To Chair You Up!

inside  

My daughter was having a rough day and this brought a smile, a laugh, and a hug in return!  Can't top that for beating the winter blues!  Moxie Fab World is hosting a challenge to do just that, and CAS-ual Fridays is Jest playing over at their site too!  Go out and put your stamp on these two!

Friendly thanks

Masked and colored this thank you card using this week's PDCC palette! Love this combination!

Exotic Spring

   Have you any stamps that give you more trouble than you thought they might once you got them home and inked?  This cute little set I imagined doing all sorts of things with and yet I always seem to struggle with it just a bit.  
   One of the ideas I have in my "try it" folder is a color combination of tomato red and green.  I thought of this set instantly when I came across the color inspiration and I've finally had some time to put it together!  I've used my lime green/silver tinsel embossing powder and the designs really sparkle for lots of fun!  One of my favorite scrap ideas is to use the strips I've trimmed for panel cards--especially if they have embossing.  The texture and the patterns are so unique and add a special touch to anything.
   These are the last two cards to round out a batch I'm sending to mom-in-law to have on hand!  Just a little three-legged frog day gift!  
   *[oh, and if you're interested in more cards with this set, just search the Hero Arts Flickr group for the tag CL400]  I just thought of another idea for this set:  a bandana set in bright colors for DD...what do you think?  Any other ideas?!  

Masculine Ribbon Card!

Heh heh...doesn't the title of this post alone make you want to chuckle...just a little?  A 'masculine ribbon card?!'   Really?  I mean 'masculine' alone is enough to give one pause... Well I was thinking about my weekly personal card challenge:  an all-occasion masculine card in which to convey payment for our piano lesson.  CAS-ual Fridays has a challenge this week:

   So, this is what I cooked up...along with a batch of pecan toffee cookies to take along:

   A little black grosgrain ribbon to give dimension to my note!  I love my new Hero Arts Zig Zag background!  Stamped it on some striped patterned paper, punched it, popped it up and added a little zig-zing around the card edges--I'm happy with how it turned out!  
   Make it a great weekend--and be safe all you holiday-bound folks!

A Dog's Life

   Oh the signs of spring...flocks of robins, blue jays, blue birds, and other twitteringly interesting prey to entertain our four dogs!  Warm enough to lie on the ground outside, sniff the air, and watch...every dart, glide, chase, and hop!  The dogs are happy...outside...not winter-house-bound...peaceful.

   Had a little fun the other day with a cute little dog set and some scrap grid paper!  Having fun with lots of pattern and blocks these days!  There's a great link to make your own colored grid paper in case you missed the original post!  Enjoy your day!

Gettin' Ziggy With It!

Moxie Fab World Die Cutting Challenge!  Check it out!

   Loving the new Zig Zag background from Hero Arts!  It looks great just about anywhere!  Like behind this little scrapling vase and flowers for my allergic friend's office desk!  Sending her everything good: 

   Sometimes taking the pictures of my cards is just as fun as making them!  Capturing shadow play is one of my favorite pastimes just like in this other vase card I made for my mom!   Go out and capture some fun today--maybe even enter a challenge!?

Frog Fun!

   In honor of Moxie Fab World's cutting challenge I made a special scrap card to celebrate Three-Legged Frog Day!  It comes from my husband's family, and it's a fun tradition I was happy to adopt in ours!  Any day, any reason, any gift!  This little frog stamp reminds me of the coqui that is native to Puerto Rico--where my husband was born and raised!  He's even playing the quatro, and I've masked him to have a third leg so he could sing our theme song!  He's riding out on his wavy lily pad to Abuelita's house to deliver a smile from us!

You Light Up My Life

CFC-38

   So--does anyone else out there remember this song?  I mean the Academy Award for Best Song of the Year winning Debby Boone version?!  I was making a card for the tools challenge over at Moxie Fab World wanting to showcase the power of fancy trimming scissors.  Remember making borders by cutting one side of a paper strip, then reversing the scissor and making the mirror image?  It's fun to cut matching strips for some funky ric-rac!

   I used my corrugating tool to make the lampshade, and white embossed my own sentiment using various Hero Arts alphabets.  I'm pleased with how it turned out--matches the picture in my mind's eye!  Go ahead...get out those old paper trimmers and experiment!  See what you come up with!
  Oh--and if you're inspired by anything in the movies, you might want to enter it in this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge!

A Moment in Time

CFC#38
   

   What a fun challenge this week over at CAS-ual Fridays!  I must admit my mind went straight to one of my favorite movies of all time!

   Here's the close-up:

  I have to say that for a CAS card it was a small pain to actually stamp!  [wasn't I just reading how clean and simple looking doesn't always equate to constructing?!]  To achieve the pocket watch element I used masking and reverse masking of an alarm clock face and a pocket watch outside; I needed to ink my clear sentiment stamp in Versamark to make it sticky enough to hold the marker color I wanted to use in order to color only part of the double border; and I forgot my mask on my first try before I stamped the pocket watch over the clock face!  But eventually I got what I was after!  

   When I was finally finished I headed down to the basement and found my old vinyl to take the red carpet shot!  Are you humming the score song yet?  You might want to start or look for it if you've never heard it...they're going to turn it into a Broadway musical!  Be still my heart!

A Few Ideas

  I am often inspired by catalogs and their gorgeous photographs of fabrics, props, and various wares for sale.  I saw these pages in the latest Pottery Barn one, and wanted to try making my own version of the beautiful greenware.  I stamped in color and embossed on glossy cardstock, then went back over the whole card front with clear ink and more clear embossed powder.  I like the effect it created--exactly what I was going for.  Next time I think I'd sponge a little Distress ink to shadow over the first layer before the top coat...it would bring out design edges a bit more and perfectly mimic the ceramic glaze.  
   I just got a Hampton Art clear stamp set called Fabulous Flowers, and I got busy to catch up my mom-in-law's card stash!  Papercrafts is buzzing about their new Stamp It 3 Ways issue, and that's my favorite kind of fun!  Here are a few more using the same set.

Yoo Hoo!

   Good Morning Everyone!  I have a couple of fun ideas to share today with this card:  
   1.  Stamping using an envelope background stamp for texture...or a real, live, security envelope...which is what I've done here in embossing Hero Arts' Big Eyes!  I think it gives him a masculine quality, don't you?  [which gives me another idea....I love when this happens!]
   2.   A wicked cool link to a website where you can create your own custom grid paper!  
   That's right!  You can change the size, the color, and the type from polar grid to circle grid to square!  I used it to print the background in one of my favorite CAS cards HERE.  I'd love to see how you might put your own stamp on it!  Let me know!
   Hero Arts Blog has announced their new monthly contest theme and I also used their Typewriter Alphabet to personalize this hello card!
   Make it a great day!

Making an Impression

   Moxie Fab World is celebrating the Papercrafts Magazine special issue entitled Cool Tools with several challenges!  I wanted to add this card to the embossing one since it celebrates a unique use of the Thank you Cuttlebug embossing folder...just a little piece of it!  I embossed a whole card front in some Core'dinations cardstock, cut out the Danke from the many variations of thank you's, sanded it and voila--a perfect textured sentiment for this dotty card!  [I wonder how you say voila in German?  Maybe some of my peeps can help me out on this one!?]  
   I have another clever idea for using my embossing backgrounds...I just can't resist a good pun!  
   Perhaps you have some ideas too?!  There's still time to play along over at Moxie Fab!  

Moxie Wishes!

   Thanks so much to Virginia for organizing a little fun for our Moxie friend Cath over at Moxie Fab World!  Here's hoping Cath will be striking any pose she wants after healing up her shoulder!