A Couple Cards For Mom

It seems I've been on a roller coaster this past 2 weeks dealing with mom's illness and dad's anger over it.  But I did take a few minutes to start on some cards for Mother's Day.  And, you know today is the day I show you my desk along with over a hundred other crafters from all over the world.  Julia, at the Stamping Ground, is the head desker who brought us all together into a giant blog tour!  Check out her blog when you're done here and see all the great desks and fabulous projects.  But here's a look at my desk today.  Not much happening.


I'm giving you a larger picture of my work area and it is a disaster.  But I know where things are!  Let's see, left:  Cricut, paper pile, trimmer, top of small shelf full of almost done projects.  Center: stamps, Scor-Pal under my craft sheet, black ink pad, water sprayer & rag for cleaning stamps, shelf of LOTS of stuff.  Right: OTT lamp overflowing with stuff, large ink rack, ATG tape dispenser, small paper scraps, & baskets of paper scraps.  Quite a mess!  I've cleaned it up a time or two then can't find stuff.  Guess it'll stay like this for now.  And I'll show you a couple cards I managed to complete this weekend.


You can see the stamp set on my desk that I used to make this card.  It's by Close To My Heart called Mother's Day Occasions.  I used some black & white papers and black twine to make this card.  These clear stamps aren't real good about making a dark black image but hopefully with use...


This card was trying a different way of doing a sketch.  It wasn't until I downloaded the picture that I noticed my boo boo.  I had a good laugh but will not try to fix it.  Do you see it?

Ok, now head over to the Stamping Ground and check out the desks.  I didn't get much visiting last week as my brother arrived and we had some good family time and visited doctors to figure out the best way to go with mom's health issues.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Flower Vine

I just got in another new die from Cuttlebug called Flower Vine.  I seen this at the small stamp convention in Tucson, AZ last month and had the store where I teach order it in for me.  It is quite large, 4" x 5 3/4" but it is just gorgeous.  Here's my first card using it....


I lightly chalked the elements of the die using my Basic Brights by Pebbles.  I also added the corners using Cheery Lynn Designs "Lace Corner Deco B" dies.


Here you can see the embossing from the die.  Very detailed.  I also added some clear Wink of Stella to the flower centers but it just doesn't show up. Do you have some ideas about using this die?

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Resurrection Day!

What a glorious day!  Jesus is alive and ruling with the Father in Heaven and His Holy Spirit is with us here on Earth!  What a glorious day!


Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

This morning my husband and I will be attending Sunrise Service and regular Sunday services at Sahaurita First Assembly of God church. We will be celebrating the resurrection of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I hope you have a very wonderful and blessed day and remember, Christ loves us so much that He took our sins upon Himself and died to make us free from Satan's power!  Hallelujah!


Saturday, April 19, 2014

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Sketch Challenge

I had a few minutes today while doing laundry and did a bit of blog surfing of the ones I follow.  I seen this sketch on Christmas Stampin' All Year Long and grabbed my paper by Simple Stories called 25 Days of Christmas and started playing.


There is no stamping on this card as I used the fun paper and calendar sticker from the pack instead.  I did add the sequins I won from Chris with A|Muse Studios to embellish my card.


I highlighted Christmas Day on the calendar with a red sequin and then used green ones for the corners of the numbered paper.  Pop on over there and check out the sketch, the inspiration cards and the challenges!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

You Are Deer To Me

When I attended a scrapping retreat last month, Ken Oliver of Spellbinders had a Make 'N Take for the group.  He was showing many new dies from a new line called "In'spire".  I just had to purchase the "Bird Stand" die and here's my first card.  This is what I envisioned when I purchased it.


I did not add any text to this as I'll do that when I decide how to use this card.   I cut the die 3 times using the tan, green, and red card stocks.  Then I cut each leaf and bird and carefully glued them on.  Very time consuming.  I'll have to think about doing all this cutting again...  Maybe just cut white and color.


Here's a better view.  Thank goodness for tweezers and a Zig glue pen.  And I think my background pattern paper is the perfect match for this die.  What's your thoughts?  This card is my response to the new challenge over at Red Rubber Inspirationals called "Back to Nature".   Head on over there and see the fabulous inspirational projects and get your mojo flowing!  I actually have most of the stamps used by Drea and Paula Kay!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Desks and Kisses

I bet this post title has you wondering.  Well, it is Wednesday.  You know what I do on Wednesdays.  Yep, it deskers day!  And today my brother will be arriving to help make some tough decisions over some family health issues. But I did get a picture of my desk.  And I hope to visit many shortly.  This is all courtesy of head diva desker Julia at the Stamping Ground.


I have been busy cutting 11 sets of 4 cards for a class next Tuesday at my local scrapbook store.  If I had more paper (I used up all the store had of the 2 different sheets) I could have easily sold more.  But here is my container finally filled and mostly ready.  I still have ink pads, acrylic blocks, and scissors (just to the right of the box) to pack but they will go in on Tuesday morning.  And you can see the little scraps of pieces from the papers I cut.


Here's another view of the card kits.  Hard to believe there's 44 card kits in there.  But look at what I got done yesterday .....


The LSS where I teach is having a May Tea on the 10th and I hope to be involved and teach a Make 'N Take of this cute little Hershey Kiss Tea Cup.  I found it on Pinterest at the QBee's Quest blog.


And the top.  I realized that all my photos but this last one that I took to make my own tutorial was on the wrong setting on my camera.  This last photo (there were about 15 taken of the different steps) was a retake.  And, if you noticed, there are 3 kisses in the first photo and only 2 in the second.  Yep, I ate one between the photos.  Yeah, I know, naughty me but I desired some chocolate.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So now, please click on over to the Stamping Ground and check out all the fun desks and cool projects!

Monday, April 14, 2014

A Little Gift Box

I have not been at my craft table much the past few days as my mom has been in the hospital.  We (dad and me) took her in to E.R. last Friday morning and she was diagnosed with a small bowel obstruction.  Anyway, I've been at the hospital all day Friday and a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday.  Well, Sunday things started moving and she may be home today.  But today I needed to get caught up on laundry, prep for a class a week from tomorrow, and other house hold stuff.  I did get a little box made from a Sizzix die I just purchased called "Box w/ Scallop Flap & Flowers".  I purchased it at a huge stamp yard sale Saturday morning on my way to the hospital. I also got the 2 "slightly used" extended cutting pads from Sizzix and 3 stamps.


This is the flap side. (I haven't done anything with the other side yet).  I cut an extra flap from red card stock to cover the flap then added the white scallop edge.  Funny that I ended up covering all that with the flower cut from my Tattered Flowers die.


Here is the box open.  You can see the scallops better and also the velco half dots that I used to hold the flap closed.


As I was playing with the flower I got out my silver Wink of Stella brush to see how it would show up on the red flower petals.  Not bad!  And the large rhinestone was perfect to finish it off.  This little box would hold a couple Ghiradelli chocolates or gift cards easily. I'm debating making this little box a class later this year.  Would be great using Christmas papers.




Saturday, April 12, 2014

2 More Good Ol' Sport Cards

Well, I finally finished my 4th card and all the supply info and directions for my May card class.  I can now just play!  But these cards are still using Graphic 45 "Good Ol' Sport" papers and Bazzill solid card stocks as my previous post.


This is probably the easiest card so it will be "taught" first.  In my classes I usually start with the most simple and work up.  This next card will be the last one taught since there is more pieces to it.


I was going to try to add "Happy Father's Day" or "Thinking of You" but neither that I had to work with would fit in the bottom right spot.  Oh well.  Most of my "students" are older than me and they don't use many Father's or Mother's day cards.  I'm just glad to get these done in time!  I hope to schedule my class for about May 20 or 27th at the AZ Scrapbooking store.

I'm planning on going to Kansas City June 5th for an "The Angel Co. Reunion".  Hubby knew I wanted to go but with my mom's health not good I wasn't planning on it.  He talked me into going.  I'm getting ready to purchase my air fare, already have 2 roommates, and my registration is in the mail.  I do need to come up with a shoebox project that will "fly" as TSA can get rather nasty about certain things.  There are 21 of us getting together so far with spaces for 30.  And hubby is so sweet.... he gave me our state tax refund to pay my way!!!




Thursday, April 10, 2014

A Tuesday Morning Sketch And a Red Rubber Inspirational

I worked yesterday afternoon on getting some card samples done for a proposed May class and hit a wall.  That is, my mojo stopped.  So, I started blurfing (blog surfing) the many great blogs I follow and seen a great sketch by Tuesday Morning Sketches that worked perfectly with the papers I chose to showcase in my class.  This card is my rendition of their sketch #244. This card also works for today's Red Rubber Inspirational #115 masculine challenge!  This is the first time I've been able to use 1 card for 2 challenges!


I'm using new papers from Graphic 45 called Good Ol' Sports.  This is a great line and I think I'll do good with this class.  The stamped image is from a stamp set called Happy Everything by Lawn Fawn. I didn't use a RRD stamp set as, since this card is for a class at AZ Scrapbooking, I had to use stamps the store carries. The twine is from The Twinery.  It's a solid twine and I purchased the solid sampler last year when it first came out.  Great stuff! They now have some cool shimmer twine but I have the stripes and solid sampler sets and I don't need any more right now.


This is another card using a button and twine.  I made the blue layer under the football player wide enough to use my 1" circle punch to create the spot for the button.  I really like the looks of that.  What do you think?  I still have 2 more cards (1 now done) to post with this great set.  I have to have them completed with my supply list and directions ready by Monday for the instructors meeting at AZ Scrapbooking where I teach.

I want to thank all those that popped by yesterday.  I had a record setting day of hits!