Mojo Monday 249 - You're Amazing

What a busy weekend.  My dear cousin's step-dad passed away last week so we were busy this weekend with a memorial service for him.  Rather than than the traditional cry-your-eyes out type of service (which would not have been his style) we had more pf a party.  We decorated the hall with mementos from his life, and shared stories to make everyone laugh.  Quite a send off.

Did I mention it's been SWELTERING here lately?  All of this was done in a hall that did not have AC, so I've been sweaty and sticky for two days straight.

I'm home today however, and staying in my craft room for the remainder of the day.  It's scorching hot outside, but my room is in the garage where it's nice and cool.  Even the pets have found their way out here to try and escape the heat.

Today's card uses the Mojo Monday sketch as a base for this birthday card.  The elephant and ticket stamp are from You're Amazing.  It's a super fun little set that I think I'll get some good mileage out of.  The balloon is really neat too, and I thought about using that, but I wanted an image that I could colour.  (See following post for a lesson on colouring.)   The paper is from Birds of a Feather (also used on another card last week).  I'm still a little sad about losing Poppy Parade to make room for the new In Colours this year, but they're certainly growing on me.  The base of the card is Summer Starfruit, and the panel base is Raspberry Ripple.  That luscious ribbon is the Stitched Satin in Primrose Petals.  Island Indigo also makes an appearance on the DSP base.

Freshly Made Sketches #42 - Morning Cup

What's this bright thing filling the sky making it all bright outside?  I think it rhymes with 'fun'.  Did you know that the sky could be blue? I had forgotten that.  While those of you back east have been enjoying a heat wave, we westerners have developed webbed feet to accommodate the wet.  Seriously.  It's been raining FOREVER.  The last nice weekend we had was back in May.  The sun made an appearance around 1:30 yesterday (amidst clouds, mind you, but an appearance nevertheless) and seems to have stuck around.  This is the first morning for like 6 weeks that the sky's been blue.  And I have to go to the Farmer's Market.  Boo!

 

But I digress.  Yesterday morning I saw the sketch on Freshly Made Sketches.  [I feel the need to add in here how much I like these sketches.  I usually distress the heck out of my cards in one way or another, and wasn't a big fan of "clean" until I started following this blog.  It's still not my trademark style, but I have grown quite fond of it.  So a big thanks to the ladies that work so hard every week to bring us a new sketch.]

I like this card for a number of reasons.  1.  It's got steaming cups of (insert favourite hot beverage here) in adorable little cups.  2.  It uses Stampin' Up's Morning Cup stamp set which is a really great set if you like colouring.  3.  I got to put my new In Colours to use.  4.  The strip of DSP is from a new series that I really like, Birds of  a Feather, and it gives the card something funky and narrowed my pallet.

I meant to post this yesterday, but the battery on my camera was dead, and then I got lost in the time-warp that is my craft room.  THEN the sun came out, so I had to get my book and proceeded to spend the next three hours reading in the sun.  (Anyone read George RR Martin's Clash of Kings?  Loving it!)  Then it was dinner time, and I still hadn't gotten everything together for the market today.  Speaking of which, I got up early to do that, not to blog....

Have a great day!

Papaya Collage (SUO Challenge - For the Birds)

I am in L.O.V.E.!  I’ve had this set for about two weeks but since I’ve only started back in my craft room recently, it took me until today to mount it.  Why?!  This is by far my favourite stamp set.  Sorry Elements of Style.  Move over Creative Elements.  There’s a new kid in town.  Over at Stampin' Up Only challenges, they've got a "For the Birds" challenge this week, and the image in this set is nothing short of stunning.  It was a perfect fit for my current project.

 

This weekend will be the start of my summer at the Farmer’s Market.  It runs from 8:30 to 1:30 on Fridays in a little parking lot in town.  It’s a lovely way to spend the morning – wandering and chatting with other vendors.  There’s some amazing produce and locally raised beef products.  And of course, there’s crafty stuff like what I bring.

Last summer I started making a few journals to bring and they were a hit!  I usually sold out of them each time I brought them so I’m trying to get  a little ahead of the game this year.

 

So this morning I came out to make some more cards and get a whack of journals done but then it happened.  I mounted Papaya Collage.  That was at about 11:30.  It’s now almost 2:30 and I’ve only made two journals.  Blame the stamps!

 

I’ve been stamping, tearing, inking, embossing, distressing, and stamping some more.  This set has endless potential for what you can do with it.

 

I love the combination of Pool Party and Soft Suede, but I threw some black into the mix this time and an pretty pleased with how it pops.

Just for fun, I decided to ink up some scraps of Wisteria Wonder, and it turned into another journal.

Hand Stamped Sentiments #125

 A few days ago one of my darling friends told me that she's pregnant!  This is very exciting news.  She and her husband have been discussing having a baby for a couple of years now (this summer is their second anniversary) so I was delighted to hear the news.  They are a most loving and kind couple, whom any baby would be lucky to call Mom and Dad.

So it is with them in mind that I made this card this morning.  Hand Stamped Sentiments has a colour challenge for  us this week and I knew that this little ducky had to make an appearance with this combo.  I had thought about making it a birthday card, but then immediately knew a baby card would be better.

He's one of the critters from the new set Storybook Friends.  I don't make a whole lot of chidren's cards, but I knew I needed this set as soon as I laid eyes on it.   The little fox is about the cutest thing I've ever seen, and I'm pretty much in love with the rabbit as well.  Maybe I'll try them out this afternoon sometime.

If you're looking for a new set to make playful cards with, I highly recommend this one.  You could easily not ink the word at the bottom (as I did with my baby card) and add whatever sentiment you feel like.  I think they would be particularly cute for birthday cards for small people, or even invitations.

Since the baby that I am so excited about isn't coming for another six months or so, I'll have plenty of time to make another card, so I'd love to give this one away to someone who is in need of a baby card!  if you'd like to enter into the draw, please leave a comment and next Wednesday I'll announce the winner and ask for your address.  I'll also stamp each of the images in Brown Staz On for you to use on your own cards.  And if you love the set as much as I do, email me to order it and you''ll receive free shipping.

Hope to hear from you!

Mojo Monday #248

I love summertime.  Any other time of the year I rarely have time to get to a Mojo Monday sketch on time.  Today however, I made three journals, two bookmarks, and a mojo card, all before 1:00pm!  I feel like a crafting glutton.

One of the things I love about Stampin' Up DSP is the inspiration for colour schemes.  Comfort Cafe is one of the releases in this year's catty and it contains a combination of colours I probably wouldn't think of on my own.  This sketch was perfect for a bunch of different patterns and textures so I took advantage of that to try out the new Chevron embossing folder.  I can see myself using this one a lot.  The Stitched Satin ribbon with this year's In Colours is rich and lovely and added the perfect finish.

Merry Monday

 

Yesterday I set myself a goal of creating five Christmas cards and I succeeded.  It was quite a stint in the craft room, but I'm glad I did it.  With the help of Merry Monday it was actually quite easy to get them all together.

This morning I checked out Always Playing With Paper to see the new sketch but she's taking a break this month and the challenge is to use any old sketch.  Well, I just happened to have done that already!

 

In an effort to clean out my paper stash a bit I've been going through my giant stack of retired DSPs and I have quite a bit of this one left.  Winter Post is also retired (much to my extreme disappointment), but I have enough of it left for an upcoming Christmas card workshop.  If you live in my area, the workshop will be held in my craft room on Tuesday, June 10th, at 7:00pm.  Drop me an email to register.

On a completely unrelated note, my craft room is a separate room in our garage.  Right now my husband is cleaning up the garage and listening to gangster rap.  Not what usually fills the air when I'm out here crafting.  I think he's pretending he's 19 again.

Paper Players #102

Christmas in July?  Sure is!  July 1st is Canada Day, so I was feeling patriotic when choosing the colours for this card.  No, our flag doesn't have anything Crumb Cake coloured, but the red and white are close enough.  I got a start on some holiday cards yesterday, so I'll continue that theme today.  Imagine my delight when I saw that the Paper Players had a Christmas theme challenge today!

I live this little ornament set (Delightful Decorations) and the swirls just begged to be paired with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.  A little scallop dots ribbon turned over and voila!  This was a really quick card to make and I'm thinking it would be a good one for mass production.

Now back to crafting.  My goal is to make 5 different Christmas cards before I take a break.  I could be here for a while....