New RCS Challenge, "Anything Goes 3D"

So, this week the LDT and the CDT are joining forces at Red Carpet Studio and participating in this challenge.  It's an "Anything Goes 3D" challenge where you have to create a 3D project.  It runs from June 30th to July 6th.  The sponsor for this challenge is The Paper Parade who are giving a $15 gift certificate as the prize.

Well, I decided to try something that I wanted to for a while.  I saw this on Pinterest.

Isn't the Lego box cute?!  There's several templates out there but this is for the smallest one.  You can find it HERE.  The Lego head card is something I made up myself.  Just a square with the corners rounded with a corner punch and rectangle that is narrower and longer than the square.   I made two of these and attached together with a paper hinge.  This would cute to put in your little guys lunch box on a special day.

Hope you join us this week.  Can't wait to see your projects!  Have a wonderful day!

Life Is Good

Sorry I haven't been posting as much this month.  I have been busy working on some submissions for the current submissions call at PaperCrafts.  So I can't show you what I've been working on. Hopefully, you'll get to see it in print form in the magazine itself!  :-). Anyway, I do have a card to share today.  I decided to make a card for the June Avery Elle challenge.  My fellow Gallery Idol Top 20 designer, Nina Yang, designed a fabulous sketch.

Isn't it fantastic?!  Now, usually, I like to take liberties with a sketch and interpret the sketch in some neat way.  This time, however, I just loved the sketch so much I couldn't bear to change it!  Much.  I did change where the sentiment was and I don't think my circles are quite accurate.  :-). Now you're supposed to use an Avery Elle stamp in your card but I don't have any, unfortunately.  I'd love to have some though.  They have some fabulous stamps!  But when your a SAHM there's a strict budget.  Someday though, I'll get some.  :-)  They do provide some digital stamps for those who don't have anything else to use which is really nice.  You can find them HERE.  Okay, enough chatter, here's my card.

I used one of the digi stamps (the circles with the lines on them) and coloured them with my Spectrum Noir markers (DG2, DG4, TB2, TB3, CT2, GB7) and cut them out.  I cut varying sized circles in matching colours out of card stock (blue and yellow by Recollections and green by Bazill).  Used my Slice machine to die cut my tag and stamped the sentiment (7 Gypsies) in olive StazOn ink.  I after arranging and adhering my circles down I attached my tag with some foam dots along with a few circles.  The striped edge is washi tape (Recollections).  I love the bright colours and clean design (thanks to Nina for that!) of this card.  Hope you like it too.

That's it for now.  Have a great weekend everyone!  Happy Canada Day (on Monday) to all my Canadian friends!

New RCS Challenge - "Going Digital"

Another card challenge is going on at Red Carpet Studio.  This time we are "Going Digital", create a card using a digital stamp.  So break out your printers and join us!  The challenge runs from June 23rd to June 29th and the sponsors are The Paper Nest Dolls.  The prize is 3 Copic markers of your choice!  Wouldn't you love to get your inked stained fingers on those?  You all have ink stained fingers too right?  Maybe it's just me.  LOL.  Anyway, we were given an image from The Paper Nest Dolls to create ours cards.  I chose Train Conductor Owen.

Isn't he cute?!  I needed another boy birthday card for a friend and this was the perfect image.  Now the original image had the railroad sign above the train but I wanted to use it separately so I cropped it out and printed it separate from the rest of the image.  This is the beauty of digital.  No need to mask anything.  And as long as you don't change the actual drawing itself, it's all good.  :-). Anyway, I coloured it all with my Spectrum Noir markers and matted Owen on yellow.  Now the layout for this card is based on Seize the Birthday's current sketch challenge which I'm linking up to.  I did switch it up a little but hopefully that's okay.  :-)

I went through my stash and found some papers to use for the 3 panels.  Not sure who makes any of them.  The sentiment is by Studio G.  I used some 3D dots to raise up the railroad sign and the main image.

On a different note, I'm having some back issues and haven't been able to craft as much as I'd like to. Not sure what I did.  I think I just bent over.  You know your getting older when....  LOL.  It's starting to feel better now so hopefully it'll clear up soon.  :-).

Well, that's all for now.  Hope your are all enjoying your weekend!

A Vintage Christmas

I've said this before but vintage is really not my style when it comes to card making.  I love the look but I find it hard to do successfully.  In any case, I wanted to play along at Festive Friday and vintage is the theme.  It's also the theme at Christmas Cards All Year Round so I'm linking up at both with this card.

Well, the main image of the house is actually an antique printing block I found in an antique store several years back.  Can't get much more vintage than that, can you?  LOL.  I thought this image made a great Christmas stamp and I've used it before.  It's a little tricky to stamp since its made out of metal instead of rubber.  You have to put the paper on top and use a brayer to impress the image.  Doesn't always turn out the first try.  Anyway, it's hard to tell but it's stamped in gold and cut out in an oval.  Then I sponged soft suede (SU!) around the edges.  It's matted on green, burgundy, cream then the taupe card base.  I used and corner punch (Fiskars) on the green to make the fancy corners.  I used a variety of flowers from my stash, layering them up.  The burgundy sheer flowers were white originally but I sponged on blazing red and royal purple StazOn ink to colour them.  Also, used olive StazOn for the green sheer flowers.  Used some gold flower brads (Making Memories) to put them together.  The roses were white originally as well, but I antiqued them with brown and gold.  Then I stamped the sentiment (Fiskars) in timber brown StazOn.  I added the burgundy bow and viola!  Done!

Wel, that's all for today.  Hope you all are having a fantastic week!

One in a Million Dad

I made this card for my husband and he certainly is one in a million.  That's what it says on the inside of the card which ties (no pun intended) into the one plaid tie versus the other plain ones.  He's a great father.  He's kind, and fun and he's not afraid to show our son how much he loves him.  :-)  Can't get better than that.

I got the idea for this card from the current Fusion challenge going on.

I loved the sketch and there was something about those plaid ties.  So, I actually tied some ribbon just like you would a real tie and made some mini ones!  The ties are matted with some dark green but in the picture it looks black.  Oh well.  I'm sure you all will believe me.  LOL.  The sentiment is by SU!.  Here's a detailed look at the ties.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Guest Designer at CAS(E) This Sketch

I have to say I'm quite excited to be guest designer for this weeks CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.  This is an awesome challenge blog with a talented bunch of designers.  I try to participate in their challenges whenever I can.  So, when Chrissy asked me if I'd like to guest design this week I jumped at the chance!  :-).  Anyway, here's the super sketch designed by N@ Ali.

Isn't it fabulous?  I flipped it around and upside down for my card.

I was needing to make another boy birthday card and this sketch just really worked well with what I wanted to do.  I love this little robot stamp (Inkadinkado).  I stamped, coloured (Spectrum Noir markers) and fussy cut it out.  I computer generated the sentiment then trimmed down my panel and used my Fiskars circle cutter to make the partial circle cutout. I stamped the stars (7 Gypsies) in royal purple, olive and blazing red StazOn ink.  I find that with clear stamps StazOn ink works really well and gives a solid clean impression.  Some colours can tint the stamp a bit but it doesn't affect the stamp.  You do need the StazOn cleaner though.  Anyway, I attached the white panel with foam dots onto my olive card base and tucked in my robot underneath to peek out of the circle.  I really like the result.

I hope that you all will join in the fun at CAS(E) This Sketch.  Have a lovely day!

Going to link this up to Addicted to CAS challenge.  Code word is Circle(s).

New RCS Challenge, "The Graduate"

It's another card challenge over at Red Carpet Studio and this week we're looking at the movie, "The Graduate" for inspiration.  The challenge is to create a graduation card and runs from June 9th to June 15th. This should come in handy since it is that time of year.  So the sponsor for this challenge is QKR Stampede and they are giving the winner 5 digi stamps of the winner's choice.

I went pretty simple this time but I think it turned out pretty good.  Cut some black cardstock to resemble a grad cap and added a tassel.  I stole this tassel from an old bookmark.  :-). Taped it on the backside of the black cardstock and then adhered that to the white card base.  Then I stamped the sentiment (an old stamp from All Night Media) in black.  I like how the tassel is free to move around.  :-).

Hope you will all join in on the fun.  Have a great day!

A Father's Day Card

Some of you may not know this but I did not move on to the next round of Gallery Idol.  To be honest, I'm not too surprised.  While I think I made a pretty cool card, I was up against some really popular and talented card makers.  I'm just proud and happy to have made it to the Top 20!  It was an awesome experience.  I do have to say that all of the other Top 20 ladies are not only talented but super nice as well.  Anyway, they've got their next assignment and they are busy creating as I type this.  The next round of voting starts at noon (MDT) on Monday (June 10th) so don't forget to vote!  Gotta support my new card making friends!

Anyway, I have a Father's Day card to share with you today.

I did a combination of spray misting and sponging on a white panel in brocade blue (SU!) and olive (StazOn).  I then stamped in jet black (StazOn) the lighthouse (Just For Fun Stamps).  Matted that on dark blue and attached to white card base.  Stamped the sentiment (SU!) in jet black (StazOn).

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:
There She Goes Clear Stamps - Create a CAS card.
Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog - Masculine/Father's Day

Well, that's all for now.  Have a fantastic day!

Gallery Idol, Round 2

Well, it's Round 2 of PaperCrafts Gallery Idol and the challenge was to design a card for Dad.  While I came up with my idea of what I wanted to create, it was quite the ordeal getting to the point of completion.  The hamster in my head is exhausted!  LOL!  Anyway, time to reveal my card.

This card is for my Dad.  He has a thing for remotes and is known in our family as the Gadget Man.    Now I'm certainly far from being technically inept but I won't go near his TV remotes!   Its just beyond me.  LOL!  I didn't have a stamp or die of a remote control so I had to make my own.  I cut out three rectangles, two grey and one black and rounded the corners with my corner punch.  Using a variety of hole punches and circle cutters I made the buttons for the remote and used some Glossy Accents for dimension.  This was all a little fiddly and time consuming but worth it in the end.  The sentiment was computer generated.  The strip of paper with the circuit board pattern I found online at a free vector graphic site.  There's tons of these online.  Just do a google search.  I coloured the circuit board strip with my Spectrum Noir markers (TB2 and TB3).  All that was then attached to a white panel and then a white card base.  It seems so simple but took me two days from concept to completion!  I hope you all like it and will join in the voting process.  It starts at noon (MDT) on Monday June 3rd (today!). You can do that HERE.

I can still hardly believe I'm a part of this competition.  There are some amazing designers in the Top 20 and I'm honored to be among them.  :-)

Thanks for all your wonderfully kind words and support!

Have a fabulous day!