Card Swap

I made this for a swap (the swap’s tonight) but ended up not liking it as much as another design (I’ll show you after the swap) so here it is. I used last week’s Splist Coast sketch challenge and this week color combo: soft sky, purely pomegranate, and black.

I dunno, now that I look at it, it’s not that bad but, since it’s my upline’s workshop and swap, I figured an SU stamped image would be more appropriate, thus the other design/card.

Material:

Everything from Stampin’ Up! except for the center stamp, which is a Bella stamp. Pattern paper is Cutie Pie. The shoes and pants were colored using my Copic sketch markers. Embossing was done by my Cuttlebug template.

I am so excited for tonight. It’s been a loooooooong time since I went to a workshop. There was one last month but it was when I was out of town for my conference. It’s always fun to meet up with other ladies who love to stamp too and just chit chat about anything.

Oh, I have an M story… since M was born we’ve always done all sorts of educational activities with her. That was why we took TV service out so that TV will not be the center of her entertainment. Since she was 3-months-old we’ve signed with her and she signed back at 6-months-old and she’s always been a little sponge. M knew how to count to 50 when she was just over 2-years-old and we’ve been playing math games since she turned three. I’d show her my fingers and asked her, “If I have four fingers and two went to sleep, how many do I have left?” She’d count my finger and tell me, “two.” Last night I told her that it’ll be a long night, I still have cards to make for the swap. She asked me how many I needed to make and I told her five. She asked me how many I’ve done and I said two. Then she said, “ooooh, you have three more to make.” Wow! I do fractions with her too… we’ll see if that sticks {::SMILES}.

Hi!

Here’s my take on Beate’s weekend sketch challenge #45. I used Kraft, again, as my background paper and the Cuttlebug. This was a really quick card to make. I think it’s another five minute card.

I used the Spring Solitude set and I used the Stamp-a-majig to stamp over the bigger flower. I love that tool! The DP is from SU’s Cutie Pie and the “hi” is American Craft’s alphabet chipboard. Colors: Pomegranate and Marigold Morning from 2007 the in colors. The ribbon is Regal Rose.

Our outing was nice. Short but nice. Went to Michael’s and grabbed a few K&Company’s new items, some Amy Butler series. LOVE the new stuff. Not only are they cute, cute, cute, the packaging is recycled and also reusable. You should check them out!

I cut into my paper already and putting a page together. Another M page. Can’t wait to get it done! Loving the feel of the whole set.

The sushi restaurant was delicious as always. For the first time, Emma skipped the steamed dumplings and opted for the california AND tuna rolls. She LOVED the spicy crab salad and onion soup. She was a little piggy!!! She even dipped the rolls into some soy sauce and was brave enough to try the wasabi although that ended up in her spitting the content of her mouth onto my hands. I told her it was spicy but she wanted to try.

I love that girl, she’s such a great eater. I wonder if she’ll continue to eat if I tell her that the fish is raw… naaaaah, I’ll wait until she finds out on her own, why ruin it {::SMILES}.

Many Thanks

I made this card for our neighbor who helped with our gravel road, between the driveway and the county road. We live in the country the weather’s been wet. The guy across the street is building a house — yeah, who starts building in November — and the big trucks and equipments that have been passing by have caused a lot of damage to our little road. We usually re-gravel our road once a year and it’s been fine but the winter construction has made our road more unbearable to drive. With this big tractor our neighbor (not the guy who’s building) straightened out the road, made ditches on the side for water and helped made our few yards of driving more eventful. Hope he keeps the card for at least a few days.

This is also another try at Beate’s sketch. I did the Bella one but it’s not like her sketch… kind of. I used my Cuttlebug on the chocolate chip and also the off white… you probably can’t see it too well on the off white. The stamps are Garden Silhouette and Lots of Thoughts. The blue, I’m not so sure which it is. My papers got all mixed up. I think it’s from last year’s in-color. The designer paper is Apple Cider and ribbon is from Joann’s. I used chocolate chip and pumpkin pie ink.

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Guenevere. She had her babe with her and I, taught the cutie pie how to blow raspberries. It was really cute and he could do it on queue too. Ha ha…

Well, that’s it. Hope you have a great day!!

Masculine Card

I made this card for my dad. He lives in Indonesia, that’s where all my family are except for my sister and a cousin or two. His birthday is the day after M’s. Actually, if M was born in Indonesia, they’d have the same birth date since Indonesia is 12 hrs ahead of us.

I’m not very good at masculine cards so this is as masculine as I could get. I like the ribbon. It’s brown, so kind of manly, right?

I used my Cuttlebug (I really love using it to emboss) and my old designer paper from SU. The stamp is “Love It” and I think it’s one of last year’s hostess yet. I used my paper piercing tool on the brown cardstock, I love this tool too, and a brown satin ribbon from Joann’s.

I hope my dad likes it. This is the first handmade card I’ve ever made for him. Really bad, huh? I usually just send him a text message and a phone call or a Hallmark card, a text message, and a phone call.

Ok, I got tag’d by KathleenH. She’s one of my blog sisters. It’s five things on different items. If you care to read about, click the link below.

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4-Yr-Old Birthday Invite

My baby’s growing up. How time flies and she is old enough to ask for a birthday party at home. A princess/dress-up birthday party. So for her special day, I prepared six (thank goodness there are only that many little girl friends) invitations. I added some sparkles on the candles, cake, and letters and the colors red and pink per her request. At first glance she didn’t love the card but then as time passes (aka two days later) she said, “Mommy, I love the card now.” So I’m now hoping her little friends can make it, at least two of them, so that my Emma wouldn’t be disappointed. Here’s the card:

Just a Quick Card

I did the per the SCS MFTSC11 sketch. This was fun. My first sketch!  I also received my Nestabilities today. So quick from cutathome.com. You should check them out and sign up to be in their VIP club. You get 40% off every month!

So here’s my card, used the Hot Stuff MFT stamps that I got for Christmas, the Cuttlebug stuff that I got for Christmas, and the Nesties that I got for me {::SMILES}. There’s really no special technique that I did. Just a lot of layerings. Actually it was kind of interesting how this came about. Initially I had a black card, the white embossed background, and the ribbon. Of course it ain’t right lookin’. So I just left it. Then when I was doing the sketch, I got clever. I grabbed this plain old card and used the sketch to jazz it up. Here’s what it turned out to be. I like it a lot better. Enjoy!

Before Going to Bed - First 2008 Post :D

We had a great New Year celebration and I’m just getting tired. We had dinner and we did some baking. Made some fruit tarts. A Barefoot Contessa Strawberry Tarts that became a kiwi, blueberry, and blackberry tart. I’ll post some pictures if my friend emails me a copy. They’re not as nice as the picture on Foodnetwork but the taste was pretty good. The instructions were a bit confusing so we kind of improvised. Despite the little snags here and there, we had a great time and the dessert was something worth trying again.

This is my last night though to be up late doing arts and crafts. After tonight, it’s back to work and tomorrow, or I guess later today, I’d be cleaning so I wouldn’t be able to do anymore crafty stuff until later this weekend unless I get really lucky.

Before I start blabbing about my projects, I just want to say… I ordered some rectangle Nestabilities rectangle set. Whoohoo!!!! Lowest price and the shipping is reasonable too. Plus they sent me a 40% coupon for signing up as a VIP member. Can’t wait to get them. Hopefully everybody will be back at work tomorrow. I’ll definitely post earlier than this weekend if I get them in before then!

So, back to my projects… the first project I did was this card. I’ve had this card embossed the same time I embossed my other two cards (few days ago post) but just never got around to doing anything with it. I still have two sets of MFT stamps that I haven’t used and this is one of them, the How Sweet It Is set. I used the SU markers and water color pencil to color thing. I really like using the pencils better than the markers. It seems so much easier to control and blend. I’m so curious what the Copic markers can do. I found an Ebay store that sells the Ciao for $35. I might get one set and try them out.

Then I did a two page layout as part of my SCS 2008 scrapbook challenge. Now I just have 2 more to go to meet my goals and maybe a few more just to get the extra points if I have time. My budget is $35 for the 4 layouts and I’ve spent $5 and change. I’ve also only used a handful of what I purchased and downloaded for free so I don’t think I need to buy anymore unless I see something that’s a big must.

I’m not too happy with this left page. Seems like something is missing. I think I did peak at the last page and I need a few weeks break from scrapping. I’m like this with scrapbooking. I go in short spurts and that’s why I am either so slow or I just don’t do it as often as I want to. That’s why I’m hoping the challenges will help me since I seem to do better when I create something for a challenge.

Here are the material info for this layout:

Paper: Suzanne Walker Mint Mojito. This paper was bright green but I changed the color through the Hue/Saturation process and came up with this.
Photo corner and brad: I did it. If you want a copy, let me know. I’d save and post for you to download but it’s super late and I’m about ready to go to bed right now.
WordArt:
Tag: DSP
Font: Scrapvillage Kathleen and Cochin
All other elements from Weeds and Wild Flowers by Gina Huff — LOVE their stuff!

For the photo corner and brad, one day I’ll do a tutorial on that. It was really easy to do. For those familiar with Photoshop here’s the quick run down, create the photo corner shape, pick a color, give it some dust and texture, play with the settings, blend it, and once the corner is done, use the circle tool and make a copy, paste it on top of the photo corner, change it’s colors and blending options and you got some brads.

Goodnight! It’s 5:31 a.m.

My First Non-Christmas Project

Guess what I got for Christmas? a CUTTLEBUG!!!! Whoohoo!!! I also received some My Favorite Things stamps, my first, so quite excited about that. I didn’t get any templates though. My husband didn’t know what a bug is and didn’t know the many accessories (were on my list but he chose to get me other stuff) that you need to make it actually produce something. So today, I finally got to Joann’s and got a few embossing background templates.

This evening I got to play with my new toys and also the shipment of SU preview that came in a week before Christmas. Here’s what I came up with:

For this card I used the Stylized Cuttlebug embossing template for the background. This is the first time, or second time after the test one, that I used the bug and it came out so nice. I was very careful when I aligned and sandwiched the template that the paper. Then my daughter, she’s 3, helped me turn it. Pretty tough little girl. She loved it and I’m thinking of getting her a CuttleKid. I think she’d be so thrilled since she LOVES to do arts and crafts with mom.

For the pattern paper, I used Stampin’ Up! Apple Cider, Chocolate Chip, and the 2007-08 in-color cardstock. The ribbon is the pomegrate color and the string is hemp.

Then for my second project, I used my MFT, Meet Me at the Cafe, stamps and the Spots and Dots embossing background. I LOVE this set. I have two others that I’ll play with sometimes this week, I hope, and I’ll share when I do get something decent to show you.

This embossed blue cardstock is actually the test page that I did, or Emma did for me. She said I helped hold it and she turned it. I trimmed it and voila. For the colors, I used my watercolor pencils and blending pen. I’m not very good at coloring but I tried really hard and I think it’s not that bad looking. I kind of like it myself, ha!

Besides going to Joann’s, I also went to Target today and from their $1 bin bought 21 little mailboxes. I’ll be using them in my January workshop and also as gifts. I’ll be decorating these tins like so and like so and so and so. Ok, you get the picture. Aren’t they so cute???? Want to join? I only have 10 tins/spots!
Well, that’s it. I’m going to shop for some Nestabilities and also an ATG gun. Also I’m thinking of getting Emma a CuttleKid for her birthday and going to eyeball the Bind-it-All and Scor-Pal. I can’t keep up! Too many toys!!!

Hope you enjoy!