it's a love/hate relationship

Oh paper piecing. How I adore and detest you all at the same time! It's time consuming, and it's slightly frustrating, and it required tweezers. Tweezers!! But look at the results! Adorable! I so love this card. Even though it took me forever to design and assemble. Even though I had more glue on my fingers than on the card. Even though a few choice words flew out if my mouth during the process. (Can we talk about how tiny those eyes are?!)

And even though it's not perfect (the yellow body shows behind the black on the penguin; the glue shows on his eye), it is simply irresistible and I can't wait to give it to my husband! After I put this card together, my best friend gave me the most amazing tip for adhering the eyes. The very worst part of the project. She puts a tiny dot of glue where she wants to adhere the tiny pupils. Then she uses the Zig Two Way Glue Pen (fine tip) to pick up the pupil and place it. The glue is tacky and holds on to the pupil when she lifts the glue pen away. Pure genius!

Happy stamping! And Happy Thanksgiving!

sponging starlight

My goal was to use a non-Christmas themed stamp set. I was prepping for my Christmas Stamp Camp and I was running out of Christmas stamps for the ten projects that we do. So I pulled out this retired set and got to work making a Christmasy scene out of it. Woodland creatures attracted to the Star's light made a bit of sense. Now, I know that if I were being true to the setting of the first Christmas, more likely animals may have been camels and sheep. But I had deer and rabbits, so I ran with it.

I got out my trusty Post It Notes to sponge a twilight sky, a little hill, and most importantly, starlight! When I was matting my work, it was looking a bit too tidy, so I roughed up the edges of the mats with a distressing tool. The finishing touch, I think! At Stamp Camp, it was fun to see how the ladies worked up their starlight scene. Each one was a bit different. I more defined hill here, more orange in the starlight there. I love seeing what they come up with! Nine times out of ten their projects end up looking better than my original!

Happy stamping!

a new discovery

I just love Stampin' Up's stamp set, Snow Much Fun! I adore snowmen in all their forms. The ones the kids and my husband build in the backyard, the resin ones I place in my windows every Christmas season, those melting ones I see atop cookies on Pinterest. They all capture my imagination. I think that it stems from the classic Christmas movie and song, Frosty the Snowman. And from a recurring dream that my childhood snowmen DID come to life and frolicked on my childhood front lawn. I really did think that they had snow ball fights and decorated the pines across the street while my family slept, unaware.

In any case, snowmen make me smile. And so does this card. Particularly because I discovered a "new" technique. I've been using Classic ink and Aqua Painters for years. Beautiful watercolored flowers, sweet watercolored woodland animals, stunning watercolored landscapes. But lately I've been drawn to white snowmen on craft colored paper and pondered how in the world one would go about making them. Clearly the snowmen I was seeing were watercolored. But the white color had me stumped. I'm not sure why I was being so dense, because the answer was so simple. Craft ink! White craft ink and my Aqua Painter was the simple solution. Using craft ink works exactly like using classic ink. It just takes a bit more cleaning up.

 I will be making a ton of these cards this season. I love the homespun look of the sponged Crumb Cake paper with the white snowman popping out from it! Paper piercing lends a touch of texture, as does the Chocolate Chip ribbon. Sponging Chocolate Chip ink onto the edges of the patterned paper ages things a bit. I think that this is my favorite Christmas card I have ever made. Yup. It really is.

Happy stamping!

Speedy delivery

I love bestowing gifts on friends and family! I love it even more when the gift is hand made. But sometimes, an occasion creeps up on you, and you don't have time to knit a scarf, or string a necklace. 

My co-worker's birthday did that to me. The good news is that I knew that she would love a Hershey bar. Easy peasy, right? But I just couldn't hand her chocolate and call it a day. A conundrum. 

Then I remembered a project that my best friend did awhile back! A chocolate bar slider! The ribbon holds the candy in the sleeve, and when you pull on the knot, the candy slides up! 

I got to work with just 30 minutes until I needed to leave for work. I used an acrylic block, markers and a spritz of water to make the paper for the butterflies, and embossed them with Melon Mambo embossing powder. I love how they turned out! And I love that this simple little thing really made my friend's day! 

Happy stamping!

Simple elegance

Sometimes there is one element on a card that bumps it up a notch. On this card, I think that the ribbon really makes a statement! I'm such a craft supply cheapskate that I rarely use opulent ribbon. It just costs so much money that even when I buy a roll of it, I let it sit in my stash, afraid to actually use it. Silly, huh? Especially when just a little piece makes such a huge difference on a card! Without the ribbon this card would be just "meh".

I have to say that I'm quite happy with how that knot turned out. Tying knots in ribbon is harder than you'd think! And don't even get me talking about actual bows. I've probably used up my allotment of under-my-breath-curses trying to tie cute little bows! Although I have found that tweezers help the process a teeny bit. 

The other element that I love on this card is the use of gold embossing powder. I used it on the sentiment, the ornament, and if you look closely, it's on the edges of the dry embossed panel. It adds a subtle touch of elegance to the card. 

Happy stamping!

Winter memories

Snow Much Fun is one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets! It really is just so cute. It lends itself to water coloring, and to using markers with a blender pen. I chose the former with this card featuring a non-traditional color palette. Crumb Cake, Tempting Turquoise, and Soft Sky with a pop of Real Red! 

Normally I shadow white elements with gray ink. But I remembered my girls making snowmen when they were little. They were so excited about snow falling to the ground! They just couldn't wait to get out there and make a snowman! Often, there really wasn't enough snow for a proper snowman. So what they ended up with was a small, dirty, muddy snowman. So I used Crumb Cake for the shadowing. I love the results!

Now, when I look at this card, I get to reminiscing about winter fun when the kids were small. It puts a smile on my face!

Happy stamping!

Making Christmasy messes

Christmas cards are so fun to make! But when I sit down to make a bunch of them, sometimes I grow weary of green and red color schemes. This card is a departure from traditional Christmas colors, and I giggle a little every time in look at it! Bermuda Bay and Old Olive! Who would have thought that they could make a stunning Christmas card!

The first attempt at this card had clean colors and it just felt a little too stuffy. So I pulled out my Chocolate Chip ink pad and marker and went to work muddying up things. I used the marker around the edges of the ornament stamp. And I used the ink pad and a sponge to soften the edges of the Whisper White and Old Olive card stock. I sprayed splotches of color onto the home made patterned paper to muck things up a bit. 

Sometimes a perfectly pristine card makes me happy. But today wasn't that day. Today I wanted to make a bit of a mess. So I did! And I had a blast doing it!

Happy stamping!

Fresh ideas

There are some stamp sets that I've had forever. And sometimes I feel like I've used them so much that I've done everything that I can do with them. Tried every technique possible. Made every card possible from them. 

Snow Swirled was one of those sets. I thought that creatively, I was done with it. So I sat down with it and challenged myself to do something I've never done with it before. Something fresh, or some new technique. I have to be honest, I sat with the stamps staring back at me for a very long time! I poured through Pinterest. Looked at hundreds of pins! 

And finally I stumbled upon a new idea! I used a marker to highlight the curlicues in the tree! Simple, but effective. It made the stamp feel less formal and uptight. It added some playfulness. I also used markers to highlight the starbursts and I'm in love with the results!

Happy stamping!

Christmas time is here

First, let me say, it's good to be back blogging! Between my new job, taxiing the girls, putting dinner on the table, and coordinating the schedules of two very busy teenagers, the breath of creativity had been blown out. By the time everything was done, and everyone was home for the night, I had nothing left. I was just a lump on the couch, falling asleep there before I could drag my tired body into my own bed!

Thankfully, at the very last minute, I decided to do a craft fair! And I was woefully low on Christmas cards. So I made myself get to work! I browsed my favorite Pinterest boards for some Christmas inspiration, turned up the Christmas tunes, and got to creating! 

I am in love with this card! The colors, it's simplicity, and how in person, the card looks like it's made of leather thanks to the paper piercing!

I combined the piercing with a bit of dotting with a marker for a touch of whimsy. I'm so happy with the results!

I know some of you out there can't stand anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but, as a crafter, I love Christmas even before Halloween! 

Happy stamping!