A Day that Sparkles

Hello – happy Thursday!  I have a quick card to share today – a birthday card for my beloved little girl!  I just got this brand-new Elisabeth Bell Aladin set and I could not wait to use this image for my daughter.

This was a pretty interesting image to color – the veil stumped me a little bit!   I added a bit of the lavender color to hair to accommodate the veil.  I hope it worked out.  I have yet to get into the habit of taking note of the Copics that I used to color, but if anyone is interested, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will figure it out for you. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Orchid Opulence and Lovely Lilac cardstock

Stamps:  Whiff of Joy/Elisabeth Bell Aladin set (girl image and sentiment), Inkadinkado Dot Flourishes set (swirls)

Ink: Stampin’ Up! Lovely Lilac

Accessories:  Cuttlebug – Spellbinders Nestabilities Label die, Textile Texture embossing folder; EK Success border punch;  Kaiser rhinestones; ribbon; dimensionals; Copic markers.

Apollo Gold and Blue Crystal Bracelet

Hey everyone!  I’ve been absent from my blog for a bit.  Life’s been so busy lately and a certain little girl had a big birthday.  By “big” I mean that we celebrated the occasion four times.   LOL – she’ll only be young once! 

I’ve still been making lots of stuff and have a bracelet to share today.  I LOVE the name of the beads I used on this bracelet so much – Apollo Gold!  How cool and mythological does that sound?  I’ve been reading Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series lately, with its mentions of Apollo, his sister Artemis, and the Apollites (did I lose anyone yet? lol), so using these beads felt like really good timing.  Maybe even a little divine intervention at work!

I designed this stretch bracelet around this blue and gold-ish glass heart bead that I had.  The only problem is that I had only one of them!   And that IS a problem for me – I have a little hoarding thing going on with my supplies.  I feel so uneasy if I don’t have access to more than one of an item, especially when I’m using the last one I have.  Is anyone else like this with their supplies?  C’mon, I can’t be the only one!

And here’s a shocker – I actually got my act together enough to list this bracelet on Etsy today!  I’ve shocked myself!  So for the low, low price of….oh, who I am kidding – I am so not a natural salesperson.  I’ll just say in a quiet voice…click here to see the item in my Etsy store. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

Love Warms Every Nest – FHF Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone!  This week I played along with the latest Friends Having Fun sketch challenge.  As always, the lovely Dani came up with a great sketch to work with.

Want to see what I came up with?  This card gave me the chance to finally break out a stamp set I’ve had for a while and had been dying to use – an Elisabeth Bell set from Whiff of Joy.  Elisabeth Bell is AMAZINGLY talented – I just love her artwork so much.   It is so graceful and elegant.

I had to change up the sketch a bit to make it all fit on my card, including adding that heart-shaped sentiment piece.   Coloring this sweet girl’s image was so much fun, as was using the cheerful orange shades.  I used designer paper from K&Co. (my fave line) and Papertrey Ink’s melon berry cardstock (also a fave of mine). 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink White and Melon Berry cardstock; K&Co. designer paper

Stamps:  Elisabeth Bell for Whiff of Joy Stamps; Crafty Secrets (sentiment)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label die and heart die; Kaiser pearls, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry ribbon; dimensionals; Prismacolor pencils w/gamsol; Sakura Gelly Roll in Clear Star; corner rounder

Friends Having Fun Sketch Challenge Debut!

Happy Monday to you!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend! 

Today is the debut of the sketch challenge at at Friends Having Fun – whoohoo!  Who doesn’t love a good sketch?  The sketch team, called the Sketch Sorority Sisters, is led by the loveliest crafter you could ever meet, Dani (and I say this on good authority since I was lucky enough to meet Dani in person!).  So are you having fun yet?  Go over and check out the Friends Having Fun site and play along with us.  But no pressure – that is what this site is all about.

Here is this week’s sketch – a very pretty one!

And here’s my card – a very straight-forward interpretation of the sketch.  I loved using this one and will definitely keep this one in my arsenal to use at another time. 

This card is all about the designer paper I used (by Teresa Collins); the strip on the side is one of the edges from the 12×12” sheet.  I just had to find a way to use that beautiful border!  Since the paper was so prominent, I did not do my usual embossing – I actually only embossed the black label with a Cuttlebug folder.  This designer paper just happened to be a perfect match for one of my all-time favorite (and discontinued) Stampin’ Up! colors, Baja Breeze.  And they just announced that they are bringing that color back, which is great news.  I won’t have to feel tense every time I use the color now! 

Be sure to visit Friends Having Fun to see what the Sketch Sorority Sisters have in store for this week.  Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white and black cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Baja Breeze cardstock, Teresa Collins designer paper

Stamp:  Anna Griffin

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Baja Breeze and Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  Diamond embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities labels 9 & petite circle die; Michaels brads; dimensionals

The Very First Friends Having Fun Color Challenge!

Hello everyone!  Today is the day that Friends Having Fun debuts its challenges! 

The very first challenge is today’s Color Challenge brought to you by the Kaleidoscope Krew.  And I’m writing today as a member of the “Krew,” which is the Design Team for the color challenges and is led by the lovely and talented Alison.  

The first Monday of every month, the Kaleidoscope Krew will bring you a Color Challenge.  Your mission is to then create a project using those colors!   As Alison says, anything goes!  You can make a card, scrapbook page, jewelry, altered item…anything you want!  And here is the first set of colors for this week’s challenge – get all the challenge details here and play along with us!

And here is my project for the challenge — another beaded bookmark.   I was totally going for a paper project until Alison encouraged me to stick with the beading for this challenge.  I wish I got photos that really showed the color of this heart-shaped crystal!  It’s very golden – you can see that only a tiny bit in this photo, but much more in person.  Something I’m learning lately – it’s very tricky to photograph crystals!  Light flashes everywhere, which is what you want crystals to do…but getting the right pics is proving to be tough!  So I have just this one pic to post of this bookmark, but I hope it gives you a good look at it.

So, please go and check out the members of the Design Team, the Kaleidoscope Krew, to see what they have in store for today!

Alison ~ Alex ~ Alyssa ~ Julie (you are here!) ~ Laura

Handmade Planner for 2010, or the Most Overdue Project Ever

Hey everyone!  Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Are you ready for a long post?  I have a project to share today that truly took me about three months to complete — a ridiculous amount of time.  It had so many components, which might explain the time a bit, but mainly it’s due to my going off in too many different directions to simply get the thing done.   Might as well be honest.

So here it is – my 2010 planner, which has been in the works since December.  A labor of love.   Here’s a look at the front cover of the book.  I found the fabric that covers the front and back covers of the book late last yea and fell in love with it immediately (I’ve mentioned my fixation with blues many times here).  I knew just how I wanted to use it.  

This book is really quite large, about 8×10.5 inches.  To figure out what size I needed to make, I first tracked down the calendar pages that I wanted to use. And to get a full month’s calendar on one page (and be able to actually write stuff on there), I really needed to make things pretty big.  In case anyone is interested, this is where I got my 2010 calendar.  It’s a cool site – you can customize the calendars in all sorts of ways.  Here’s a view of a calendar page, along with the pocket on the inside of the front cover.     

And here is a close-up look at the fabric – I wanted to show you the detail on it, since it’s got this silvery, shimmery outline around the flowers. I love this stuff! And to give you a LOL – I spent a LONG staring at pieces of hardware, trying to determine which had a pewter finish, since that would match with the silver in the fabric and the antique silver of the binding wires. And I finally went with this piece pictured here. And is it pewter? NO, it’s gold-toned! And when did I finally figure that out? When I saw these photos! The hardware all looked so similar to me that I could not even tell them apart, but yet, it’s so OBVIOUSLY gold in the photos!  So weird!

But at the same time, my perfectionism and fussiness know no bounds, so I will most likely switch out that hardware. It might just bug me all year.

And finally – here is a view of the book when it’s closed.  It’s the size of a phone book, true?  I actually measured it – it’s about an 1 1/2” tall.  After the calendar pages are a ton of blank pages.  Since adding pages to a bound book like this involves taking the entire thing apart, trashing the binding, and then re-binding, i thought I would err on the side of caution and make the book enormous.   For the tabs with the months, I used a Stampin’ Up! tab punch along with a set of date stamps from Making Memories.

So what do you think – was it worth all of that work?  I am pretty much happy with it, gold hardware and all. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

Friends Having Fun and Some Little Cards

Have you heard the news about Friends Having Fun yet? It’s a brand-new challenge blog that is just about to debut!  And this one will be a little different – fun is the first priority for this site!  Challenges will be weekly, and will rotated among four teams – see below for the challenge themes and the team leaders:

Alison – Color Challenge (week 1)

Dani – Sketch Challenge (week 2)

Sarabeth – Recipe Challenge (week 3)

Erica – Pop Culture Challenge (week 4)

In addition, each team is looking for 3-4 friends (design team members) who would like to have fun!  All the details can be found here and the deadline for submission is this Friday, March 12th.  Details are still being worked out for the debut of the challenges, which is now tentatively scheduled for late March.  I will be sure to update here! 

Now, feel like seeing some little cards?  There are times when I seriously love making smaller-scale cards like the three pictured below.  They come together quickly and the size forces me to really keep them simple.  

This first one is my fave of the bunch – I absolutely loved using that sentiment stamp (by Verve Stamps) and that designer paper (by Pink Paislee).  Putting them together just made me happy!   I think I need to use that stamp again really soon – as a matter of fact, an idea is coming to me as I type this….hmmm….

The Twilighty card below went to the winners of blog candy prizes from the recent Twilight Tuesday Farewell Blog Hop.  It was a bit bittersweet making this final Twilight-themed project, but I HAD to use that sentiment from Beth’s StampInsanity Stamps set (called Otherworldly Loves).  Although I may very well make more Twilight-themed projects in the future, this definitely felt a bit poignant since I was officially done with my Twilight Tuesday duties when I mailed out the blog candy prizes and these cards.  I hope that the prize winners liked them!

And this last card also resulted from that Twilight-card-making session – exactly the same as the card above with a different sentiment and die cut shapes in the center. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Anything is Possible Card:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red cardstock, Pink Paislee designer paper

Stamps:  Verve Stamps

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red

Accessories:  Stampin’ Up! ticket corner punch, Kaiser red pearls, dimensionals

Twilighter and Thank You Cards:

Paper: Papertrey Ink vintage cream and black cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red cardstock; K & Co. designer paper

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Otherworldly Loves set (“Twilighter”); Verve Stamps (“thank you”)

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Spellbinders Nestabilities labels dies, dimensionals, K&Co adhesive jewels

Birthday Wishes

Oh, my poor neglected blog!  Rather than dwelling on my guilt over my lack of posting, how about I just show you my card?

This one, a birthday card for my sister, is my latest attempt with my Copics. I believe that this Elisabeth Bell stamp is meant to be a holiday image (note the holly!), but I overlooked that for this card since I wanted to use purples.   Hopefully I got away with it! 

Here is a look at the entire card:

And a closer look at the stamped image that was colored with Copics:

I hope you all have a great weekend!  I’ll definitely be posting more projects next week.  Thanks so much for visiting!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Elegant Eggplant cardstock; Tinkering Ink Provincial Fair designer paper

Stamps:  Elisabeth Bell for Whiff of Joy stamps; Inkadinkado (sentiment); Stampin’ Up! Baroque Motifs (swirl)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black; Versamark; Stampin’ Up! Almost Amethyst

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Eight die; EK Success border punch; Kaiser pearls; ribbon; dimensionals; clear embossing powder; Copic markers; Sakura Gelly Roll pens

Looking for a Free Broom Ride?

Well…I might just be able to help you out with that.  Or, more specifically, Lily can help  – she is always up for a free broom ride!  Lily is one of the Wildflower Kids, and her stamp, along with the broom rides sentiment, is available in the new stamp set called Free Broom Rides.  This set, along with the other new sets from Wildflower Kids Stamps, is available exclusively at the Stamp Happens Shop. 

I stayed with traditional Halloween colors for this card, and colored Lily with Prismacolor colored pencils.  Lily is really fun to color – go grab your own set and get coloring too!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white and black cardstock; The Paper Company peach shimmer cardstock

Stamps:  Wildflower Kids Stamps Free Broom Rides set, from the Stamp Happens Shop

Ink:  Ranger Archival Ink in jet black; Stampin’ Up! Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Cuttlebug: Boo to You and Swiss Dots embossing folder; Spellbinders Nestabilities oval, scalloped oval, and tag dies; Making Memories brad; dimensionals; ribbon; Prismacolor pencils with gamsol;

StampInsanity Stamps Sneak Peek!

Exciting happenings this week — StampInsanity Stamps is releasing three new sets this week! And wait until you see these — they are FANTASTIC!   Two of the sets, Morgan’s Spell and Halloween Henry, are Halloween-themed.  The third set, called Morgan’s Love, is a HUGE set that is perfect for all the bookworms out there!  It’s filled with sentiments related to losing yourself in good books and is sooo much fun.  I will be displaying a project using that set as soon as I can!

To give you a little hint on the contents of the new sets, here is a card that I made the set called Morgan’s Spell. Morgan is a regular character in the StampInsanity lines – you’ll see her in this badge (at the left) as well. 

StampInsanity Stamps are sold exclusively at the Stamp Happen Shop, beginning on Friday, September 25th.   Today, the members of the Senior Design Team of the Stamp Sistahs are unveiling sneak peeks from these three new sets, and the full Stamp Sistahs Design Team will be posting their projects on Friday.  Visit the Senior Design Team members today to see their awesome projects!

Beth (owner, StampInsanity Stamps)

Tonya (owner, Stamp Happens Shop)

Jen, Deconstructing Jen

And here is my card!  I used the new set called Morgan’s Spell and I could not WAIT to get this witchy little stamp inked up!  How adorable is she? 

Coloring this image was so much fun.  I stamped the image with black ink and colored it with Prismacolor markers, with a couple of glittery highlights done with my fave Jelly Roll pens.  Her earrings just HAD to sparkle!  I used Stickles in Frosted Lace on the moon, and penciled in a little extra “moonglow” around the moon with a really pale blue-grey Prismacolor pencil.  The stars in the background are also from the Morgan’s Spell set and were stamped in metallic silver.  I embossed the white background with a stars texture plate from Fiskars. 

The quote on the card is yet another stamp from this set, and it features the classic witchy quote from Macbeth: 

Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.

~ William Shakespeare

Lots of details for you!  I had a TON of fun making this one.  Be sure to hit the Stamp Happens Shop on Friday to grab these three new sets before they’re gone!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock; Stampin’ Up! Ballet Blue cardstock; The Paper Company silver metallic cardstock; Bazzill Bling in Tiara

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Morgan’s Spell set (girl image, quote, and stars) from the Stamp Happens Shop

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Ballet Blue and Night of Navy

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Fiskars texture plate in stars; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Three die and ribbon slide die; Dew Drops in metallic silver; EK Success deco corner punch; dimensionals; ribbon; Prismacolor markers and pencils; Sakura Jelly Roll pens in silver and clear; Stickles in Frosted Lace