Monday, April 21, 2008

Moments


I was getting ready to head to bed tonight and decided to check out the color combo challenge over at SCS. This week CC163 is Pretty In Pink, Certainly Celery, and Chocolate Chip. I just LOVE this combo. I decided that for my card I wanted to depict a pretty spring scene. What better excuse to use my new Seasonal Scenes set by Artful Inkables.
Layout from page 73 in the current SU catty. Sentiment from Wedding Silouettes (Artful Inkables) Used watercolor paper, watercolor Crayons and Aquapainter to create my scene.
I am in love with how this card turned out! So simple, but so pretty (which as you know if you read my blog often, I don't normally love my creations. I say things like, I'm pleased, or I like it. I never say that I love it. But this one, I love!)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Quilt Square Project... Complete!

For the last few weeks I have been working on a project for church. We are doing a quilt square swap. What is a quilt square swap you ask? Well, it is exactly like a card swap. There are 25 of us who signed up, we each make 25 of our quilt squares and on Sunday we all bring our squares to church and "swap" them. We each get 1 of each of the 25 squares (including 1 of our own). So we each end up with 25 different squares. We are each able to do whatever we want, our own color choices, our own patterns, our own designs, etc. So all 25 squares will be completely different. We then each get to make our own quilts to keep for years to come. We have to put our names on the squares so that years down the road we can look at the squares on the quilt and remember who everyone is. Fun huh?! I did this a couple of years ago and it was a blast. There were 14 of us last time. I made a simple square in green's and rose colors. I was going to do a more ambitious one but decided to procrastinate and ran out of time. So when this opportunity came around again I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The square is very simple to look at, but trust me, they took FOREVER to complete! I started working on them right after my honey went back from leave, I needed something to keep me busy. Trust me, this definately did the trick. So for the last 2 and a half weeks I have been working on......
The center of the square is cross-stitched (hence why it took so long). The first one took me 4 hours to do (just the cross-stitched part). By the final few squares I had memorized the pattern and it took me only just over an hour for each. Then came the strips on the side. I found some cute fabric at hobby lobby (thanks for helping me find it Belinda!), in navy blue with tiny stars and burgundy with tiny stars. Very Americana huh? That is what I was going for. My friend Chelsea likes these so much that she wants me to make more squares for her. I told her that I was making an extra square (so yup, 26 total) so that I could make a pillow for my mom, who's family room is done in Americana colors. Chelsea's eyes lit up immediately and asked me if I could do some pillows for her too. lol I told her I would.
I am considering making a bunch and selling them at a craft sale. hmmmm.......

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Fairy Whimsey take 2!

So the more that I looked at the last card that I did for Emmy's birthday, the more I didn't like it. So I sat down and created a new one. I used the sketch from this weeks sketch challenge on ASB. I love this sketch! I am much happier with this card and I am happy to report that Emmy loved it! She kept showing it to everyone. lol So here it is!

I again used the cuttlebug and the stylized flowers embossing folder. I decided to DTP the card just lightly to kind of make the embossing part stand out more. Thought it added to the nature-y feel. (Is that a word? well, it is now!) I used the Canvas BG stamp from SU on the Amythest and celery panels and DTP'ed the edges. The fairy image (which is of course from the Artful Inkables set Fairy Whimsey) was stamped with staz-on onto Shimmer White and I used watercolor crayons and blender pens to color it. I added sparkle to the wings with stickles and brush. Finished the card off with hodge podge and some ribbon. I love love love this card!

Friday, April 04, 2008

For Emmy's Birthday

Guess what I got in the mail today! *grin* I got my Artful Inkables order! I am so excited! Obviously... since it's 3a.m. and I just made a card. lol I was getting ready to go to bed and I got inspired, so I had to make my card and then share my creation with you. So I have this friend who's DD is turning 4 on Saturday. I needed to make her a birthday card. Emmy is a wonderful little girl who always makes me smile, so I set out to make a special card for this special little girl.

Now normally I am not a fan of Fairy sets. But, when I saw the Fairy Whimsey set on Artful Inkables I decided it was really pretty, but, I didn't know if it was a must have, I was tempted, but I needed something to sway me. Now for me to say it was pretty is HUGE, cause like I said, I don't like fairy sets. And normally I don't like to be swayed. (Case in point, the In Full Bloom set from SU, I saw what so many people were doing with that set, so I bought it.... I owned it for 3 years, used it a total of two times.... And that was because I made myself use it. I couldn't get that set to work for me. So I decided that I would never buy sets just because I liked what someone else did with it. If it was one I liked, but wasn't set on wanting right from the start, I would have to use it first in order to decide if I could get to work for me.) So back to the Fairy Whimsey set... I thought it was really pretty, but was wanting to be swayed (odd, I know, given the decision I had made about not being swayed right? lol) Then, the swaying started.... I saw this card: Stunning on my friend Amanda's blog, then she posted this one: Gorgeous Then came the push over the edge: WOW! That was it! I was hooked, and Fairy Whimsey was on my order. (Thanks for the enabling Amanda! *wink*) I don't even pretend to think my card is anywhere near Amanda's work, but I am happy with it.

Supplies: Fairy Whimsey Stamp Set (Artful Inkables), Stylized Flowers Cuttlebug Folder (Provocraft), Cuttlebug (Provocraft), Love & Happiness Rub Ons (SU), Watercolor Crayons (SU) Blender Pen (SU), Cardstock (All SU)- Close To Cocoa, Pretty In Pink, Going Gray, Whisper White

Other Supplies used: Stickles, Flower, Bling Brad

The Sketch was inspired by the Sketch Challenge 49 on SCS, The RubOn sentiment was added for SCS Ways To Use It Challenge 160, The Colors are from this weeks Color Challenge (73) on ASB.

(****Sorry for the bad pictures lately, I need a new camera and better lighting but the lighting in my house, not so good....)

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Artful Inkables!

So a while back I told you about my friend Kristin who had her own stamp line called Artful Inkables. Her line was avaliable through Starvingartists. Well Kristin has ventured out on her own and now has her own online stamp store. I have been meaning to announce this for a couple of weeks now but have been so busy with DH home on leave and then right after he left again I got sick... again. But feeling better today I decided to sit down and stamp a card using one of Kristin's stamps. The colors are a complete departure for me, I am really happy with how this turned out. For my Artful Inkables card I used the dragonfly from the Pond Friends set. I have a gel pen that is a turqiouse-y color so I colored the dragonfly with that and then used liquid glue and glitter for the wings. I Cuttlebugged the background using the stylized flowers template. Wanting to make the dragon fly pop I used Pink Passion and Taken with Teal cardstocks for the card. I used the sentiment from Sweet Dreams (SU). I thought it went well with the whole flying dragonfly thing. It makes sense in my head, trust me. So without further ado, my Artful Inkables Creation:

Check out Kristins store here: http://artfulinkables.com/index.html