Back from sabbatical...

...isn't that what they call it when you just happen to take a year off? A YEAR??? How did that even happen?

It's not like I haven't been crafty in over a year...I've just been too selfish (read lazy) to share.

You know how it takes sooooooooo much time to take a picture, edit it, have to look up everything you've used? Now I'm starting to sound like my 9-year old when I ask her to clean up her room.

Well, here we are...2012 (no this ISN'T a resolution), I'm still alive and ready to share once again if anyone's still "listening"...

Since I'm always stumped by masculine cards, I challenged myself to make one using some of my new Sale-a-Bration goodies. I'm also challenging myself to use up some of the designer paper I've (ahem) collected over the years - I'd love to be able to put my feet under my desk in the near future :)

Stamp sets: Sprinkled Expressions (Stampin' Up! SAB 2012), Stampin' Up!s Best Dad Ever (sentiment)

Ink: Versamark, Black Craft (Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Stampin' Up! Basic Black, SU! Whisper White, DCWV Natural stack, core'dinations Pearls in Auburn Pearl

Accessories: copper embossing powder (Inkadinkadoo), Stampin' Up! copper brads, Framelits Labels Collection die (Sizzix for Stampin' Up!)

Well, that wasn't so hard after all...

Happy Birthday Chris!

So, it was my birthday last Thursday and my best friend who just immigrated from England gave me a gorgeous Tiffany's necklace - she had to ask the sales clerk in T's if she could suggest anything for a friend who "doesn't really wear jewelery" (apparently the poor girl nearly passed out, LOL!). It's a gorgeous, but plain (just like me - hahahaha!) silver disc with a scrolly-L engraved on it.

Anyhow, said *friend* also gave me a rather sarcastic birthday card - some old biddies under the hairdriers at their local salon with an associated "old" sentiment...but that's alright, I had this set, Old Brawd, from Totally Stampalicious just waiting to be used on her (it's her birthday today - exactly one week after mine)!


I've also used the Stampalicious Sketch Challenge sketch. Who doesn't *love* a sketch to get the creative juices flowing?

The brads along the top and bottom of the vertical strip match each other (ie. the 3 top ones match, as do the 3 bottom ones, but they don't match *each other*). This goes back to when my darling nephew decided to rearrange my brad storage and upended the filled container! My sister was mortified, but I learned a valuable lesson: don't assume that just because your own kids don't mess with your stuff that anyone else's kids will be able to stay away. So now I have this lovely box of "assorted" Bazill brads!

My favourite part of the card is the inside sentiment:


You see, Chris is an IT Project Manager, so the "jab" is double-edged, LOL! The little mouse image is from Hanna Stamps.


The only part I'm regretting are these little Spica glitter dots that I've used to frame the image, but once I'd started, it was too late to stop. The smaller black dots were an attempt to save it, but although I like it a bit better, I'm still sorry I used the gold glitter pen to begin with.

Oh, well...

And Chris, "you'll always be older than me..." :)

Twilight...

Well, I've been indoctrinated into the club (cult?). Curiosity got the better of me and I asked for the Twilight books for my birthday, and DH bought me the first 2 books. I am already halfway through the first book - they really are an easy read to wind down at bedtime. I've actually missed reading since I started driving to work...I was reading around 2 books a week when I was taking the train. Lately, I've been too tired by bedtime to think about reading.



So, I was inspired to ink up TGF's Edward again now that I "know" him, LOL!

I gave myself some artistic license with his hair, but I was having so much fun with the streaks - and they were looking so good (if I do say so myself)


I dug out some eyelets and blew the dust of my Cropadile to give it some industrial "edge" - not to mention how well they seemed to go with the Diamond Plate embossing folder (the one that you can hardly see - haha!)

I get the impression that Edward wouldn't dress as grungily as this, but hey, I don't know him that well yet!

More birthday cards...

Woo Hoo! I'm a posting machine!!!

This little beauty comes from a great little stamp company in Scotland called Sugar Nellie. She's called "Rope Swing" and although my first stamp came with "rogue rubber" (the pattern at the neck of her dress wasn't deep enough to transfer the image as you'll see if you look *really* closely), Karen sent me a replacement right away, no questions asked. Fabulous customer service...I had to fill another basket just to express my thanks, LOL! Again, she's coloured using Copic markers, but the ovals (sponged a bit heavy-handedly) have been cut using my Creative Memories oval shapes from the Custom Cutting System. This is one of the best "manual" cutting systems I have found - normally I'm a bit "awkward" with manual circle cutters (to put it nicely), but this one cuts like a charm - for me at least! The pierced holes have been done "by eye", so don't look too closely (and if you do, please don't pass judgement!) The brads are from Bazzill. Again, the DP is old DCWV and the cardstock is all SU. The sentiment is a clear acrylic stamp from ??? (I have a few like that) If I had to guess, it would be from a set of many stamps and ink pads and markers that I picked up at Costco years ago. It is cut using an SU oval punch and mounted on the SU tab punch.

This one was going to be a boy card, but once I put this much ribbon on it, I'm thinking it's looking a bit girly. Again, I've pulled out my Sandylion Clear Boy set - fun images, coloured them with my beloved Copic markers and blinged things up a bit with my Copic Spica glitter pens. The ribbons came from a box of assorted ribbon bought at Costco quite some time ago and I've finished things off with one of Martha Stewart's border punches. Cardstock again is SU, DP is old and from a DCWV stack.

Birthday Cards...

I'm on a bit of a birthday card "phase" at the moment.

After a string of early Saturday morning realizations that I needed a card for a birthday party that afternoon, I made a resolution: I'm making a bucket-load of kids birthday cards and will not be caught short again for a long time.

My last resolutions were to get a craft room up and running (check), start a blog (check), and spend more time creating (check). Now I need to actually take the pictures, upload them (and fix them in PSE...I suppose if I did this more often it would be a cakewalk) and post them. This has always been my downfall - just ask my Aunt Linda who is still waiting for me to send her copies of my wedding pictures (we will celebrate our 14-year anniversary in two weeks!).

So, without further ado, here are a couple of my latest birthday cards:

Can you tell that I love circles? Riveting and Circle of Friendship (both Stampin' Up) are two of my favourite sentiment sets. I love that I can use my circle punches to quickly add a sentiment to a card. I've used bigger circle punches to make the turquoise ring. Here, I've used one of The Greeting Farm's Miss Anya stamps, coloured in with Copic markers and "blinged" with Stickles. The image is cutout and embossed (as is the mat) using the Nestabilities Long Rectangles dies. The DP is from an old DCWV stack cut into strips and sponged around the edges for added depth. The last embellishment are my Dew Drops. Voila...very easy, but one of my faves (and it could do for an older "girl" in a pinch, LOL!

This one is for the boys... I've used the image King's Jester Charlie from Whiff of Joy stamps. He is coloured in (again) using Copic markers and cut out and matted with the circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities. The small circles have also been cut out using the same sets of nested dies. I love having such a versatile tool that takes up such little space! Again, the DSP is from an old DCWV (another resolution I made was to start using up some of my cartloads full of DSP. Once the wheels start breaking off, you *know* there's too much paper stored inside!) and the cardstock is all from Stampin' Up. The juggling balls are "shined up" using Stampin' Up's Crystal Effects.

That's all for today...don't want to overdo it ;)