Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Teachers Rule

Just a quick update to announce that I was chosen as one of the Top 3 for The Crazy Challenge! I'm so thrilled especially since the quality of the other winners was soooo incredible!


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Last day of school today which means a couple of "thank you" cards for Luke's teachers. I chose images from Bugaboo Stampsalong with patterned paper from Imaginesce ("Teacher's Pet" set). If you like these images, check out the Bugaboo site because from Jun 29 until Jul 5 all their images are 50% off!

I coloured the rulers using Copic YR14 then coloured the kids separately and added them on top. You can't really tell in the photos but the two Bugaboo kids are popped up (head & legs popped up from the body and then the entire kid popped up from the ruler) using pop-dots. The sentiment is adapted from a Bugaboo sentiment. I did some manipulating on Adobe Photoshop to allow the rulers to sit within the sentiment.


Anyway, have a great day. And for those of you who also have kids, happy summer vacation!


Challenges:
Posted by at 11:27 AM 12 comments
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Monday, June 28, 2010

End of year Teacher gifts



I can't believe it's the end of the school year already. Last day of school is tomorrow so this past weekend was a flurry of trying to finish teacher gifts. Thank goodness for my friend Jacqui who let me crash at her place all weekend. It's so much easier to get stuff done without kids and cats getting in the way. It was also great having someone to bounce ideas off of. I'm really pleased with how both of these gifts worked out and Jacqui definitely deserves part credit.

I purchased a couple of these wooden boxes/bags from Michaels and altered them using paper, chipboard and stickers. This box is covered with Basic Grey "Green at Heart" papers (the red floral on front & back with the dotted on the sides). All of the edges are liberally sanded to smooth the edges and give a worn/shabby chic look. The flowers on the handle are thicker stickers with coloured brads in the centres. The rest of the embellishments, including the tag, are from the "Green at Heart" thicker sticker set. The tag is attached with a scrap of twine from Jacqui's amazing ribbon stash. I will be filling the box with tissue paper and candies.
This box is covered with Basic Grey and Imaginesce "Teacher's Pet" papers. The front & back is covered in the orange/red paper with a strip of a second pattern on the sides. I'm in love with the flowers and very pleased with myself as this was a first attempt at quilling. I used the brand-new Cuttlebug quilling set (carnation). What a cool set - I used the dies to cut 3 quilling strips from the striped Imaginesce paper. I wasn't sure how it would look but I'm quite pleased with the final result. My only mistake was using a white-cored paper for the inner core which meant the flower centres were white. I tried using a yellow Copic marker to colour it in but wasn't impressed so I ended up adding a yellow pearl to each centre. The tag is a recycled tag from a purse that I bought this weekend. I simply covered it with matching paper (the same paper used for the flowers) and re-punched the hole.
One or both of these boxes are being entered into the following challenges:
Posted by at 9:06 AM 7 comments
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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Condo living

A couple of friends are soon to move into new homes so I need some "congratulations on your new home" cards. This is the first and although quite simple I like its cheery feel. I'm planning to use it for my friend who is moving into a new condo. All these birds stacked together just remind me of apartment & condo living!

The papers are Basic Grey and the digi stamp is a freebie from Doodle Pantry that I coloured with Copics. The card design is based on last week's CCEE Stampers sketch.

Challenges:
Posted by at 9:03 AM 4 comments
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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Cards for men



With Father's Day happening tomorrow there has been a real flurry of challenges asking for cards for men. I completed my card for Dad a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make a couple of all-purpose masculine cards just to have on hand. Keep scrolling down to see both cards.

The first card gave me an excuse to use one of my latest purchases from Simon Says Stamp. It turns out that they carry quite a few art stamps. I ordered up two - the one on the left by Charles Wysocki and the one on the right by Gary Patterson.
I have yet to colour the Wysocki stamp satisfactorily (the tree bark is way beyond my abilities) and suspect that it may become one of those items that I look at, love and never use.
I had better success colouring the Patterson stamp and made this get well card with it.  The cat looks as if he's going to cough up a hairball or perhaps just did too much catnip. I based the card design on two different sketch challenges which was a first for me but the sketches were quite similar and actually merged quite nicely.
Challenges:
Recipe:
  • Stamp Happens, Gary Patterson "All Tied Up" rubber stamp
  • Copic markers
  • Basic Grey "Granola" patterned papers
  • Ribbon (stash)
  • Brads (stash)
  • Nestabilities
This next card was very quick & simple to make and will be useful for a lot of purposes. The digi stamp is from Tiddly Inks and is coloured using Adobe Photoshop. The paper is Basic Grey "Granola". I used a sketch from Corrosive Challenges.
Challenges:
Thanks for looking and happy Father's Day to all!
Posted by at 3:40 PM 21 comments
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Teacher appreciation




The principal, teachers and support staff at my son's school are all so amazing. My DS has been having some challenges this year and I can't say enough about how patient and caring they have been with him. This week is the school's annual Teacher Appreciation Week and I've been working on creating some small tokens of appreciation.
I decided to use this template to make a variety of post-it note holders. Although I used Basic Grey papers and the same template for each, I embellished them each quite differently to gain a variety of results. For the finishing touch, I lucked into some coordinating pens at my local stationary store.

I'm entering each of these holders into a variety of challenges, each of which is noted after the specific project.

Post-it Holder #1:
This first holder uses Basic Grey "Lemonade" papers as well as Bazzil cardstock for the base folder. The 3D flower is made with 2 layers cut with Spellbinders pendant "fleur de lis" and a 3rd layer cut with "lotus".  A pearl is added to the centre (basically to hide the glob of glue I used to hold the whole thing down).

Challenges:

Post-it Holder #2:
This second holder uses Bazzil white cardstock for a base along with "Sugar Rush" papers from Basic Grey. The 3D flower is made with one layer cut from Spellbinders "fleur de lis" and then 3 layers cut from "lotus" pendants. I used a brad for the center and liberally bling'd it (and the "lotus" cuts) with Stardust Stickles. The corner pieces are cut with the Martha Stewart "Iron Gate" border punch.

Challenges:
Post-it Holder #3:
The 3rd holder was the simplest (yet is my favourite). Again, I used Bazzil cardstock for the folder, and "Sugar Rush" papers from Basic Grey. For the cover though I used a digital stamp from Isabella's Sketchbook (a current freebie if you join the new Crafter's Digital Art Center. I coloured the stamp with Copic markers and then overlaid a layer of Stardust Stickles.

Challenges:

  • Simon Says Stamps - 1 image, 2 patterned papers, 3 types of embellishments (uses 2 BG pp, and ribbon, stickles and a pen for embellishments)

  • Stamp Something - happy something (happy teacher appreciation week)

  • Just Us Girls - use a digi (uses a digital stamp)

  • Bee-Crafty - blooming marvelous

  • I Love Digi - anything but a card
Posted by at 11:30 AM 14 comments
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Pearls & swirls

Before I tell you about today's card, I first have some very exciting news ... I'm being published for the very first time!!!! I just heard from Scrapbook News & Review (SNR) that they have accepted my "Pretty in Pink" scrapbook page layout for the June edition of their online magazine.

But on to my card. Today I made a Christmas card (yes, I know it's June but it's always good to be prepared) for the Winter Wonderland challenge.

I wanted to make a different fold and found this diamond fold template at Prick and Stitch. It was surprisinly simple to make and I quite like how dimensional and interesting it looks. 
For the card I used Basic Grey "Eskimo Kisses" paper along with a pale blue Bazzil cardstock. The stamp is from Magnolia and coloured with Copics. I'm particularly pleased with the girl's hair as this is the first time I think I've ever succeeded in properly shading/highlighting hair. It isn't obvious in the photograph but I added small pearls scattered on the paper along with larger pearls at 4 of the corners.

Recipe:

  • Magnolia, stamp

  • Basic Grey, "Eskimo Kisses", patterned paper

  • Bazzil cardstock

  • Copic markers

  • Spellbinders nestabilites, scalloped ovals

  • Pearls (stash)

  • Prick and Stitch, diamond-fold template

Challenges:
Posted by at 11:14 AM 15 comments
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Friday, June 4, 2010

Monkeying around


Today's card is one that I started quite a while ago and finally got finished last night. The monkey is a wonderful digital image from Dustin Pike which I coloured with Copics. I wanted to make the card 3-D so I then created a grass skirt by stitching together some pieces of raffia (recycled from a ribbon in a floral arrangement). I was cursing at myself while making that skirt too - my fingers just seemed incapable of holding a needle, thread and strips of raffia all at the same time. I actually had to remove some of the raffia because I bled on it (lol).

The flower embellishment is from a new Cuttlebug set for quilling (something I've never tried before). Included in the box was this sample flower which I removed and attached using glue dots. The sentiment is just some old alpha stickers I had sitting around. I've never been to Hawaii but with all the rain we are getting here, I'm dreaming of going somewhere tropical!

Recipe:
  • Cuttlebug quilled flower (package sample)
  • Dustin Pike digital image
  • Copic markers
  • Raffia (stash)
  • Alphabet stickers (stash)
Challenges:

Posted by at 9:32 AM 10 comments
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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Daddy's Girl

I couldn't resist this digital stamp from Tiddly Inks even though my Dad only wears ties for weddings & funerals.  And yet, this just captures the feel of my relationship with him when I was a little girl. And I love that, with the addition of a few freckles, this is even a pretty good representation of me (right down to the kiss curl on the forehead).

After colourng the image with my Copics, I cut it with a Nestabilities Label, then matted it on some dark brown cardstock, also cut with the Nestabilities. I also added an embossed edge to the matte for some extra detail. This patterned paper has been in my stash for years and I'm thrilled to have finally found a use for it. I quite like the way all the colours work together. I hand-cut the tag and matted it on kraft card. Because I'm not sure when I will use this card, I didn't add any sentiment - I can slide out the tag and add the message of my choice any time.

Recipe:

  • Tiddly Inks, digi image

  • Copic markers

  • Kraft cardstock (stash)

  • Carolee's Creations, patterned paper

  • Spellbinders nestabilities, Label 8

  • Ribbon (stash)

Challenges:
Posted by at 12:08 PM 19 comments
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