PLAY BALL!

One of the September sketch challenges at Sassy Lil' Sketches was this adorable three-photo layout! I decided it worked better "weightwise" with my pictures of my grandson by FLIPPING the page, with the title on the left and the baseball embellie and swirl on the right!  I've been asked what paper line I used for the "newspaper srticle" used in the background...well, being frugal to a fault, it is an actual scanned article from our local Arizona Republic! I printed it onto tan paper and aged it on the edges.

 This one will go in my mother's (great-grandma's)  8 X 8 album.   Future Diamondback?  Probably not....

Home Tweet Home

This week's Waltzing Mouse sketch challenge is shown below. This is the card I made to send out to a friend who, like us, is moving this next month!

It was so very easy using the DCWV paper pack, Songbird. I simply fussy cut the bird houses (popping center one up), cut the flower with my Cricut, and stamped the sentiment with a stamp from Jillibean Soup. 

                                               Waltzing Mouse card sketch
Enjoy your day!

Graphics Card

My mother's birthday is this weekend, and I wanted to make something she would cherish. I made this card using the Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess image and Rennaissance Faire in the background. The black rose and ribbon added the perfect balance with the metal embellie. And guess what that was?  A corner reinforement on an old office storage piece!  Just tore it off the cardboard!

So, here you go, Liz, the glue isn't even dry yet! LOL!  I plan on decorating a small birdcage and stand to match, and will post that later this week when I get it finished!

                    Graphic 45 rules!  Love all of the collections!

This Week's Card Challenges

This week's card challenge at Some Odd Girl, is Monochromatic.  I love the use of colors that are all in the same color family, but when you have to choose ONLY those colors, it does get tempting to go outside that box!  Here is my Yellow/Orange card that I made. It will be sent to my little gal from Send Love Today. She just started riding the bus to kindergarten, and started chemo treatments the same week. She has had a rather rough time of it.  I hope this cheers her up a bit!

I also entered this card in the sketch challenge above from Skipping Stones Designs.  They have some really sweet and easy layouts!
The image is "Bussie" from Some Odd Girls, (the freebie provided for their challenges), pattern paper from DCWV, some Bazzill ric-rak, and a Bazzill paper flower that I spritzed with my Copics. I liked the retro look of the card even though Harley's much too young to "get it".  LOL!

OOOPS! I DID IT AGAIN....

Yea, went to the Bazzill Warehouse Sale on Friday and spent more than I had planned to! Hahaha! Funny, that happens all the time! It was a fantabulus time, for sure!

I went with a new scrap buddy, Kim, and we had a blast! Laughed and talked till my throat was raw, and spent more time looking for LSS's than anything else! I can see more road trips and "girl trouble" ahead! I also can't wait till I get my new scrappin' digs set up at the new house! I scored big time on a tall paper storage rack at Bazzill that will hold ALL my new and old cardstock and then some. No reason to be unorganized now. They also had the cutest little accordian books for 25 cents that I can't wait to see what I can turn them into!

Yesterday was my annual Wildlife Rehabbers symposium at the Fish and Game here in Arizona. Learned a lot, got to see my old friends from Fallen Feathers and good friends, Pam and Mark from the Lake Havasu Rescue. We were even given a behind-the-scenes tour of the new Wildlife Zoo Aquarium in Surprise. Very cool....


I am calling it a weekend! Whew! Gotta start in tomorrow doing some serious packing (everything except my scrap stuff, that is) and catch up on all the blogs I haven't read in days!


Hope your weekend was a good one, too!

Monday's Cards

Dragondoodles sketch challenge for this week is all about

Fall Colors!

To qualify for the prize you must use a DDS image and the colors BROWN, RED & ORANGE...!

For this card, I simply used my Copics to color the image, and stamped and inked some paper for the background. The little spider on the web is a Karen Foster rub-on, with the second being hand drawn. (It simply needed a friend!

Popped Title!

My second was a card I needed for a little four year old girl who is having a difficult time adjusting to school. After I took the photo, I decided that it needs some lavender stickles on the frame, too!  Little girls can't have too much bling, right?

Making Memories flowers and a sentiment stamp from Studio G.

There's small strip of SEI pattern paper stuck in there, too!

 Easy Peasy card!

This card will be entered in the Skipping Stones sketch challenge for the week.

Simple but sweet!

Vintage Truck Card

Had to whip together a masculine birthday card this afternoon, so I decided to use the sketch from the Waltzing Mouse card challenge again.  They have such great layout ideas!  I wish I had some of their stamps, but you can't start out new with every one's!  Someday soon....

Anyway, here's what I came up with in an hour.

Papers: Gin-X and Road Trip;  Nestibilities, Labels Four; Copics markers; Sakura Silver pen on grill and bumpers; Helmar adhesive.
I'm going to enter this one in the WaltzingMouse card challenge, too!

Dragon Doodles Challenge Winner! ME!

Oh my gosh! I am soooo excited! I just found out that I won the Fancy Fold Card Challenge at the Dragon Doodles Blog!  Dustin, you're the greatest! Thanks, Jenn, for telling me! I wouldn't have been on the wesbite until tomorrow if I hadn't seen your comment!  Sooo, my heart rate is slowly coming back down to normal, and I've emailed or text everyone I know to tell them!  So, patting myself on the back just a bit and trying to figure out how to "grab the blinkie". Yea, still a novice when it comes to the blogging....wheee!

A Blogaversary Celebration Announcement!

Lelia, over at Green Goddess Creations, is having a great giveaway until Oct 1st! Check out her blog and all her great projects!
Simply leave a comment telling why and when YOU started blogging, then link up and post on your own blog.  You could win some fantastic prizes!  I'm partial because Lelia is a big Dustin Pike fan, too! (Dragon Doodles Design Team)   Gotta love those dragons!

Dragon Doodles Fancy Fold Challenge!

This week's challenge over at DragonDoodles is "fancy folds"! Dustin has some of the the most adorable dragon images, and he does so much for chairty besides! Since I am fairly new to cardmaking, my folds are quite limited. However, I decided to turn a gate fold on it's side and "dangle" a dragon! I think he came out pretty cute! He is 3D, popped up several layers. The card stands up on it's own and delivers a clear, thoughtful message! Wish me luck!

I also kept this sketch in mind when I made it for the challenge over at Waltzingmouse! Check out the website for that design team's gorgeous and fun projects!

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!

Kaiser Advent Project!

My Resolution Advent Calendar for Moxie Fab World!
Who I am... is just the beginning of who I wish to become.

I was fortunate enough to get this Kaiser product from my freind, Liz, before they were sold out this year! I have tried for several years to purchase one, and always with no luck!
I wanted to do something different than the usual Christmas project, so I decided to concentrate on the goals I had for the coming year. (I know, this is only September) But I had no idea how long it would sit untouched in the packaging before I even started it! Yea, you know what I mean! My future plans are to add numbers to the tiny little drawers to co-ordinate with a list of 20 goals I have written out for myself for 2011. Wish me luck! Each numbered drawer will hold a special treat or reward, like permission to get a new pair of jeans when I lose my first 5 lbs! A new blouse for my final 10! And some more personal goals that will have to be on my own honor system to myself! (ex: more patience with family, getting more rest, etc)

The papers were mostly from Mr Webster's Pages with the images fussy cut and layered with pop dots for a 3D appearance. The drawers were decorated with all sorts of textiles and buttons from my stash. I added the Prima flower to cover the fact that the corner of the box did not match up perfectly! Any of you who have assembled one of these knows they are not as cut and dry as they try to make it look! But well worth the effort. I added dew drops to the leaves and petals to give it a realistic feel! The entire outer frame was crackle finished. I love the final product and will enjoy it for a long time!

I was lucky enough to finish this project just in time for the "Decor to Make the Season Bright Challenge" in the Moxie Fab World ! Love the holidays!

How was it done?

This is the original photo I took in Zion National Park while on vacation there last month. I wanted to share with you how I printed The Raven picture in my Alice's Hallows Eve mini-album.

Then, in order to make minor color changes, I opened it in Photoshop and changed it to Black and White.

Then comes the cool part. I wanted to print it onto something with some texture....hmmm... My large format printer has been acting up, so I was leary of sending a piece of fabric through it! Sooo, I decided to put the Coredinations cardstock to the test! I sanded down the center of a 4 x 6 piece of Black with White core, leaving some of the black heavier around the edges. I then printed the image directly onto the cardstock, trimmed it to size, and lightly inked around the sides where I thought it needed a bit more shading!

I love the effect! It was easier than fabric to print and to adhere to my mini-album page. Hope this helps some of you who have been hesitant about printing onto odd materials! No taping fabric to paper, no stiffener needed. Just sand and go!

The Coredinations cardstock can be purchased at the Thoughts2paper store!

Have fun and Happy Hallows Eve!

Alice's Hallows Eve Mini

I love the new Halloween in Wonderland collection from Graphics 45! Of course, I love ALL the papers from graphics!
This month I put together a mini-album for Thoughts2paper using this great set of pattern papers!
The characters are vivid and the images so imaginative, it worked perfectly for my Halloween project.
I wanted to make a book that would entertain my grandson, not only this Halloween, but for years to come. I chose to include poems and songs that both he and I like. I printed and found ways to journal the entire "The Raven" and Spider and the Fly" poems, along with some of his favorite songs and poems. Have a look!


The "pocketwatch" is actually a locket from JoAnn's. The title is done by cutting strips of the Cordinations cardstock. white with black core, and running it through my old Label Buddy and sanded. See my other post to see how the "raven" photo was printed!

Now, when guests come and hang out, they can browse through this album and recall some of the memories we had as children and as adults!

Thanks Liz, from Thoughts2paper. Best project yet!

T2P September Sketch Challenge

The sketch challenge over at Thoughts2Paper was a fairly easy one this month! I loved the fact that I had no problem applying it to a card and used my leftover papers I had used on my KaiserCraft Advent Calendar one more time!
Here's the sketch! Thanks, Del, loved it!

Here's my card! Anytime I can use the sketch challenge to work double-duty, I'm thrilled. Everyone is doing Back-to-School, so thought I'd switch it up.

This card will be sent to one of my Send Love Today kids. I know those of you who read my blog are probably getting tired of hearing about SLT, but these folks do so much for young people with cancer! The volunteers send cards to kids and young adults all over the country who are dealing with any type of cancer, but especially brain cancers. I found the group after my uncle had passed away. He had suffered a long time with what started as a brain tumor. If you have a few extra minutes a week, or an extra card here and there, you may want to look into it! SendLoveToday.org! It feels good to know these cards are going to help someone feel just a little better today.

And note for today: You can't pop up too many images!! Use those Pop Dots!

Don't have a dog to scrap?

The pet papers out there are all so cute, but you say "But, I don't have a dog!" Well, you can always use them for different occasions and celebrations!

Here I've used the "Good Dog" line from Reminisce. Go a new route and use your pattern papers in unusual ways! The paper and the fantastic die cut dog tag are available at the Thoughts2Paper store!

The inside image is one right off the Windows ClipArt collection. How easy is that! Have fun looking at your papers in a new way!

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Time!

I got up this morning feeling really,well, yucky. Started some new meds and they just didn't agree with me! Anyway, to get my mind off that and onto better things, I starting cruising some of my favorite websites! SNR Card Universe was announcing a blog hop over the next few days. So I followed to Sweet and Sassy Stamps....long story short, here are my three entrants for one of my first hops. I only own a handful of Christmas stamps, so the choices were limited.
The first challenge was a sketch, which I loved! I used a digi stamp I'd had forever. And layered it with the beautiful holiday SEI paper from T2P. As a matter of fact, all three of my cards were made with that paper line!


My second card was for the challenge asking for FLOWERS! This is close to what I had considered doing for my Thanksgiving cards this year, so it was good to play with the silk flower and the labels.
My last card was for the final challenge that asked you to use Non-Traditional Christmas colors...
well, now that the world has started using almost EVERY color of the rainbow during the holidays, it wasn't easy. (I even saw a gorgeous card with purple and orange the other day and it wasn't for Halloween!)

So, thanks Sassy&Sweet Stamps, and Liz at the Thoughts2Paper store for making my day a little less "yucky"...
And wish me luck!