Welcome Home

My best friend is moving and I thought I would make her a card to make her feel more at home in her new place.  Since I wanted to play along with the Sugar Babies, I whipped out the next Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge:



Isn't this a fabulous sketch? Either the Sugar Babies have trained me well, or this one does not seem as intimidating. 


Stamps: Wonderfully Whimsical (Papertrey Ink), Asian Gardens Addition (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Key Ingredient Kit - Winnie's Walls (Taylored Expressions), Basic Card Stock - Cream (Recollections), Basic Card Stock: Christmas Collection - Red (Recollections)
Ink: Earth Elements - Close to Cocoa (Stamping Up!), Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox)
Embellishments: Rhinestones (Best Occasions), Ribbon Value Pack - Lime Green (Target), Nestabilities - Classic Small Ovals (Spellbinders), Nestabilities - Classic Scallop Ovals (Spellbinders), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC924 Crimson Red, PC946 Dark Brown, PC1005 Limepeel (Prismacolor), Double-ended Art Markers - Goldenrod (Prismacolor)

I had this inspiration to make the background of the panel look bland & dreary, and the house pop with color. However, I didn't want to make it black & white, and resorted with brown & white. The edge of the oval is also pencilled in with brown to give it a little "old" vintage feeling, although the aim was still to go with fresh colors. 



Since I did not have a "Welcome Home" and the rest of the sentiments were too small on the "Wonderfully Whimsically" set to make a large label, I decided to make my own "Welcome Home" sentiment by combining sentiments off different sets. A quick run over the rhinestones with a yellow Prisma marker (shh - don't tell, but I didn't have a lime green marker to fit, but one can't really tell), and I declared it done. Now - here is hoping that she will like her new "Dr. Seuss" house.

What would your ideal Dr. Seuss house look like? What crazy color combos would you want?

Birthday, Boys & Race Cars

The next Embellish challenge has beautiful scenery photographed from Spain. Hop over quickly to Tina's blog to read the beautiful prose that accompanies the poster. Isn't that one of the most detailed and beautiful descriptions? Who wants to book the next plane to Spain?! Well, while reality sets in, I'll just admire the poster:

One of my guy friends needed a card for his brother's birthday, and I remembered something about "Cars are good." So out came my trusty Free Spirit - Boy stamp set. If every stamp set I owned had a [$-paid / # of uses] ratio, this stamp set is quickly approaching the limit of $0 ;) Yes - that's just a really dorky way of saying that these stamps have been well-loved and are my go-to stamps (especially when it comes to boys!). I must forewarn, that this card came out in a style very different for me. I have not decided if I like this kind of "grudgy" look.

Stamps: Free Spirit - Boy (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Free Spirit - Sentiments (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (Stamping Up!), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Hawaiian Shore (Papertrey Ink), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)

Embellishments: Special Value Ric Rac Ribbon - Pink (Michaels), Stamp N Stuff Embossing Powder - Detail Clear (Stampendous!), Brown - Art No. 88/45 (Stabilo)

Yes - the deets list says Pink Ric-Rac. I had that or blue, but not in any of the challenge colors. So I took my trusty ink pad and just re-furbished it to a nice solid shade of brown.



I had massive fun dabbing ink and getting my fingers all messy, but again, not certain on the style. It feels like I went out to get my belly button or nose pierced ;)

So, I guess I'm soliciting feedback! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think ...

A Wheelbarrow Full of "Hi"

Guess what time it is? Yep - Another installment of the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge! If you have seen the inspiration from the WMS DT team, there was a theme for their WMSC #7 inspirations. I was stalking the WMS DT's sites regularly, since Claire mentioned something about an early August release - and Oh boy are they talented! Let's just say that they did such a fabulous job, I'm tapping my foot impatiently for my sets to arrive. ;) Anyways, we were talking about a sketch, so here is this week's challenge:

Looks harmless, right? Actually, I started with one idea, scrapped that after I realized my "square" was too large for my card. Started a second idea, only to scrap that because I didn't like it. In the end, I was determined to use up my pattern paper stack, and carved viciously at my Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Pack, until this happened:


Stamps: Can Ya Dig it? (My Favorite Things), Rescue Remedies (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Victorian Fripperie (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Basic Card Stock - Creme (Recollections), Earth Love (Cosmo Cricket), Textured Card Stock - Grey (?)

Ink: Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink), Momento - Summery Sky (Tsukineko), Brilliance - Pearlescent Orange (Tsukineko), Earth Elements - Summer Sun (Stamping Up!), Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox)

Embellishments: Nestabilities - Labels One (Spellbinders), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC946 Dark Brown (Prismacolor)

After all the false starts, I was flipping through the Cosmo paper pad, to realize that those flowers kept re-occuring in the Earth Love line. I wanted to mimic the colors and the flowers, but just make them bolder. And, using my "must ink up new sets" policy, the little round sand dollars in the Rescue Remedies came in handy. Aren't the stamped flowers a little similar to the Cosmo paper? You don't have to answer ;)


On a more serious note to my fellow crafters, what get's you going at the craft table? When all fails, where to draw your inspiration from?

Birthday Wishes with Tea Bag Tag

Note: If you are looking for the Scrap Our Stash - Christmas in July Blog Hop, please see this post. The blog hop is open until Sunday July 26, 21:00 Eastern Time, and prizes are at stake!

My mom requested a birthday card to be sent for a friend's special birthday. So, I whipped out the next Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge. I was determined to figure something out, since this sketch had a twist: add a tag.

I was smitten by my Waltzingmouse Afternoon Tea stamps when I inked them up for the first time, that I made a mental note to ink 'em up as soon as I could. 


Stamps: Afternoon Tea (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Key Ingredient Kit - Petals & Paisley (Taylored Expressions), Basic Card Stock - Cream (Recollections)
Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (Stamping Up!), Brilliance - Pearlescent Beige(Tsukineko), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)
Embellishments: Special Value Ribbon - Orange (Michaels), Nestabilities - Labels Four (Spellbinders)

The first part was to brainstorm up a concept for my label. I am partial to my Label Four nesties and was toying with the idea of using the WMS Afternoon Tea stamp set. The cute cups 'o tea immediately jumped into my eye and I pictured my mom and her friend sharing a cup of coffee, tea or cocoa. That image conveyed an "intimate friendship" and that is what I wanted to capture with the two cups.

The one technique I tried was "stamp kissing" my WMS Very Vintage Label No. 1 polka dot frame onto the tea cups to give them more texture. I also "vintaged" up my label by dabbing them with some Brilliance Beige ink.

At this point I remembered having some Tazo teabags in my tea stash, and ran off to see what flavors I had left: green tea, orange pekoe, and earl grey. They were each wrapped in a distinct colored wrapper. I decided I liked the Orange Pekoe the best and ended up attaching the label to the tea bag.

This is when a pull out tea bag came into fruition. Color scheme and pattern paper all came together and viola!



I hope my mom's friend likes it :) What are your favorite teas? Do spill...

Christmas in July Blog Hop

My first blog hop ever! Scrap Our Stash is hosting a Christmas in July blog hop. The thought of Christmas and July has already made me cringe, since we are more than half way done with the year. Less than five months to plan for Christmas, and in between we have Halloween and Turkey Day. Notice all the holiday gear in the craft stores? However, the incessant amount of crafting and blog browsing has kept me indoors from all the heat and humidity. So I shouldn't complain too much ;)

Have you enjoyed all that you have seen thus far? If you did not hop over here from Tere's wonderful blog, then you must start at the very beginning.

I have three cards to share with you today. They are pretty straight-forward, but I hope you feel inspired by some of them.





Stamps: Multi Step Christmas Lights (Kitchen Sink Stamps)
Paper: Basic Card Stock (Gina K)
Ink: Various Momentos (Tsukineko)
Embellishments: Gems, Ribbon, Silver Thread

These cards were actually made at the Stamping Around workshop a while back so I didn't have a chance to write down all the card deets. It was through Julie Masse that I learned about these Kitchen Sink Stamps. These stamps are a little different because they require multi stamping steps to stamp one image to give it that depth (more close-ups my flickr page). These stamps are actually made by stamping a bunch of monochromatic colors in a given order to give each Christmas light bulb its depth. A great alternative to not color... And Kitchen Sink Stamps are wonderful, since they always have a recipe sheet handy.

I hope these inspire you to get on the Christmas creations bandwagon...After all, isn't Christmas one of the greatest magical holiday of all?

Now, off you go to visit Monica (Scrappy77).

PS: If you haven't found the secret word, look for a word that stands out in this post ;) Happy Scavenger Hunt...You have until Sunday July 25, 9pm Eastern time to piece to phrase together and leave a comment on Scrap Our Stash

Glad You're in my Corner

I had to get my weekly paper crafting fix in by playing along with the sixth Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge installment! I was literally driving home tonight, when I had a lightbulb moment for this sketch:

Actually, my light bulb moment was when I literally became blind-struck by the setting sun when driving home. After getting out of the car, I made a mad dash to my craft room and gingerly knocked on the door. For those that do not know, a friend is currently a house guest of mine. Since I converted the second bedroom into a guest room, crafting at whim becomes a tad more trickier. He is so easy-going though, that most of time he does not mind. Keep reading to hear the hilarious dialogue to this card...


Stamps: Rescue Remedies Additions (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Basic Card Stock - White (Recollections), Scrap Pack - Yellow (Recollections)

Ink: Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Terracotta Tile (Papertrey Ink), Momento - Summer Sky (Tsukineko)

Embellishments: Essential Colors Glitter Set - Fire Opal (Martha Stewart), 1" Corner Rounder Punch (EK Success), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC1002 Yellowed Orange (Prismacolor), Nestabilities - Standard Small Circles

So, I started with the background following whatever I remembered from reading Belinda's tutorial. Note to self: Go look something up and re-read the steps. Instead of "dabbing my sky" with little ink, I kinda went nuts and swished, dabbed, rubbed, and before you know it, I had a big blob of blue mess. I was convinced that if you squint, you can make out angry skies. But just to make sure, I had to ask my buddy (who happened to be also chilling in the room watching a movie).

Ren-Yi: "Heeeey, Os? What is this?" ::pointing to my sky background::
Os: "Water?"
Ren-Yi: "Um...no, guess again"
Os: "Ocean?"
Ren-Yi: "NO"
Os: "Blue Stuff"
Ren-Yi: *sigh* "It's a sky!"
Os: "Oh"

Whatever, Boys (!) - moving on. So, I was happily cutting out parts that would become the sun, and put laid everything out before busting out the adhesive, when I hear something in the background:

Os: "Why are you putting a gear in the sky?"
Ren-Yi: "What?"
Os: "You know a gear, like cogs & gear."
Ren-Yi: "That is suppose to be a sun..."
Os: "Oh. But suns don't have beams that become fatter; that looks like a yellow gear. If you are going for a sun, suns usually have beams that become thinner. Like triangles with the tip facing away from the sun."
Ren-Yi: "No triangles"
Os: "Ok, ok, I don't mean triangles, but squiggly triangles."
Ren-Yi: "No squiggly triangles"
Os: "But a sun beams and radiates heat. It has flares. Flares, sunspots and all...it needs squigglies."
Ren-Yi: "NO squigglies."

Fine fine, after attaching the sun, shading it in with some color pencil to give it depth, and stamping my sentiment, it really did not look done. So, just in honor of Os, the squigglies made it in. I also go to play with glitter for the first time. Thankfully, I had my trusty Sakura Quick Glue Pen. Any other adhesive would have probably created a big, fat, glittery mess.

What adhesive do you use for your glitter?

July WMS Blog Waltz

Two-Three-One, Two-Three-One, Two-Three-One ... In case you are wondering why I'm counting (or what I'm counting), that's me joining this July's Waltzingmouse Stamps' Blog Waltz (or blog hop). It's a once-a-month deal-io to show Claire how much we love her and showcase our mouse-pride. This month's theme was to celebrate the colors of summer with green and blue.

The first thought was to grab my trusty Free Spirit - Boy stamp set, because blue and green screams ocean and surf board, no? But I had to literally get my left arm to yank the right hand off the stamp set that it was already desperately clasping. So, with much discipline I decided to turn to my "time to ink up new stamps" policy. Yes - new stamps require love!

There amidst my pile of creative chaos, my new Asian Gardens Addition stamp set were pleading to be played with. One look and I was reminded why I had to get the stamp set: the bridge. So in as an Ode to the Bridge:

Stamps: Asian Gardens (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Asian Gardens Addition (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Basic Card Stock - White (Recollections)
Ink: Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox), Brilliance - Pearlescent Lime (Tsukineko), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Hawaiian Shore(Papertrey Ink)
Embellishments: Taylor's Tiny Twinkles - Multicolors (Taylored Expressions), 1" Corner Rounder (EK Success)

Ode to the Bridge and Asian Gardens stamps really screams Haiku, doesn't it? So I leave you with

Enjoy the summer

With ice cream and waltzing mice
On a shaded bridge.

Leave me a Haiku if you feel inspired to do so :)

P.S. I really would like to send some of these cards out into the big, wide world to bring smiles to some wonderful faces. Otherwise, these cards will just mold away or get dusty. So I've been thinking of finding a group of gals to create a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) group. What better group then to join forces with some of my fellow Waltzingmouse stampers? If you're still reading this and are interested, there is a thread on the WMS Forum's Stamping Room. So, come join the fun! This could be great...

Afternoon Tea, Anyone?

Some stamp sets needed an inking up. I have a huge pile of stamps that haven't made first encounter with an ink pad. So to rectify that, the next Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge was the perfect reason excuse to dive into those new stamps.

This card started out with the Afternoon Tea stamp set in mind.


Stamps: Afternoon Tea (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Preppie Pack - Beige (Bazzill Basics Paper), Porcelain (Basic Grey), Scrap Pack - Brown (Recollections), scrap pattern paper (?)

Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (Stamping Up!), Brilliance - Pearlescent Orchid (Tsukineko)

Embellishments: Spool 'o Ribbon - Pink (Offray), Arch Lattice Edge Puncher (Martha Stewart)

I wanted to know how the Brilliance pink ink would stamp on a dark card stock. I like the little shimmer that it gave off, and ended up creating my own pattern paper. The Porcelain pattern paper from Basic Grey seemed too appropriate and cute to pass up. Add a lace border and the card is done.

So what do you ladies have with your tea? Scones? Cookies? What's your weaknesses for sweets?

Congrats

Another installment of the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge is finally up! After suffering of a week's withdrawal, I was ready to bring this one on. So what would you make with this?

This one was more manageable, not like the crazy previous one, but leave it to me to not stick to a sketch. I knew I wanted to work with kraft (yes - still on my kraft binge) and create a congrats card. Everything else kind of fell into place:


Stamps: Dot Flourishes (Inkadinkado)

Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink), Earth Elements - Creamy Caramel (Stamping Up!)

Embellishments: Glitter Stickers - Bronze (K&Company), Corner Punch (EK Success), Stickles - Diamons (Ranger), Rhinestones (Recollections)

The "congrats" sign was inked up along the edges for a little extra to stand out from the base card stock. At this point, the faux stitches that were planned for the label, didn't seem to fit the card's elegance. So then I decided to give the background swirl it's own bling, by sizzling up each Dot from the Dot Flourishes with some Stickles love. The three dots in the lower right are masked off the Dot Flourishes stamp (getting that extra mileage out of the stamps?!)  The lines were scored and then brushed over with a Q-tip dipped in ink. And the brown button that I pulled out with all good intentions, went back into its jar. Sorry, little button!

And that, ladies & gents, is how you deviate from a sketch. LOL.

You're Invited

The next Embellish challenge calls for an invitation card. I had never made one before and was immediately stumped. All the while, I was staring at this challenge picture:

The first obvious choice was Christmas, but I do not generally send invitations out to my family for Christmas (seeing that I generally go spend it at my parents' house). So what kind of invites do I generally make? Game Night, Girl's Night In, Cooking Session, Dinner Parties (with the whole nine yards), Crafting Session. Maybe it was the incessant growling of my stomach, but the idea of a Dinner Party invitation was the way I wanted to go, since a paper invite next time would probably give it that extra charm.

My poor dinner party guests generally bid adieu by rolling out the front door. Somewhere between people being too polite and asking for seconds, or the Asian-ness in me to cook with a buffer as well as my incessant in-born chirping of "eat more" while ladling yet another helping may have something to do with it... I also read somewhere that the color Red was a appetizing color that engages people to eat more. In addition, the Chinese culture emphasizes red and gold colors in their festivities, and had already decided these two colors to my focus. Here is what came about with the help of my oh-so-appropriate Waltzingmouse Asian Gardens:


Stamps: Asian Gardens (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Very Vintage Label No. 4 (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Stamps from Heat Embossing Kit (Martha Stewart)

Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink), Winnie's Walls Card Kit - Red Card Stock (Taylored Expressions)

Ink: Gold (Recollections), Brilliance - Pearlescent Lime (Tsukineko), VersaMark - Watermark (Tsukineko)

Embellishments: Corner Punch (EK Success), Nestabilities - Label Four (Spellbinders), Morning Meadows Card Kit - Ribbon: Olive Green (Taylored Expressions), Embossing Powder - Antique Gold (Martha Stewart)

Contrary to the picture, there are green elements that I picked out: the ink and the ribbon. The olive green ribbon, when I pulled it out of it's Taylored Card Kit, was convincingly green, but managed to chameleon itself into a gold; the pearlescent lime green managed to pull off its silver sheen unto the red card stock, but left everything else untouched. Utter fail on the green standing out, but I love how the card came out true to it's Asian flair!

So who is coming over for a dinner party? What kind of foods would you love to taste?

The Best Business Trip - Ever

Business trips are generally short, stressful and rough. While I love meeting with my clients face-to-face (which some modern technologies cannot truly replace), it does throw a wrench into work-life balance. Some of my sudden whims can't be catered -- waking up to a brilliant asparagus idea, or crafting for sudden challenge deadlines. However, some things make it all the more worthwhile, such as finally meeting an online crafting buddy in real life!



Our mutual person that brought us together was actually her hubster. I had actually never seen this guy before in the office, and when I did meet him, the situation was as follows: he was describing punches & embossers to another dude in the office. So either Canada had a whole group of male stampers & scrapper (yeah right!), or I had just met the next Tim Holtz. To top it off, he had a Stamping Up! box -- maybe a surprise gift for a crafty wife or girlfriend? So the Nancy Drew that I am, I had to get to the bottom of this! Maybe this would lead to a "local" crafting buddy!

Our quick exchange resulted in him passing on his wife's super talented blog, which I have been diligently reading ever since then. She and Dana are quite the spit-fire Dynamic Duo! One comment on their blog, and a bunch of emails later, I had found myself an online crafting buddy. Unfortunately, our schedules never really aligned until recently, and after many weeks of patient waiting, we had agreed to meet. I was so excited, and to top it all off, I received this through her hubster:

Inside this cute, bottom-reinforced carry bag, there was a beautiful card and a chocolate bar. The chocolate bar made for a great emergency emotional booster, since I had some intense meetings lined up that day, and the card was absolutely the sweetest.

The card has a kraft-colored card stock base, and was watermarked with my favorites: flutterbies! The center piece is a cute vellum and pattern paper cut out of the same subject. What topped it off, was the cute gem brad, that held the flutterby on the card into place, and the flower onto the carry bag. The card was a quick note to express how much she was looking forward to our meeting. I, too, was equally excited about our meeting and was counting down the hours and minutes at work.

The funny thing was when we did meet for the first time, it felt like we had known each other for ages.

Isn't the crafting world just wonderful? It is such a great community to make new friends - close and afar!

Best Fishes

I was generously offered a Guest Design Team spot for the month of July with Scrap our Stash. The July challenge theme is Brads & Eyelets. Ever have too many of those lying around?

My first thought for the July challenge using eyelets and brads as center of flowers, adding a few in a row to add extra bling, adding them to ribbon. But none of those made me excited and I wanted to do something special for Scrap Our Stash. So here I was going "Think Think Think" like Pooh bear. So while crafting on a different project, which included cutting out a cloud, I had my a-ha moment. Clouds are like "thought bubbles," which require little bubbles, but little bubbles remind me of "air bubbles," which led to fishies swimming. Totally logical, right? ;) 


Stamps: Mega Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink), Dotted Swiss (Bazzill Basics Paper), Basic Card Stock - Cream (Recollections)
Ink: Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Terracotta (Papertrey Ink), Brilliance - Pearlescent Sky Blue (Tsukineko), Brilliance - Pearlescent Ice Blue (Tsukineko)
Embellishments: Emboss A2 - D'Vine Swirls (Provo Craft), Black - Art No. 88/41 (Stabilo), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC924 Crimson Red, PC1002 Yellowed Orange (Prismacolor), Heidi Grace Ribbon (Fiskars), Eyelets - Royal Blue (Making Memories)

Here are a couple of fun, planned elements to the card:

• Embossed the kraft card stock and inked the raised parts with a stamp pad (a technique I spied off on the very talented blog of Claire from Waltzingmouse Stamps) to create water and waves
• Used wavy ribbon to represent water waves, which also breaks the area of embossed and non-embossed card stock up well.
• Used Swiss Dots Bazzill paper since "bubbles and dots" where kind of a theme.
• Use your existing sentiments to make a better & punnier one. If you recognized the font or sentiment, you are probably thinking Papertrey Ink's Mega Mixed Messages. But  if you don't recall a "Best Fishes" sentiments in the set, I say "Look otherwise!" *wink wink* "Father" and "Wishes" in "Best Wishes" are of the same font type and same font size. So yep, through masking and careful placement of the stamp, one can create a new sentiment. Tada! This does not always work, but always look for opportunities. Remember this card? I isolated the "N" from a sentiment that ends with an "N" (e.g. "Good Man" or "Have Fun") to write out "Well Done 'N Good Luck." Gotta get as much mileage out of your stamps, right?

And then there are the usual unplanned mistakes and how-to "recover" hacks:

• Used a Crop-A-Dile to punch out the holes and fasten the eyelets. Does anyone ever remember there is a guard? Duh. I had already glued down Mr. Fishy and the holes to punch out the air bubbles were absolutely no where near Mr. Fishy.  Oops. So i had to relocate Mr. Fishy a little more to the left. Good thing when I adhere I don't push and attach everything down, until everything is placed where I want it.
• Mr. Fishy was drawn as a sketch on the scrap piece in an inked pen (my pencil was hijacked!), only he was too large. Oops. No big deal, turn the card stock around and start again ;) My Recycling 101, #1 Rule: if there is an "Oops", use the other side ;)
• So, remember the Frugal Friday tip? My third "Oops" and "I should have practiced." Sometimes concepts are just better in theory and need to be tested out first. The "F" was placed significantly lower, and it was not recoverable. Which brings me to my My Recycling, Rule #2: Cover up. So, now you can guess why there is a sentiment matted onto Swiss Dotted Bazzill paper. Shhh - don't tell anyone, it'll be our secret, yes?
• After (to my absolute relief) of kinda nailing my punny sentiment, I realized it stamped the sentiment crooked but cut out the card stock straight. Duh. Sigh. Groan. I was planning on aligning the matted sentiment parallel to the edge of the card, but it was so obviously crooked. So, if you tilt the sentiment in the direction it was crookedly stamped (in my case, i stamped it slanting upward and I tilted the whole matted sentiment upward), it's less noticeable. So you'll keep that secret, too, right?

Hope some of these hacks were helpful. Do you have other creative brad and eyelet uses? If so, bring 'em on before July 31st.  A guest design spot is at stake, and let me tell you I had a ball with these ladies. Thanks, Srap Our Stash, for a chance to play with ya'll and be a July Guest Designer.

Feel Better Soon

My mom has a dear friend that just got out of surgery. Unfortunately they are not within driving distance and my mom, being the sweet person that she is, wanted to cheer her up. But Mom is in driving distance to her obsessive paper crafting daughter...surely, she has a stock-pile of hand-made "get well" cards, right? Or so one would think...

So, somewhere between this sketch in my head and my Mom's requirement of "fun & witty" to "make someone feel better," I brought out Elly, the Elephant, to play.

Elly was begging to be paper-pieced. Really. So, I had no choice.

Stamps: Elly & Friends (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps), Asian Garden (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Basic Card Stock - Cream (Recollections), Card Stock Scrap Pack - Light Blue  (Recollections), Embellishment Paper - Cosmopolitan (Making Memories) 
Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (SU!), Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox)
Embellishments: Vintage Buttons - Brown (Papertrey Ink), Hemp Cord (Darice), Sewing Thread - Brown (Sewing Basket), Border Punch - Apron Lace (Fiskars), Spool 'o Ribbon - Brown (Michael's)

Unfortunately, by the time I finished Elly on my blue background, I realized I could not add another layer. So, Elly is at a slight angle. And a fun triple stripe of ribbon to anchor her down and I was pretty much done. Tried to make this as mail-friendly as possible.

Dad - You're the Best

So it's finally safe to post this card :) With my brother's new job, my dad's travel schedule, and my travel schedule, my mom was ready to throw her hands up in the air when we were trying to plan a Father's Day outing. After much delay, we finally got together, two weeks later. I had this card created for my dad and did not wanted to post it here before he had a chance to see it. Evidently, my dad found my blog and has been commenting regularly in our conversations about my card-making abilities (e.g., "Why don't you open your own card store?") Isn't that just so sweet?

For this card, I knew that I wanted to try Erin's origami shirt tutorial from Schlosser Designs. If you have not checked out her site, hop on over. She has such great ideas for sewing and stamping that makes gifting or every-day. And she has great tutorials that she posts up every Tuesday. My next project will be a passport cover, since I travel so darn much. And Lilo (the Sewing Machine) needs to exercise more ;)

But I detract...without further ado I present a 100% Erin-inspired card:

Paper: Lucky Teal Cards & Envelopes (Creative Imaginations), Card Stock Scrap Pack - Brown  (Recollections), Offbeat (Basic Grey)
Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (SU!)
Embellishments: Emboss A2 - Spots & Dots (Provo Craft), Jute Packaging Twine (Westim Crafts), Ribbon - Kingfisher (Paperchase)

Dad really loved it - especially the tie. Since I could not find an appropriate place to add the sentiment, I just stamped a sentiment "Dad - you're the best" in the card.

Are your family events also hard to plan? What is your secret to getting everyone together?

Birthday Wishes

A guy co-worker was absolutely amused by my card crafting, when I mentioned how much engineering goes into designing and implementing a card - in fact it goes through the same stages of our beloved software engineering cycle. One has to think about the requirements for the card, then create a design that support the aforementioned requirements, and then execute the implementation, as well as test the card for robustness and quality.

Since his mother's birthday was around the corner, he then gave me an order to make a card. With nothing to go by (e.g., her favorite color, her preference for serious or whimsical), I had to use something to base my design on.

So I went with my trusty Stamping Bellas. Who doesn't like them?! And went to go find a sketch to get me-self some extra practice. Since I was ahead of the game and got my weekly Waltzingmouse Sketch done, I was skimming the vast world of sketches out there. It was suddenly when I remembered the sweet, sweet memory of my first stamp sets I ever owned. I bought them at my first introduction to paper crafting at a Stamping Around workshop, where I also met the talented, spunky and wonderful Korin Sutherland. I was immediately smitten by her. So I hopped over there and discovered the Sweet Stop Sketch blog. Why didn't I check this out earlier?! Silly me. And look what a fun sketch I found...

So without further ado, here is the birthday card for a co-worker's mom. I hope she likes it and that I didn't choose colors that she did not like.

Stamps: cakebella (Stamping Bella), Asian Gardens (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft (Papertrey Ink), Basic Card Stock - Cream  (Recollections), Urban Prairie (Basic Grey), Oasis (sei)
Ink: Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Hawaiian Shore (Papertrey Ink), Brilliance - Pearlescent Coral (Tsukineko), Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox)
Embellishments: Corner Punch (EK Success), Border Punch - Apron Lace (Fiskars), Vintage Button Collection - Spring Mix (Papertrey Ink), Frosting Flowers Floraux de Fleur (Prima Flowers), Hemp Cord (Darice), Ribbon - Turquoise/Magenta Plaid (Michael's), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC929 Rose, PC946 Dark Brown, PC1002 Yellowed Orange, PC939 Peach, PC1052 Warm Grey 30%, PC905 Aquamarine (Prismacolor), Odorless Mineral Spirits (Gamsol)

I colored my cakebella to match the rest of the card's color theme. This card was also created with the recent PTI package that had arrived. Working with amazingly thick card stock makes such a big difference. My card stands -- all on its own -- just thoroughly amused by this little fact :)

So on a more amused note, this card will be traveling internationally. I hope the recipient is delighted by it.