Masculine

So many boy birthdays lately...and I'm so bad with masculine cards. We're a very girly household here. 

The car image is from Stampin' Up, the sentiment from CTMH (clear stamps curved in an arc shape). The banner shapes were cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

I'm pretty pleased with how it worked out.

Another share

Simple, straightforward and quick...just what you need when you've forgotten someone's big day. Stamp from Michael's (Studio G?), embossed with black embossing powder, 3 strips of washi tape, and...DONE!!!

Not that I want to be making too many of these types of cards :)

Testing, testing...

Trying something new...posting to my blog, hahaha! Just kidding. Trying to post from my iPad. Not the best at finger pecking typing, so I won't be wordy (that'll be novel in itself!)

Stamp by Amuse Studio (thanks Chris).

(Took me longer to set up Google Plus so that I could access the photos on my photo stream...fingers crossed that this works)

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...

A Sassy Pirate

I pulled out my Prismacolors and Mona Lisa OMS for a change. Wow, I thought I needed to practice my Copic colouring, but I *really* need to practice with my Prismacolors! My 7-year old could give me a run for my money with her Walmart pencil crayons...

I was just having a bit of fun with some of my Nestabilities and coloured Kraftin' Kimmie's "Cutthroat Lizzie" to match. Some of the Nesties are then popped up with dimensional foam stickers. The embossed layer is a Stampin' Up embossing folder - "Square Lattice" and is quickly becoming a favourite for me, and that little belt buckle is from a really old Quickutz die.

I tried a faint gray cloudy day for the background, but apparently, it's soooooo gray that it doesn't even show up :)


Don't look at the colouring too closely (yes, she has a bit of lipstick "bleed", LOL!).

Hope you all had a great weekend. We "bunked in" at my sister's garage sale and managed to get rid of a little "junk" from the garage and make a bit of cash in the process. At this rate, I am determined to have a parking spot in the garage come winter!

Happy Girlie Birthday...

I love this Francesca stamp from the Moonlit Whispers line at Kraftin' Kimmie stamps - she's perfect for little girl birthday cards (and big girls, too, I suppose!) I've used SU's Pacific Point and Pumpkin Pie cardstock to go with the DCWV designer paper (from the gloriously glittery Mango Frost pack).

Francesca is coloured using my Copics - still practicing, LOL!The cupcake stamp was a find from the Michael's $1.50 bin a while back (yes, $1 in the US, $1.50 in Canada) Now it makes more sense as to why I was so excited about shopping down south!

I also used a template that I picked up at Impress in Tukwila for the "faux stitching" - I haven't done that in a while - and my white Signo gel pen from SU for the "stitches". The "border" punch is from Martha Stewart. I keep promising that I'll write the name of the punch in permanent marker on each punch, but I've only done it for a few so far.

That's all from here, it's almost time to call it a night (*after* I clean up what used to look like my craft desk ;) )

Rock On!

Happy Friday the 13th to you all. Hope you're all off to a roaring start :)

This happy little rocker is from the Greeting Farm. I've also used one of my EK success border punches and some DP from a DCWV paper pack - all "bargains" that I picked up at Joann's stateside.


I really need to fill out my collection of birthday cards as I always seem to be short really cute babyish ones and older "more-mature" (LOL) cards - most definitely not part of my arsenal. I suppose it's time to expand my horizons - yeah, I'll work on that ;)

The music note stamp on the inside comes from the Totally Stamilicious "Rockin' Frawg" set and so does the "Rock On!" sentiment.

Well, in case I don't post anything over the weekend - parties galore; quite remarkable for this "self-confessed" homebody - have a good one!

Draggin'...oh, sorry, I mean Dragon :)

Draggin' kind of describes how I'm feeling today...

It's dreary outside and it's supposed to be summer, and these drugs I'm on for my back make me "odd" - I can't describe it really. Some days I'm drowsy, other days I'm dopey (yeah, ask me about the morning I didn't remember greeting my boss as he walked into the office. Ten minutes later, passing by his office, I asked "hey, when did you get in?" - hahaha!).

Today, I'm just blech - even the morning coffee that hubby handed me as I rushed out the door and the Timmie's hot chocolate that the broker I work for brought in didn't really get me out of the "funk". No worries, I'm not having the "suicidal thoughts" side effect - hubby saw one of those drug commercials for Lyrica and asked if I was feeling okay. I told him I was far too drowsy to make the effort. I don't suppose it's something we *should* joke about, but...

Anyways, enough about my "funk" - I think I might go downstairs to the mall and hit the toy store. I have a present to buy for a 4-year old's party this weekend, and if a trip to the toy store can't help... :)

Here's a fun cheerful dragon card. His flying goggles make me smile! Back when Dustin Pike was just getting his feet wet in the digital stamping world, I bought a bunch of his images (dowloaded a schwack of free ones too). This is one of them...


The image is coloured with my Copics and I "dotted" little pools of Colorless Blender from my marker to make the scales - not sure how well that shows up here.

The journey "sentiment" is "Define Your Life" from Stampin' Up. I bought this set for scrapbooking (which I have really neglected until very recently. I've actually been on a bit of a roll this week...), but have only used it for cards so far.

I bought the papers on a recent trip to Seattle and think they're DCWV. The border punch was a steal at Joann's.

Have I ever mentioned how much I *love* Joann's? Border punches for 40% off (when they're already 30% less than we pay for them in Canada)??? Plus, my 7-year old noticed, "Wow, they have way more stuff than our Michael's does!!!" Dropped a small fortune (except if the border guard reads this, then I only spent $50, LOL!)

The punch that is below the oval punch (SU) journey sentiment was bought at Impress Rubber Stamps - OMG!!! I could have spent days locked up in that store. I...ahem...spent a little more money there. It *also* punches the brackets to either side of the dragon. Oh, and they ship to Canada...

Here's a peek into the inside...

Man, I've been "talkative" today, LOL! I think the "funk" is fading... I'm even smiling now!

Bookmouse...

Long time no blog...I'm starting to detect a theme.

Again, I've been stamping and colouring and making cards...it's just the taking pictures and editing them that kills me.

Here's one I completed just recently.

This adorable little mouse is an image by the very talented Elizabeth Dulemba (who writes AND illustrates children's books - I feel lucky if I have the time to read them by the time the kids are ready for bed, LOL!)



The mouse image itself is not popped up, but the books *are*. I'm not sure that I managed it, but I wanted to give the impression that they were toppling over.


It also happens to fit in with the theme of "READING" over at the Copic Creations blog.

(as an aside, I think I've figured out how to save my "watermark" thingie as a brush in Photoshop Elements. Next step, I'll (hopefully) figure out how to save the whole faded edges thingie (with all the settings specific to me) as a favourite "action" - I think that's what they're called. Perhaps that will make the whole editing process easier.)

Well, back to the job that pays the bills...sigh...

Squeaking in an April post...

Where did April go? I haven't posted since the beginning of March and now it's nearly May.

I'm posting the Easter cards I sent to my niece and nephew back in Ireland.

This was for Jade:


And this one for her brother, Jamie:


As per usual, I've used my Copics to colour the images. I've used some unknown DSP for the background (and some of it was verrrrrrrrrry old), but have also used some retired SU DSP (the red polka-dotted paper). The swirly sentiment stamp is from SU (Well Scripted).

The little girl image is from Sugar Nellie, the jester is from Whiff of Joy.

So again, I *have* been creating, I just haven't been sharing (and I wonder where my 2-year old gets it from, LOL!)