Make it Monday #3 glitter strips...{butterfly wish big}

I love this "wish big" sentiment from Papertrey Ink and I am excited to play along with their Make It Monday challenge this week...glitter strips with scor tape!  I DO love glittery bits whether it be micro glitter or bling from Want2Scrap, if it sparkles I like it!  Check out the results of pouring micro glitter over super sticky scor tape....

Wowsers!  That's SHINY!  I used my glitter strip as an accent to a white paper punched edge.

I also used pieces of the Large Pair Fancy Brackets in pearl from Want2Scrap for my butterfly flight path.  A simple once over with a raspberry sharpie creates that hot pink pearl swirl.

I was also able to customize my layered butterflies using two seamstress pins for antennae secured in foam dimensional tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Paper: Papertrey Ink, DCWV

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Bling: Want2Scrap

Glitter: Martha Stewart

Embossers: Cuttlebug (swiss dots) and Tim Holtz (music)

Ink: SU!

Dies and punch: Spellbinders and Martha Stewart

Paper flower: Prima

Craft supply: seamstress pins and metal rimmed tag

Just Us Girls #65 Sketch challenge....a cake from {scraps}!

First off, HAPPY 2011!  Can you believe it?  I know, me either!  But here we are, January 1st of a whole new year! 

Secondly, are you ready to get back to crafting with Just Us Girls!?  I hope so.  This week we have a fabulous sketch from Kathryn.  Check it out...

Fabulous, right?  You can take this sketch and use it over and over with different supplies and it will look unique every time.  I loved it!  Here is where I went with the sketch this week....I made a cake from scratch! ....errr, I mean SCRAPS! ;)

A friend reminded me this morning that I *needed* to make more ribbon cake cards and you know, what?  She was right!  I pulled out a wad of ribbon and trim scraps I had saved and went for it.  I also loved using some of my hand dyed seam binding stash and a metal rimmed tag I dug deep into my supplies for.  As you can see, the sheet music and seam binding obsession I have is being carried over into 2011 along with my swiss dots embossing folder obsession of 2009/10!  Love it!

"Wish big" is one of my favorite sentiments from the PTI Star Prints sets and the swirly font is too yummy.

Ready for some delicious treats from the Just Us Girls team?  Be sure and check out their cards along with Carla Suto's creation over at the Just Us Girls blog.  We are so pleased to have Carla designing with us all month long! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and happy NEW YEAR!

Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Paper: October Afternoon
Bling: Want 2 Scrap
Ink: SU
Die: Nestibilities lables 4
Embosser: swiss dots cuttlebug
Craft Supplies: ribbon and trim scraps, metal rim tag, seam binding, paper flower

Color Cue {7}, City Crafter Challenge and Cards Challenge....{wish upon a star}

Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight.....
Hello friends!  Back with another three-fer (didn't I just say on the last post I don't try and combine challenges? Hmmmm I guess I DO combine challenges from time to time).  This week both the Cards blog and the City Crafter Challenge had a star challenge going.   Dawn at Wplus9 has a fab Color Cue going  and I needed a baby card....so perfect storm again! 


Now I love the idea of a shaped card, but many times, the shape makes it difficult for a piece to actually function as a card!  Take stars for instance.  They have 2 teeny tiny points to balance on and, if you want overhanging blingy swirls from Want 2 Scrap...well what is a crafter to do?  Hambly Clearly Heavy is your answer.  I began by cutting and folding a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card out of clearly heavy.  I then applied my star and my bling swirls.  After I knew I had the layout I wanted, I trimmed away at the clearly heavy cutting a close silhouette to the swirls and star sides, leaving the straight edge on the bottom of the card.

And then, it's all in the details...I used a stamp from Funky Flowers from Wplus9 to create a stamped pattern on my yellow cadstock star base.  I love the individual pieces of this set for creating custom patterns.  A simple safety pin adorned with seed beads in the challenge colors adds to the baby theme and scrunched seam binding gives the card an "all wrapped up" feeling.  Red thread border stitching was fun to do with my sewing machine.  I love how it pops against the yellow cardstock!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Don't forget, if you like Bloomers from Webster's Pages, check out this post to enter to win some!  :)

Supplies:
Stamps: Wplus9, Papertrey Ink
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Hambly Studios (clearly heavy)
Ink: Stampin Up! and Papertrey Ink
Cutting tools:  Cricut and SCAL, CM and SU! punches
Bling: Want 2 Scrap
Craft Supply: Sewing machine, button, embroidery floss, seam binding, seed beads and safety pin

Two more moxie fab bicycles..

I guess I really DO like to ride my bicycle!  LOL!  Once I started thinking about bicycle cards I guess I just got on a ROLL!  ;)  Won't you come along for a RIDE with me and two more cards for the I Want to Ride My Bicycle Challenge in the Moxie Fab World ?  Thanks Moxie Fab for inspiring me to ride my bicycle this week!

I found this bicycle image over at the Graphics Fairy blog and was able to print it in rainbow colors.  SO happy!  I love rainbow colors!  Why have one favorite color when you can all of them!  I scored with some multi colored crochet thread deep in my yarn drawer too!  The sweet sentiment is one of my faves from the Star Prints set from Papertrey Ink plus buttons out of my stash!

And one more card for consideration...a truly clean and simple style which I generally struggle with but this card told me, it truly whispered in my ear, "leave me alone, don't add anything"  I of course listened and then had to add the teeniest tiniest bit of rainbow bling to the centers of the wheels just cuz...I'm a poor listener I guess but I couldn't resist!

OK, don't you agree, just this once, it was ok not to listen?  LOL!  That bit o bling just puts a little "me" stamp on it I think. 

And the quote...from a man who knows cycling and life's challenges...Lance Armstrong has shared this astute quote with the world at some point in his career, and Lance, I hear ya buddy!  I am frequently in "paralysis by analysis" by overthinking and not just enjoying the moment. (see first card for more life advice penned for me!)  So wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope you are making things happen instead of only worrying about falling off the bike....if you or I do fall off, there is always that tried and true "dust yourself off and try try again"!  And THAT, my friends, is the end of my public service announcement for the day!  ;)

Thanks evermore for stopping by my little spot in the blogosphere!  It's nice to see you here!

Supplies for Enjoy Life:

Paper: Papertrey ink

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Stampin Up

Dies: nestabilities

craft supply: buttons and crochet thread

Supplies for If you worried:

Paper: Papertrey ink

craft supply: craft gems

Tuesday Trigger Time to Chillax.....UR Cool!

Looking for my Just Us Girls card?  Please click HERE

Time to CHILLout, relax, be COOL!  Summer is arriving finally in my neck of the woods and I could not resist the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger inspiration to celebrate warm days and COOL treats.  I made this tag for my daughter's friend who is celebrating the big #6 today!  Here's the moxie fab trigger...

YUM!  I couldn't wait to pull out the super duper cute Sweet Kawaii stamp set from My Cute Stamps to make my birthday package tag.

Fun huh?  I stamped my background paper randomly with the happy little ice pop trying not to overlap and crowd the little guys too much.  THEN the ICE-ing on the tag, the rainbow colored pop who takes center stage!  I stamped the image with black Staz on so the ink wouldn't smear once I started color blending over the top of the image with tempting turquoise, green galore and only orange from Stampin up!

Hmmm...was anything missing? 

Oh wait, this guy needs SHINE because he might be melting a little on a warm day.....

Yeah baby!  A little glossy accents gives this pop some POP!  hee hee!

Here he is in action on the gift my daughter and I wrapped this morning.  Can I tell you how much fun teaching a 6 year old how to curl ribbon with scissors is??  Alot of fun, actually, once I got over the fear she would cut off a finger or two!  She's way COOLer than me! ;)

Supplies:

Paper: Stampin Up!, CM and Papertrey

Ink: Stampin Up!

Stamps: My Cute Stamps, Papertrey Ink

Punch: SU! and nestabilities oval

Craft supply: black tinsel yarn, foam letters (target $1), stapler, pinking sheers

Just Us Girls #12 Color Challenge...It's your day

This post is going live on Friday December 18 if you are on Pacific time like me and I have to share that my girl is NINE today!  *gasp* How did that happen?!!  It's also new challenge day at the Just Us Girls blog and Tracey has picked the perfect colors to make a card for my daughter's birthday!  Thanks for the inspiration Tracey!

Aren't those pop colors of raspberry, red and green just so HAPPY on the kraft?  Love this combo Tracey!  The whole JUGs team went over the top with creativity on this color challenge!  You will definitely want to check them out!

Kristin Bueter

Pam Imholz

Maria Levine

Tracey Cuccia

Lisa Kind

Mona Pendleton

Alicia Weiman

We hope you'll join us with our color challenge this week.  It is a fun one!  Be sure and link us up with the Mr Linky at the JUGs site.  Can't wait to see what you make and I surely hope you are enjoying the magic of the holidays.

Supplies:

Paper: Papertrey and thrifted ledger paper

Stamp: Papertrey

Ink: SU

Punch: Martha Stewert and Fiskars

Other craft items: craft gems, ribbon, liquid pearls

Raspberry Suite Challenge #17... { wish big }

Woohooo!  It's a raspberry suite challenge with Dawn McVey! I *heart* these colors and gleefully pulled out a gorgeous swatch of fabric by Amy Butler that my homegirl, Traci, gifted me.  As I was dancing around my craft room waving my fabric (just kidding!) I was remembering {this post} by Cathe Holden about making kanzashi flowers.  I found a great tutorial {here} so I thought I'd give the flowers a try.

the challenge:

my card:

Aren't these flowers pretty?  OK, I am no kanzashi master but, these are fun to make and something new to try in the flower making department.  I used 2"x 2" fabric squares to make each petal.

I used fabri-tac as the adhesive on this flower.  Love that glue!

The dimension on these flowers is fabulous!  Too fun!  I will definitely try these again.  Thanks so much for stopping by, I love your company!

Supplies:

Fabric: Amy Butler

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Papertrey Ink

Punch: SU!

Craft supply: embroidery floss, vintage button

Card Patterns #26 ...the {gift card} inspires the holder

OoooH gift cards! I LOVE them...to give or receive, I love a gift card, especially if it's a cute design. Thanks to the sketch challenge over at Card Patterns, it was time to put a starbucks gift card I had been saving for inspiration to work for today's project....a gift card holder!

THIS

plus THIS:
EQUALS =

Eeek! It's a gift card holder but wait, there's more... you see, I wanted it to be able to hold some surprises so I used the sketch to inspire some interactive layers. Yay! That's FUN!

The stars are a disguise for the VELCRO tab (love velcro for an inexpensive closure).

Lookey here at all the little alcoves where I will tuck a message or another gift card or a photo or...well, you get the idea ;) The starbucks gift card is slid into the pocket I made with the cardboard adhered to the kraft cardstock using a strong liquid glue...scotch tacky adhesive.

Here it is re-belted but left spread open to show off some of the layers separately. Aside from the fun way to open and close this card, I am LOVING the distressed and painted cardboard (I warned you I would be using this again in {this post}), the vintage book print (upside down since what it says is not relevant here) and the silhouetted stars and sentiment from Papertrey Ink. Isn't that swirly font on the sentiment totally fun?!

OK, peeps! I'm out of here for now. Thanks for stopping by today...now go out there and make it YOUR day!

Supplies:

Paper: Papertrey Ink and vintage book print

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU and Memories

Punch: CM

Other: acrylic paint, velcro, paper piercer

Raspberry Suite Challenge #11 ... {enjoy Life}

Greetings everyone! A card for consideration in Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #11. Crafty Dawn is known for her unique color combos and this week is QUITE a challenge with 5 colors and no white or cream neutral! Well, she did edit to add and say you could use it if needed but I managed to avoid it except for a *tiny* bit on one of my papers and on my ribbon. I use white a lot so I challenged myself not to this time :)

the challenge:

my project:

I have to say, I am quite excited with how the bright colors pop against the gray background! This was such a fun challenge and I will definitely use this again!
Now of course I can't have butterflies who don't "fly" so a side shot to illustrate their 3 dimensionality. Also, something I haven't done in a while, I stamped the black with pigment ink. I usually avoid that stuff like the plague since it tends to smear with my impatience BUT it was a great creamy black on this gray cardstock from Bazzill.

I'm so glad you stopped by today! I hope you take a moment today to just "enjoy life"...ciao!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey (raspberry fizz and pure poppy) and Bazzill (black and gray)

Printed paper: CM (green with swiss dots)

Stamps: Fancy Flourish and Star Prints from Papertrey Ink

Ink: black pigment by Colorbox

Dies: Sizzix

Punches: Martha Stewert (small butterflies)
Other: craft gems and ribbon (target $1)