Birds and Stripes

Hello!   The OWH midweek throwdown is to use stripes on our cards. And over at the Drunken Stampers the movie challenge is The Birds!


My bird card uses an Inky Antics stamp and papers from My Mind's Eye miss caroline.

I stuck with the bird theme for my striped card and created the next one from CC Designs stamps- I think! A cute little duck and a puddle! The papers are from imaginisce Enchanted. And the sentiment is new from Mama Elephant- I got 3 sets in the mail today. Did I recently say that I had more than enough stamps????



And my last card is a sweet Penny Black rubber stamp- love these two! They are resting on a Spellbinders die and the papers are from MME So Sophie and miss caroline, and another Mama Elephant sentiment.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and Happy Easter!

Thanks for stopping by....craft on!

Diane

Sketch lovin'!

Happy sunny Sunday! I really enjoyed working with today's sketch from OWH. I also tried today to use more of my scraps so you will see some of the same papers used in a few of the cards. Nothing fancy but I like the cards....







This one is my overall favorite-using a Fiskars punch; I like the black and blue contrast and the shine from the rhinestones.



I lke the PTI plane and banner- and I have the dies to go with the stamps- makes it easy-no fussy cutting!



Super simple- no punch border on this one- and I am good with the simplicity of it...goes with the sentiment! Not planned- but hey- it works! lol



The sentiment is from MFT and the boots are from Paper Smooches.



I wanted the boots to look well worn and lived in so I added some texture. Too lazy to get up and get my bottle of Copic clear blender- I just scribbled some from the 0 marker on my cutting mat and wiped it up with a small piece of gauze. (Now gauze... I keep in my copics case, so it was handy-no moving from my seat!) You have to wipe quickly before it dries. Then I just pressed the gauze onto each boot-I made sure my copic ink was completely dry before I did this. It takes off just enough ink to make the boots look weathered! I love how they looked scuffed and hard working!



Those are my cards for today. I need to stamp the back of a whole bunch of cards, tuck the envelopes and get the box ready to send to Kris later this week to make sure my 'Mom' cards make the deadline. 

Can you believe next Sunday is Easter? Looking forward to some family time and the girls coming home from college!

Have a wonderful week and craft on!
Diane

MFT Cowboy! Yeehaw!

This was a long, hard week at work and we had some more wintery weather..not too fun. Today, I finally had a chance to make some cards- yes- fun!.
The midweek throwdown is to use ombre.....hmmm,
as defined at OWH: Shaded in tone with colors graduating from light to dark.
I can do that... and tried to used the copic airbrush-but ran out of canned air halfway thru! So, I just blended several shades of blue copics across the background paper.  If you have visited my blog before, you know I adore My Favorite Things stamps. Check out this cowboy and the barbed wire fence-- this may be my new favorite stamp set....OK- for at least this week!

My next card was trying to use this month's topic at Paula's Design Bootcamp at OWH:

Anyway You Slice It (Composition & The Rule of Thirds).

Another dog cut by the Cricut and SEI paper.  Looking at the 2 cards- I think I did better with my cowboy card using the Rule of Thirds!



I received an Amazon gift card from work this week- as a thank you for all the extra work over the past month--(or 10 years, lol) so I used part of it to buy a light tent...in hopes of taking better pictures. I do not see a huge difference, but I am going to keep trying to take clearer pictures of my cards! I also ordered some more copic canned air with the GC...it was a nice surprise!

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care and craft on!

Diane

Happy St Patrick's Day and Sunday sketch..and an edit!

Ahhhh, the wearing of green day!  Hope you are all having a happy and safe day!
Today I made 2 cards based on today's sketch at OWH:

                       

I guess I am in a cricut kind of mood. The puppy, bone and United States were all cut on the cricut-using Paper Pups, A Child's Year and Stand and Salute. And have I told you how much I love my Gypsy? I just searched for dog bone, found one I liked, re-sized it- viola! The patterned paper on the puppy card is all from an old SEI 12x12 kit. The map paper is from Teresa Collins- and the red check is the reverse side of the map. The sentiment on both are from MFT...2 different sets.

I think I am going to take off the hearts on the bottom- they look kind of random! Almost like the dreaded sneeze! LOL

HERE IS MY EDIT: Thanks to ideas from Sarah and JoAnn, I did some reconstructive surgery. I took off the hearts and replaced the red brad with a heart brad. OK- I have just about every stinkin supply known to a papercrafter...did I have a red heart? Nooooooo, but I had a gold one- so I covered it with a red glaze pen. And hey- and I think the lighting is better on this pciture! You may be able to see some of the blue on the map paper- which is why I chose to cut the USA in blue!   Thank you OWH bloggers for your helpful input!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great week and craft on,

Diane

  

Amazing! Life of the Party...and my MWT

OK- so my friends tell me I am fun-- OK- I tell me I am funny- but shockingly-I just won the Life of the Party again at Drunken Stampers! This is amazing to me- I was not thrilled with my card- I liked it- but did not even consider it could be a challenge winner! And a little ironic that my 2 challenge wins- EVER- have been with the Drunken Stampers...I do not drink! LOL  I worked in a detox for many years and over time, the smell of alcohol turned my stomach...plus as I tried over the years to lose weight, alcohol seemed like a waste of calories! I really like the Drunken Stampers site and the themes of the challenges and everyone is so nice...like the OWH folks! Go check them out: drunkenstampers.wordpress.com. This is the card that garnered me my recent win:

The oval has a layer of embossed music notes on a piece of plastic!

And this week over at OWH our midweek throwdown challenge is a color challenge! We are to use blue and green- and as an extra dare- add in some orange!

My orange ended up taking center stage! The stamps are Paper Smooches, the orange paper is Basic Gray and the rest of the papers are DCWV. I got 2 6x6 stacks of DCVW papers and I have been using them alot! The papers are thin-but they are good for matting and layering-and I love the varierty of the patterns in each color family. The ribbon is from my stash...a piece in a baggie with other pieces....not good with ribbon manufacturers!  I added some glitter pen on the stars- but then as always, I cover my glitter pen with the clear glaze pen. I love this pen- it seals in the glitter, gives a nice glossy finish and dries quickly. I also put some on the eyes. I wish I could get it in the photograph... you are just gonna have to trust me- it adds a nice finishing touch!

Take care and craft on,

Diane



Another Sunday Sketch

After more snow this week, the sun came out yesterday and it was warm and the white stuff is melting....bring on spring!

Here is the sketch for this week from Operation Write Home:

A good sketch to use some of my smaller stamps.
I used the cute owl and birds from Swingin' By from the craft lounge. I am not loving the blue I colored for the sky on the 2 owls....it was too plain white but now there is too much blue!  But I like the sketch- one I will use again!

I have been using the Bazzil marshmallow cardstock for my bases recently. I saw Kristina Werner use this and it is such a nice, sturdy paper. I like that it does not crack when I score and fold it. I tried some other heavier weight paper for my bases and it cracked even when I scored it....so that was not good! I went on the hunt for a better paper and I am very happy with this. I purchased it from Simon Says Stamp... they tend to have pretty much everything and ship quickly. I have been very happy with their products and service. http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the45741/MARSHMALLOW-WHITE-Bazzill-Card/Detail
I need to make more Mother's Day cards...I only have a few and I want to get a package out to Kris soon!
Have a fantastic week and craft on!
Thanks for stopping by,
Diane

Mom and a midweek throwdown

Mothers Day cards are due to our OWH shippers by 3/31/13 so I figured I better get started! The MWT this time is a tic-tac-toe that you use a row to design your card.

I chose the bottom horizontal row- rhinestones, oval and embossing. I liked the look of the shiny DCWV red paper embossed but it does not look pretty in the picture qith the glare from my OTT lite! I got the red rhinestone flower in the recent Michael's clearance...I think I paid 29 cents for it!

Have a great weekend, take care and craft on!
Diane

Great surprise to come home to!

Hey- check out my sidebar....there is something new! I won a challenge at drunkenstampers.wordpress.com!

Yup- my card with the precious Mo Manning boys won! Thanks to everyone who left such kind comments!
I am not feeling well today- so I am not sure if I will feel up to creating- but I hope if I take a nap....

Thanks for stopping by--and winning does not suck at all! lol
Take care and craft on,
Diane

Sunday Sketch #162

Happy Sunday! The challenge today at Operation Write Home is another great sketch:

                            

I rotated the sketch and changed the dimension of the focal piece a bit. I used one of my newer MFT stamp sets and DCVW papers.  I really like the a la Mode line; aside from color ingup quickly--the gals always have such cute items they are holding or leaning on and the sentiments are always fun! A super simple card!

Have a fabulous week!

Take care and craft on!

Diane

Cards and Challenges! Warning! Lots of Cards!

Today was a good day for me to create!

I made a few cards for some of the current challenges from different sites.

First- at OWH http://operationwritehome.org/our-daily-bread-design-march-challenge/ the OurDaily Bread Design challenge for March--use scallops. This challenge helps get our cards to the troops; ODBD pays for up to 2 boxes to be mailed...as long as we post our cards for the challenge! Great reason to join this challenge!



Hero Arts stamp
Cricut oval
MFT sentiment
Doodlebug brad
Offray ribbon
white pearls-unknown source



Next, a new challenge site to me is Brown Sugar and the challenge is to use a greeting. http://brownsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/03/challenge-31-greeting.html



MFT stamps and dies
SU heart punch-5 layers and covered with Crystal Laquer
pattern paper- my stash

Next up- this week at drunkenstampers.wordpress.com 

Challenge #117 is to use the movie, The Sound of Music as inspiration or use music or instruments on a card.

A few weeks ago, Sheila, at She's a Sassy Lady, shared how she embossed plastic packaging so I decided to try it with the Cuttlebug music notes embossing folder. It looks odd in my picture, but in person, it is an interesting thing to add to a card...nice texture!  The mountains are from Amuse and the sentiment is computer generated and punched with SU punches.

And then just because I was feeling creative-

here are a few more cards:

                       

I used 2 new dies from MFT-I cut the solid buildings die in yellow then the die with the tiny windows- with black. I used some small rhinestones to mimic stars at nite. The front row of buildings is popped up using SU dimensionals.

And then I made another card with my favorite brothers! I printed this digi image from Mo Manning smaller than my card from yesterday and used a different color scheme.

And then 2 more cards with the cutie gal from Mo Manning... she is fun to color and I love her spunkiness!



Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Take care and craft on,

Diane

My Brother is a Super Hero!

This week over at drunkenstampers.wordpress.com  the challenge is to use the movie The Avengers as inspiration OR use “Superheroes” as a theme for Drunken Stampers Challenge #116.

I recently purchased this digital image created by Mo Manning (digitalpenciltoo.blogspot.com) and fell in love with these sweet guys! I have an older brother so I can imagine that any younger boy thinks that his big brother is a super hero in disguise!



Papers: Prima My Little Guy Collection 6x6 pad
Image: Mo Manning
Stars: KI puffies
Pearls: Queen and Co
Spellbinders dies
Copic markers
Ribbon: EK Success
Sentiment: computer generated and cut with SU punches





Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by-and craft on!

Diane