Think Pink

 

You've probably seen this DCWV paper before - it's one of my favorites, with its bright colors and its built in glitter.  I stock up whenever Michaels or Joann has an open stock paper sale, and even though I have a ton of it, I can't bear to throw any of it away.  When I found myself with a few half inch trimmings, my first thought was to toss it, but I couldn't.  Instead, I layered it over a wide organdy ribbon, and applied it to this card.  This is the epitome of Clean and Simple although it has three different textures and plenty of sparkle, and is perfect for everything except winning challenges.    

Nonetheless, I am submitting it to the Cheerful Stamp Pad for their Think Pink challenge.  Who knows?  Maybe CAS will get some respect.

Halloween inchies

I can't believe I forgot to post this!

I had to make a dozen halloween inchies for a swap, and I had a hard time getting started.  However, once I sat down and started working, they just started flowing.  A couple of them use shaped sequins (they look terrible in scans), some use punches, and some shapes I hand-cut.  I used various scraps of technique backgrounds and fragments of stamped images, and even a little masking. Finally, I did a bit of doodling, and the stuff I drew myself happens to be the stuff I like best.

Yes, there are more than a dozen here, and some are duplicates, but some I wanted to keep to remember what I had and could do.  The sequins are really too small to use on larger projects, but they are so perfect for inchies!

I hit a lot of challenges with these inchies:
Crafty Pad - (faux) stitching
Cowgirls - Bling (sequins are bling, right?)
Creative Inspirations Paint - pumpkin patch
Aly's Sunday challenge - distressing
Paper Players - anything goes
Alice in Wonderland - Halloween
Secret Crafter - Things that fly
Totally Gorjuss - Halloween
Crafty Catz - Halloween
Daring cardmakers - Halloween
Mami Doodles - anything but a card
Totally Papercrafts - Bling
AiFactory - Halloween
Delightful Sketches - circles (the little moons)

Big order

I'm not dead, I've just been busy finishing up an order.  I have a friend that takes a big trip every year with her female friends, and for the past few years, I've been making cards for her to give out as little favors for the other women.  This year they are taking a rafting trip, and I immediately thought a slider card would be fun.

It's was tricky getting all the elements that she wanted in there; the bluebonnets, the longhorn cattle, the oil rig, but most importantly, the river.  For some of it, I could find clipart, but I had to draw the main background.

I had to make 18 of these.  You never really get how much work a slider card can be until you make them in quantity.

School Spirit necklace

The school colors of the local high school are blue and green.  my neighbor, who has a high schooler too, asked me about a necklace in the school colors that she could wear as a band booster.  This is what I came up with yesterday:

It improves on other necklaces I've made in that it has a slight curve to it, so it lies comfortably on the collarbone without folding over.  I'm worried it might be a little prissy, though.  I will try some other designs, though.  After all, whatever she doesn't wear, I can!

More round Robin ATCs

Here are a couple of ATCs that I made from kits assembled by Ragina Wells:

These are a good example of mismatched palettes, or at least they were - most of the papers were tinted with distress inks to bring the colors closer together.  I suppose I should have taken a "before" scan.

Round Robin ATCs

I joined a small group in which we each make 8 little kits with ingredients to inspire an ATC, and send them round robin around the circle, and when the kits come home, we have 8 ATCs made by other people with our stuff.  It's a small group, only five people, and we do two kits from each person.

Here are the ATCS I made from kits I got from Virginia Bell:

She only had one Halloween kit in the box, but since it will probably be past Halloween when the other people get her kits, I felt that I ought to do it.  The bird one - it was a strange mixture of elements, that's all I have to say.  That is a big problem with the kits.  People will mix colors and patterns from all different palettes, and expect you to make them work.  It's tricky, but fun.

20 cards for $12

When I heard the price for this workshop, my jaw hit the ground!  How can you pass up a deal like that?  In addition, we all brought food to share for dinner, so it was a great evening.  The demo/hostess, Carolyn, gave us six sheets of 12x12 paper/cardstock, full size cutting diagrams (she drew them directly onto the gridded placemats that demos always seem to have), and unlimited access to her stamps and embellishments.  She didn't predesign the cards - we went our own way with the papers after we cut them.  Carolyn asked me to scan what I made, so I decided to show you as well.  If you are a stamping demo, this is what I can home with - two each of the following cards and envelopes, plus lots of leftovers for me to play with later.

I could have gone a lot fancier with the layers and embellishments, but I was really scrambling to get 20 cards done in three and a half hours (I arrived late).  I'm ready to do this all over again, this time with Christmas papers!