Not a card in sight! :)

Last weekend (was it that long ago??) my best friend came on over for a visit. I *love* when she comes to hang out with me (okay, us), but this time was extra special. We were crafty! :)
My exceptional SIL dropped by earlier in the afternoon and somehow we ended up going to the fabric store. I know, strange but true. (especially since I don't sew even a little bit - and I already have some fabric gathering dust) While we were there I found (of course) some fat quarters to bring home... they just called to me. And I have no willpower. Sheesh.
But just look at the gorgeous colors of blue/green/gray - it's like ripples in a pond. (or tree bark according to DH when you turn in the other way) How on earth could I have resisted that? Or the other four patterns that jumped into my arms? Or the green one that my little boy just had to have (which his Gram made into a snake so at least it isn't gathering dust with the rest of my fabristash)? I just had to buy them... yeah, see the comment about my willpower above.
So anyway, once my chica had arrived and we had a little family time I had to pull out the new fabric for show and tell and do some oohing and ahhing. Before I knew it we had spent hours at the table together laughing and gluing. It was *awesome*!
I didn't take a pic of the journal that she covered (send me a pic chica!), but I did take a couple of my project. The book was a blank book bought at HL on clearance (87 cents!). The fabric was from my trip earlier in the day. The flourish is grungeboard from Tim Holtz, painted with a mix of paint dabbers from Ranger and Lumiere paints. I finished the inside with a piece of dark gray scrapbook paper so you couldn't see the edges of the fabric (or have them peel up). I believe the ribbon was from Target - the bridal aisle.
I wasn't sure just how long to make the ties (it's just glued on with Fabri-Tac across the back) so I guesstimated. I think they're a little too long to be practical so I'll probably trim those a couple inches when I get the chance.
I love the way this came out! I love the fabric, the flourish, the colors.... it's just yummy! :)
Thanks for visiting!

I've been very crafty!

Although I haven't been posting very often, I have been *very* busy! Today I'll give you a peek at two different cards that started with the same idea but went completely different directions.
It all started with a technique from Technique Junkies called Alcohol Ink Press. Only one of my backgrounds was deeply enough colored to use for this particular project, but I had two of the man with the umbrella to use. Hence, two similar (but very different) cards!
This first one was closer to what I originally intended. The AI technique gave me a lovely background, although the brown color I used at the bottom seemed to lighten up considerably. This was backed onto a piece of glossy white card (so the colors were visible) and stamped on top with a Tim Holtz stamp using StazOn. I felt the man needed more 'umpf' so I stamped him on grunge paper and did my favorite thing of all time (NOT!) - fussy cutting. I lightly coated him with a turquoise/gold Lumiere paint that had been watered down a lot. I wish I could say that I stamped the flourish (also Tim Holtz) next, but that would be a lie! :) Instead, I did it the hard way... adhering the grunge man first, then lifting him up in order to stamp the flourish & dust with Perfect Pearls from the Patina kit. I did learn something important - perfect pearls do *not* stick well to acetate. I learned that by rubbing my finger across it and having to reapply the pearls! A piece of offset black card stock and a few dew drops later and voila!
The second one was more of an experiment with the grunge man. Also fussy cut from grunge paper, I treated him to a little different style. First I inked over the black image with Faded Jeans and Fired Brick (IRL the umbrella is *very* red but I couldn't seem to get a good pic). Then he was given a 'wet' coat, umbrella and shoe tops with Distress Crackle paint (clear). Once that was dry I rubbed some more blue ink into his coat and dabbed a little of the clear distress stickles on the top edge of the umbrella. The background (and grunge paper word pieces) were colored with Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo DI. They were a little too bright for the man, so I spritzed them with Graphite Glimmer Mist.
Once everything was dry I stretched a piece of copper wire mesh over the background and stuck it down to a black mat (using super strong red liner tape). The black mat gave me a way to attach the word pieces using the Tiny Attacher from Tim (which has the *most* adorable little staples - evah!). Some red liner tape to stick the man down and a sparkly gray card base and I was done with number two.
So there you have it. Two similar, but very different cards. Hope you like them!
Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine's cards

Hello again!
I have a couple of v-day cards to share today. Both of them are a little different than my usual style. :)
This first one was the card for my hubby. Very simple, in fact it was inspired by a new blog I've been reading called Simplicity. Love it! Go visit, really! She has an amazing clean and simple style - but the impact is amazing.
I'm not usually a CAS stamper, but it seemed really appropriate for my hubby. He's not a flourish-y kind of guy. lol The main panel is watercolor paper with the sentiment stamped in Ranger's Archival ink. I used a piece of Cut 'n Dry to dab just a little bit of Memento Rose Bud over the sentiment, then used a water brush to smooth it out & give a watercolor look. Then I used a (very old) SU! background stamp with VersaMark and dusted it with Perfect Pearls in white. Finally I brushed Antique Linen Distress ink very softly around the edges & mounted the panel on a natural card base. Not sure why the picture came out so pink toned, IRL it's very soft & white.
This second card was for my little boy. He was thrilled with his 'alien robots'. (robots are a BIG thing in our house!) This little valentine is only 3X3, just cut from a basic piece of cardstock. I sponged some Peeled Paint Distress ink at the bottom, masked it with a piece of a sticky note & sponged black at the top. The robots and space ship were cut from some fun patterned paper that I found a while ago. I ran them through the Xyron & stuck them down. I cut a heart out of white card stock and inked it with Warm Red chalk ink, then coated it with red stickles. Finally I used a glitter pen to draw dots for stars - it is *space* after all! :D
Tonight I spent over an hour cutting out a bunch of these little robots & their space ships. I had stuck them down on the front of a couple of those magnets you get on your new phone books. Tomorrow the boy will have plenty of ships, robots, ray guns and planets to play with on the fridge. Hopefully he'll want to play with them enough that mom will think all that cutting was worth it!
Thanks for stopping by!

Something entirely different!

So today I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into another part of my crafty life. And my personal life. :)
Last week was a little crazy around here. Dh & I had our 8th (eighth?!) anniversary. Unfortunately, our little boy was very, very sick for a few days. Not how I ever anticipated celebrating any occasion, let alone our wedding anniversary! We did finally get to go out for dinner later in the week, sushi followed by a stop at our favorite coffee shop. Aren't we just the party people? *lol*
I did manage to make us a totally decadent cake. I found the recipe on All Recipes (you can find it here) and adjusted it a little bit for our tastes. There is an *awesome* spice shop nearby in Boulder called Savory. They carry this amazingly dark cocoa powder called Black Onyx that I added to the recipe (at the end with a little milk) - which it why this cake is so dark. Yum! I left the chocolate chips out of the cake because I wanted to frost it with the German Chocolate Cake Frosting (dh's favorite). I've made this frosting a couple of times - don't overcook it (sorry Debs!) or it will turn into a solid lump on top of your cake. :(

So, now comes the 'crafty' part! I know I've posted before about trying to learn PSE and digiscrapping. This time I'll show you what I've managed to do! Everything here was a freebie that I downloaded off the web - even the template. I don't think it's completely done - I wanted to add some journaling, but the template didn't have a space for it and I'm not sure exactly where to put it yet. As you can see, he's still a funny man (even after so many years of marriage!) but is also a great father and wonderful person. Of course, he may not be particularly pleased when he sees this - but it might make for another great picture that I can use in a future page. ;)
Thanks for stopping by!

A little Joseph's Coat

Don't you love Joseph's Coat? Honestly, I think it's my favorite technique of all time. Just the thrill of the 'reveal' - it really comes together with that final layer of black! :)
I'm not sure if you can see the occasional spritzes of white in the background of the Joseph's pieces. Originally it was a piece that I colored with cotton balls & chalk ink then tried some gesso techniques on. I didn't end up using this section on anything then, but I loved the colors - especially for this!
I believe this is a fairly new stamp from Hampton Art, but if you're looking for it at Michaels you need to look for a much larger rectangle. I used circle punches to get different sized pieces of the stamped piece once it was coated with ep.
The bird was given a little extra sparkle with a black Spica marker from Copic. I also used a little Pine Needles Distress Ink on the background piece since the original paper was a little too light (and yellow!). Otherwise, it's all pretty self evident.
Thanks for stopping by! :)

Back to bright!

Hello again!
I've been creating like a madwoman at my crafty table. Although I've had some setbacks (crackle paint over stamped perfect pearls is NOT pretty) I've also had some success!
I got the inspiration for this from a little tiny avatar picture. Isn't it strange where we find the creative spark? :) It was a little picture that had pink swirling into orange and reminded me of a sunset. I loved it!
Although you can't tell, there is actually a lot of red in the background, but as it dried the pink sort of took over. Didn't expect that! I used Memento inks over a 4 inch square of glossy white card stock that I mounted on a piece of black c/s. The base is a 5 1/2 square premade card base that I bought at Hobby Lobby (I think - it was a long time ago). The tree (Tim Holtz) was stamped with Brilliance black ink and the sentiment (Cloud 9) was stamped with Brilliance gold and embossed with gold powder. The background swirls (Lil Davis) were also stamped with gold Brilliance ink. I love the way this turned out - so much different than the things I've been doing recently.
One more thing that I'd like to mention. In case you haven't noticed (I don't know if you can see it in a reader?) I updated the font on my sidebar titles and blog post titles to this fun little handwriting font. Be sure to take the time to check out all of her cool fonts (they're free!) and maybe submit your own while you're there. What you may not know is that this is a special font that I downloaded and the biggest 'fun' part is that you can see the new font even if it isn't installed on your computer. This was done by following a tutorial on Kevin and Amanda that you can find here. Not for the faint of heart - it's a pretty long and detailed process - but if I can do it, so can YOU!
Thanks for stopping by!

My poor neglected blog!

Wow, it's been a long time! :( Like many people I know, I was sick over the holidays. You?
Unfortunately, I didn't get the normal cold/flu/virus thing that every one else does (well, actually I did, but that was later...). I suffer from something called Cluster Headaches. Now, I don't tell you this to garner sympathy or anything, but to share information with you. If you know somebody, anybody, that suffers with horrible headaches that come in groups and then disappear - please send them here to the Cluster Headache site for more information. If you, or someone you know, suffers from this and needs to talk to someone else with experience - I am always willing.
Ok, enough sermonizing!
You're here for the card, right? :)
I'll admit, I haven't done tons of stuff lately. I *know* that you don't want to see the last of my Christmas cards (are we all just a little tired of 'em?) and I can't bear to show you the big thing I'm working on since it isn't done yet.
But...
I *do* have this Valentine card done. DH called it 'industrial' looking. :)

The only thing I really don't like about this picture is that you can't see the subtle pattern on the red base. I found a stamp at Hobby Lobby that says Te Amo and just had to have it! You can barely see it IRL, but I stamped it in a pattern across the entire base. Just a subtle little touch!
Thanks so much for visiting today... promise I'll get back to posting ASAP! :D