Pretty Priscilla from OBP

I managed to finish up that project I mentioned in my previous post! I can't wait to post it, but in the evening under compact flourescent bulbs is NOT the time to photograph something like that! Someday I'd love to replace my jury-rigged "photo tent" (a pop-up hamper or a file folder and my daylight lamp) with an actual photo tent with tungsten lamps, but that isn't in the cards (haha!) for the time being. So, seeing as I can't get a good pic of my latest completed project, I wanted to post some cards I made a few weeks back featuring Priscilla the cat from Odd Bird Planet (aka Just Johanna Stamps).

This great cat has such a fun personality, I just knew she could pull off any style or colour scheme she wanted. :) I wanted to challenge myself and use just one inkpad in my favourite pink, Worn Lipstick. The 3.5 small circles and the matted circle Priscilla is on are all popped up on foam dimensionals, and are aligned along a cheeky pink line I made the old-fashioned way with a pink pen and a ruler.

Stamps: Priscilla the cat from Odd Bird Planet, sentiment by Inkadinkado Brenda Walton sentiment set, dotty background by Judikins

Ink: Worn Lipstick Distress Ink by Ranger

Paper: white cardstock, scraps of pink and green papers from Basic Grey (sorry don't remember which packages!)

Tools: 5/8" circle punch, Coluzzle circle and companion circle templates for focal layer

Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons in chartreuse and apple green, pink Sakura gelly roll gel pen, sponge, foam dimensionals.

The design of this second card came about primarily from my desire to try making a scalloped-type edge using a series of punched circles. It's a fun enough effect, but a little too labour-intensive for me. I also wanted to try and make something interesting and fun from this generic purple cardstock I got from either Michaels or Walmart in a value pack that I've had for at least eight hundred years. I also managed to use, for the first time ever, this lovely lacy edge stamp!

Stamps: Priscilla the cat from Odd Bird Planet, circle medallion from Fontwerks medallion set, lacy border from Fontwerks border set.

Ink: Worn Lipstick Distress Ink by Ranger, Pixie Dust, Purple Hydrangea, and Spring Pansy Versamagic chalk inks

Paper: white cardstock by Domtar, purple generic value pack cardstock from my hoard, vellum for the punched circles

Other: satin ribbon by Anna Griffin, 5/8" circle punch, large corner rounder, Prismacolour pencil crayons

And finally, because I wasn't happy with the photos I posted before of my sparkly butterfly card, I tried again to take a pic that showed some of the sparkliness of it. The results still aren't stellar, but anyhoo..... if you click on the photo a bigger picture will load showing some sparkle.

So now I have two projects on my plate to finish up; the first and most time-pressing is the sour cream containers for the Hallowe'en candy we'll be giving out this year, and the second is a card kit I'm putting together for my mum. To tell the truth, my heart's not into making the sour cream containers this year, but they made such an impression on the kids last year. We will see what happens -- if I don't get them done tomorrow, then we will be handing out nekkid candy this year!

The evolution of a card, aka my random method of creating

This evening (while Sheldon was marking quizzes and we were listening to Car Talk and WWDTM podcasts :D) I was able to make a card for today's SCS Inspiration Challenge. I always love seeing the inspiration pieces for this challenge, and try to participate regularly as time and mojo permits.

I wanted to make my card on a white card base because I love the look of the white solid furniture against the yellow walls in the third inspiration picture. I was flipping through my little box of card bases and found these embossed, square card bases I'd gotten in a grab box from The Angel Company a couple of years ago. Originally I wanted to make a yellow and white card, but upon closer inspection of my yellow-coloured inks and papers, I decided to change my plans and go with the bright pinks in the second photo. The butterfly is of course from the Unity kit Friendship, Love, Miracles, and the use of that image was the only thing I was certain about in this whole design. After colouring in the embossed square frame with my Gelly Roll glaze pen, I decided to trace the pen around the butterfly as well to give it more visual weight. My little card was still a little plain, so I stamped a pattern around the edges the easiest way I could, using wee little flower centre stamps from Technique Tuesday's small Loves Me, Loves Me not stamp set.

After stamping all those little dots, I was ready to call it a card, and Sheldon thought it was pretty cute at that point. BUT, I was not completely happy with it, so I sat back down and grabbed a bottle of Stickles. The most obvious choice would have been my go-to colour, Frosted Lace. I decided to fling caution to the wind and, remembering that pretty yellow bedding set, opted instead for Lemon Ice Stickles. I had NO plan on what I would do with the Stickles; I just started off filling the centres of the largest dots, took a look and decided it needed a little more so filled in the centres of the small hollow dots, took a look and felt I was almost there, and finished up by putting a drop of Stickles in the small solid dots too. After all that dotting, I was in full-on Stickles mode! I was like, "Ok, what else can I Stickle here? Well, there's the empty squares in the frame, and there's the butterfly's wings. Nah, those aren't dotty enough. How about doing the dots in the butterfly's wings? Perfect!" So there it was -- done and done! In retrospect I like my crazy and impulsive little card!

I did spend most of today crafting, but I am waiting for my other project to dry and hopefully will have it up for tomorrow! I am so chuffed about it -- I started working on it a few months ago, hit a stone wall, then had an AHA! moment today looking at an inspiration challenge from a couple of weeks ago and now I'm almost done!

And now for something completely different..... I think it's pretty apparent that I LOVE Unity Stamps. I am so happy to have found them and their awesome products, because they are one of the big things that revitalised my enthusiasm for papercrafting and stamping. Well, not only do I love Unity, but so does my cat Fozzie!! He is soooo appreciative of how they understand his little kitty soul and send him the most perfect gifts! In the pic he is lying on some of the paper my first kit of the month was padded with. He has literally loved that paper to pieces! For a few days, he had also gotten a hold of the padded envelope that my second kit of the month came in, and was using it as a pillow while lying on his paper "bed"! No word of a lie!

Sending Joy

First off, I've gotta say I have the coolest friends ever! I posted my excitement about being featured on the Unity blog on Facebook, and my friend Matt C (not a stamper or cardmaker by trade) made sure he got to see this card of mine and said it was awesome! Kudos to Matt and all supportive and encouraging friends of stamp addic- er, stampers!

Onto stamping! I was so excited to get to sit down and make a card using my awesome Fabriano Aquarello watercolour paper! I was never very comfortable making one-layer cards without using a card base that was either substantial or fabulous, or in the case of Aquarello, both! Sharon Johnson posted a flat card challenge on her blog yesterday, and I wanted to try it out the other night! When I started this card, all I knew was that I wanted to use at least one stamp from the October KOM from Unity, and whatever happened after that was gravy. :) The pink swirly stamp is stamped along both the front and back, and I also punched the border along the front and back edges.

Stamps: swirly from Unity's Thinking About the Good Times kit, angel from Unity's Friendship, Love, Miracles kit, green dots and yellow sparkle from Technique Tuesday small Loves Me, Loves Me Not set, both sets of letters from Studio G (by Hampton Arts) mini alpha sets.

Ink: yellow pigment ink by Inkadinkado, green chalk ink by Clearsnap, Coffee Bean by Brilliance, Tattered Rose Distress Ink by Ranger, Starry Night by Palette.

Paper: Fabriano Aquarello watercolour paper.

Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons, Threading Water border punch by Fiskars.


Other news from today.... I had two (!!) doctors' appointments today and only spent four hours at work. It was a quiet day at work anyways, so it was not a problem I don't think. Both doctors' offices are down by the Michaels, so of course I had to go in between appts during my lunch hour to see if they'd gotten in the new Martha Stewart stuff, and they had!!!! The sheep punch and one of the new stamp sets were already sold out! I had a tough time deciding between the cupcake, owl, and elephant punches, but had to get that cute owl. :) I wasn't quite sure how the "double punch" worked, but I found out as soon as I got to the parking lot! It cuts the outline out, and embosses the owl's eyes and tummy. I don't know how I'm going to use this thing, but I'll sure as heck have fun finding out!

With supper, Sheldon and I (and Fozzie too! He liked the fighting and desert scenes) watched the second movie in the 1972 "Lone Wolf and Cub" series. I remember watching samurai and ninja movies with my folks when I was young (back when glaciers covered North America :D) and it is very enjoyable to watch the genre again. The good ones are like Clint Eastwood westerns, except Japanese.

Trust your instincts!

No pics to share tonight, just a quick post before I crawl off to bed. I did get some crafting accomplished -- finished off the remaining five of those Santa Collage cards so now I can clear off my table and move on to something else without any qualms. Some guilt-abating positives about those cards are:

1. used some wedding program cardbases I HAD to have from Michaels over two years ago, and hadn't touched since.
2. used a new stamp I'd had on my wishlist for a few years now, and within a week of acquiring said stamp :)
3. realised how fabulous Aged Mahogany ink is and will use it more in the future

Anyways, none of that has much to do with instincts. I just wanted to share a reminder I experienced today to trust my instincts . I just this morning learned how to read and enter the results for a test at work. A couple of the cases had to be re-read later in the afternoon, and I took the initiative to read and record the results myself. I knew I did this exactly as I was trained, but a little voice in my head kept telling me to get the manager to double-check the result on one of the cases. The manager knew how I'd been trained and was confident in my performance, but I was so concerned that I brought the test itself to her asking her to please take a look. It turned out a detail I was unaware of made the test was invalid. I know this error would have been caught and corrected further down the quality control line, but I was very relieved to have had a hand in catching it myself. So never be afraid to:

• listen to and acknowledge what your instincts are telling you
  
• voice your concerns, even if it would make less waves to submit without a word

So tired! I hope you have a great day tomorrow!!!!

Victory!

Yay, I'm so happy! I managed to not only find all the materials for but actually complete the altered pen project, and used one of the stamps I purchased yesterday! Huzzah! I **love** looking at the purple Himalayan poppies I picked out at Hobby Lobby yesterday, so I'm very happy with how the altered pen project turned out. The materials I used were:

• green floral tape (also comes in white at Walmart)
• spray of artificial flowers without too many poky or fragile bits
• pack of stick pens
• wire cutters (got mine for a buck from Dollar Tree a while back, so glad I did now!)

A tip on working with floral tape and pens is don't pull the tape tightly around the shaft of the pen til you're getting ready to finish off! The first pen I did is very sticky to write with because I pulled the tape tightly all the way up the pen, which exposed all of the adhesive that's in the tape.


I also worked up a card using the Rubber Stampede Santa Collage stamp I picked up at Michaels yesterday. I've been ogling this image for a few years now and decided to indulge myself and pick it up this year. This card looks simple, but I personally am not looking forward to finishing assembling five more of these babies before moving onto my next project. All that layering is a pain!!!! Santa looks a little bit (ok a lotta bit) like a hippie with his rose-coloured glasses. That was an unintentional design addition, cos I forgot that putting liquid glass over dye ink results in tinted liquid glass. Having learned my lesson, I tested other products before applying them to Santa; for the record, Stickles will also cause Distress Ink to run. I gave poor Santa a bloody moustache and eyebrows on my tester! Instead of adding any sparkle to give the focal image more visual weight, I opted to mount Santa on dimensionals. With all the adventures I had making this card, I had mixed feelings about the results until I showed it to Sheldon and he wholeheartedly gave it the Husband Seal of Approval!

Stamps: Santa Collage by Rubber Stampede, sentiment by My Sentiments Exactly

Ink: Walnut Stain, Aged Mahogany, Brushed Corduroy, and Vintage Photo Ranger Distress inks

Paper: starry paper from Memory Stor, green and brown cardstock by Fiskars from "Country" collection, patterned card base from the wedding section in Michaels.

Other: liquid glass by Plaid, Prismacolor pencil crayons

Sheldon and I also spent today together watching fun shows; our faves are primarily Japanese, British, and Canadian in their origins. Today we treated ourselves to:

1. the Lucky Star OVA
2. Chi's Sweet Home
3. Ga-Rei Zero
4. Skip Beat
5. Merlin
6. The Rick Mercer Report
   

Shopping and reflection

I didn't do any actual crafting today (yet, at any rate). So far my solitary leisure activities have consisted of browsing blogs, playing Fish Wrangler on Facebook (I leveled up my Steam-powered Hydropole to Level 6 now! woot!), and SHOPPING!!! Behold the evidence of my consumption!!

I hit Michaels to return a dry inkpad Queue, and while I was there found some things I've had on my mind for a while. The awesome Santa stamp by Rubber Stampede was the last one on the shelf; I'd thought about getting it on my last trip to Ms but had more wants than coupons. The Making Memories paper piercer and stylus (green handled thing) is another item I'd pondered deeply on a trip to Ms a few months ago at a time when finances were particularly tight, and today they were loose enough that I nabbed it before the moment passed. :) The flat-backed gold-rimmed pearl brads weren't in stock the last time I shopped, and I'd resisted the call of the double-sided satin ribbons for over a month now til I saw it in this colour combo that seems to me like a very good match for Broken China and Shabby Shutters Ranger Distress Inks! So I had to OF COURSE purchase all of these things today! With the return and my coupon, the total amount was $6.49. How could I NOT buy them!!!!!!!

Then I went to Hobby Lobby and spent over two and a half hours there. Before you call the Looney Bin (it's in the yellow pages under "L") on me, I was admiring the Christmas stuff, then spent a bit of time in the scrapping and stamping sections getting out of the way of the staff, who for some reason needed to dust and sweep around me an awful lot. I also chatted with two ladies about stamping (wound up giving them a bit of advice about an altered letters project they were working on) and one of the ladies was so sweet and said I should make a career out of scrapbooking pages for other people! She said she would be happy to bring all her stuff to me and have me scrap it for her! Don't know why she got that strong of an impression of my puported prowess, but she sure was sweet! I also ran into some acquaintances I hadn't seen in AGES and we caught each other up a bit. Who knew HL was such a social hotspot? :)

Anyways, I'm guilty as charged for purchasing a 12 pack of 10x14 inch Fabriano Aquarello 140# watercolour paper (featured regularly on Becca Feeken's beautiful creations), a large journaling block stamp by Stampabilities, the Grungeboard shapes pack, some dimensionals, and a spray of purple poppies. No immediate, specific plans for most of these, except the Santa stamp for this year's holiday cards, the Grungeboard for an idea I had for a Christmas countdown calendar, and the poppies for some altered pens. I already have the pens and the floral tape, purchased a couple of months ago at the back-to-school sale time. So, I have a lot of products and ideas to work with and hopefully they will flow from my fingers the way burgers flow from McDonalds!

As I was walking out of the Hobby Lobby, I was thinking about how I'd updated my friend in the store about my new job and all, but hadn't mentioned the two eye surgeries I'd had this year, and how much my sight had been restored. I had a second cataract surgery, and a subsequent vitrectomy to flush all of the debris out of my eye that nobody could tell was there until the cataract was gone. And all of this without complications, which in my situation is an absolute miracle. Tonight, I drove home in the pitch black evening and reflected on the great gift of my vision being restored. I can drive at night now, read street name signs again, and even walking around outside is easier and less stressful. In fact, life in general is easier. I am SO grateful for all of the wonders and gifts I've received, not the least of which is my continued health and vision.

So that's all from today. :D Hopefully tomorrow I will take a chance to sit down and craft some. I've been working on sour cream containers for the Hallowe'en treats this year; they were a real hit last year and are a good excuse to use some of my "value pack" papers and fun monster stamps. Friday night I pulled out my papers and cut them down to 5.5x8.5, and stamped aliens and some kind of monster on some of them. :) No real vision for this stamping project, but I will have fun tinkering around with it!

Manliest pink trees you ever saw!

This is my card for the Unity Challenge Wednesday, where we were to make masculine cards. I received this totally awesome 'happiness' stamp as a free gift with my first order from Unity. When I realised it was the same length as these mini giggle grove trees from the September Kit of the Month, I wanted to have the trees growing out of the word happiness! It was super-easy to line these up withOUT using any kind of stamp positioner; I did a test stamping of the trees just out of prudence to make sure the trunks ended where I thought they did from the back side of my acrylic handle.

I coloured the trees in using three shades of Prismas (Blush Pink first, followed by Pink around the edges, followed by blending using the Blush Pink pencil crayon again, followed by some highlighting around the edges with Dark Umber to make them blend in more with the papers). Then I topped the leafy parts off with a convex layer of Liquid Glass by Plaid -- love the effect now that I'm comfortable using this product!!! To tone down the stark white focal layer, I stippled the edges with Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo inks. To help balance the patterns in the background layers, I also doodled a dashed border using the Burnt Sienna Prisma. To finish it off, I mounted the focal piece on dimensionals, and it looks really cool in real life.

Stamps: Unity gift 'happiness', trees from Unity's September KOM

Paper: True Thyme cardstock (SU, retired); white cardstock by Domtar; Saturate, Instill, and Condense patterned papers from Basic Grey's Infuse collection.

Ink: Coffee Bean Brilliance ink, Dark Moss fluid chalk ink by Clearsnap, Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo Distress inks.

Other: liquid glass by Plaid, Coluzzle circle template, stipple brush, Prisma pencil crayons.


And now for something completely different -- a pic of my cat Fozzie!!! He LLLOOOOOVVVVES doing the faceplant into his Daddy's arm!!!!!

Altered $ Spot Mailboxes

I picked up these three mailboxes from Target back in January, and it only took me until September (!!) to get around to altering them and sending them to my nephew and two nieces! It wasn't for lack of trying; I'd pulled them out on a few occasions and got total scrappers block. I think I'd made these mailboxes into some big, momentous project that had to contain some incredibly meaningful scrapbook, and that my first try at altering them had to have the absolute best results ever. Don't do this -- it's no fun and doesn't work!

You know what finally got me to altering these puppies? I got some super-good news (finally got a job offer for an awesomecool job at the beginning of Sept!) and in my euphoria, I sprinted to Target and enjoyed the heck out of shopping for gifts for the kiddos. I went wild, but not too wild (had still been out of work for two months, after all) and picked up some Hello Kitty goodies in the dollar spot for the girls, and a Lego Bionicles for Christopher.

My design approach (heehee that makes it sound so fancy and professional!) was to keep it fun (=easy) for me and geared for the kids' interests.

1. Pull out the special scrapbook papers I had previously purchased specifically with the kids in mind. (Do we all do this, or is it just me? No idea what I'm going to use the paper on at the time, just wanna get it cos it reminds me of the kids and I think they'd like it!)
   
2. Match up a pattern of paper with a mailbox for each kidlet.
3. Pull out coordinating items like Dora and Hello Kitty stickers.
4. Pull out fun 3D or bulky embellishments I had to own but don't use often enough, and decorate as desired to go with the mailbox.
   

Here is the bold, cheery, and outgoing mailbox tailor-made for Jory -- suits her personality to a T I think. :) The scalloped circle is lilac-coloured and has a fun butterfly background (from VLVS) stamped on it in Moonlight White. Chipboard butterfly is from Technique Tuesday. I applied the purple glitter by first coating the butterfly in liquid glass (like Crystal Effects), burying it in glitter, and then after letting the liquid glass dry and brushing off the loose glitter, I sealed it up with another coat of liquid glass. The monogram (and the two other monograms) were from a blue and silver self-adhesive monogram letter set I got at Walmart last Christmas. I'd previously used the only J on a birthday card for Jory, so I cut the letter U from the set to look like a J, covered it in two coats of Versamagic Aloe Vera chalk ink, then put on two layers of sparkly embossing powder.


I kept Christopher's mailbox very streamlined because I didn't think he'd appreciate the aesthetics of a camouflage mailbox with giant sequins or flowers glued on. :D I applied Coffee Bean Brilliance ink to the edges of the front and back panels of patterned paper for interest, and applied Graphite Black Brilliance ink to a holographic silver C for his monogram. Because the outside was so "streamlined" I added a more personal touch on the inside by sticking a pic of Christopher's Nichda'a and Uncle Sheldon on the door. (That's us in the Land of Milk and Honey, aka San Antonio on the Riverwalk. **LOVE** that city!!! My parents took the photo for us.)


Last but certainly NOT least is this sweet and cute mailbox for the sweet, cute, and smart Grace! All of the mailboxes were fun and easy to make, but this one especially came together quickly because I LOVE HELLO KITTY TOO!! Too bad I didn't buy a fourth mailbox for myself, so I could make one like this for me too!!!

Anyways, that was the result of my adventure with altering mailboxes. It was fun!

World Cardmaking Day -- Unity Style :)

I'm finally getting around to posting the cards I made for World Cardmaking Day a week ago!!!!! Sheesh, blogmaking can be tough to schedule in! I've spent my crafting time this past work week finishing up the bits and pieces I left lying on my craft table, and trying to tidy the area up a bit too. With all the embossing powder and glitter wiped up, and my double scrubber stamp cleaner washed up, I am a happy stamper again!!!

ANYWAYS, you can find all the specifics about SCS's world cardmaking day challenges here. I did all of them except for the colour challenge, which was too complicated for me with a bunch of colour names I didn't have and didn't feel up to trying to match. In the Unity forum on Splitcoast, they gave us the extra challenge of using our Unity stamps for the challenges. Everyone who did all seven challenges using Unity stamps was entered into a drawing to win a prize, but by the time I hit challenge number seven I decided I wanted ALL the cards I made to be FUN and not stressful, so I let go of the seventh challenge and the chance to win a prize. I had a whack of fun making the cards tho!!!!


I made this for the sketch challenge. I was breaking in my new Making Memories rotary precision paper trimmer, so I found trimming the narrow strips to be a little stressful, which then made me anxious about perfectly lining up the three strips. I used my 12x6 Fiskars quilting ruler to make lining up the strips easy to do; I just taped the card base to the ruler using low tack tape, then used the grid lines to align the paper I was adhering. And can I boast a little and say this is my first attempt in memory at "paper piecing"!!!! As soon as I saw this nice open-image purse with nice smooth edges, I thought it was made for paper piecing!

Stamps: Shopaholic kit from Unity (purse, sentiment, and insanity warning)

Ink: Milled Lavender Ranger Distress Ink, Graphite Black Brilliance

Paper: Close to Cocoa, black and white cardstocks, one sheet of double-sided patterned paper by Memory Stor

Other: Black pigma pen, Black Diamond Stickles


I made this for the featured stamper challenge; this is the card of Sherry's that I used for my inspiration. I used the same stamp and layout, but rounded the corners of the trees layer and its matting, used brass snaps instead of pewter brads, and omitted the "LOVE" gong up the right side of the inspiration card. I've never participated in a featured stamper challenge before -- it's a lot of fun, especially when you and the stamper have similar tastes in stamps!!! :D The trees were stamped on grey cardstock identical to the grey matting layer; I wanted to make the trees white by colouring them with my Prismas. To give this card a little depth, I sponged Vintage Photo ink around the edges of the red cardstock.


Stamps: So and So Loves... by Unity

Ink: Coffee Bean Brilliance ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Paper: Close to Cocoa, red and grey generic cardstocks, brown cardstock from Provo Craft.

Other: white, red, and grey Prismacolor pencil crayons, brass snaps by Making Memories


I took the layout and colour scheme for this card directly from the Coldwater Creek catalogue cover linked in the inspiration challenge. I even chose a focal image that consisted of three like things, and coloured them using the same colours as the three leaves from the catalogue cover. :) I lllooooovvvveee inspiration challenges, and enjoyed breaking out colours I dont usually use!

Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (trees, sentiment), maple leaf from All Night Media

Ink: Sunflower Palette Ink, olive Versamagic chalk ink, Coffee Bean Brilliance ink

Paper: Morning Marigold cardstock by SU (retired), white and black generic cardstocks

Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons


The challenge for this card was to use a stamp of a tree, or an item related to trees. I decided (as I often do :D) to keep my layout simple and go gangbusters creating textures and depth by using a variety of stamps. I ran a bead of liquid glass over the three after I coloured it, and also painted a thin coating of the glass over the green strip to make it stand out and give it more visual weight IRL. It doesn't really show up here that well, tho. I was so pleased that I had an inkpad that perfectly matches one of the blues in my Pebbles i-kan-dee chalks! I stamped the corners in the ink (natch) and used the matching chalk to soften the stark white of the cardstock and draw the eye to the tree. I didn't use anything like a stampamajig to stamp the corners on my card -- all I did was align the edges of the corner stamp with the grids on my acrylic handle, then with the inked stamp lying on its back on the table, I carefully-ish placed the cardstock down using the gridlines to help me line it up.

Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (tree, butterfly, swirly pretty thingy, bubbly corner)

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance ink, Blueberries & Chocolate fluid chalk ink Queue by Clearsnap, Versamark

Paper: Not Quite Navy and the bright green from that colour family cardstocks by SU, white cardstock by Domtar

Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons, liquid glass by Plaid, clear embossing powder by PSX, shimmer chalk by Pebbles


I'd never made a nested circle flower before, either! The instructions said to use five circles, so I cut my smallest one first and used it as a guide to cut my next layer, but all the cutting was done just by eyeballing it to get a bit of a fun, asymmetric look. By the time I cut my third circle, I figured I had better watch out or I wouldn't be able to fit the flower on a card, or even worse might injure the recipient by sending them a five-pound paper flower card, so I started cutting the layers a little tighter. Before gluing the circles together, I distressed the edges with my fingers and fingernails, and inked along the edges with olive chalk ink to give them a little more definition. The grey layer needed a little more oomph to keep up with that massive bloom, so in addition to using the Threading Water punch, I also doodled dots along the edges.

Stamps: Unity September Kit of the Month (butterfly, swirly pretty thingy), sentiment by Hero Arts

Ink: Blueberries & Chocolate fluid chalk ink Queue by Clearsnap, Versamark, Olive chalk ink by Versamagic

Paper: Not Quite Navy cardstock by SU, grey generic cardstock, Fruitcake by Basic Grey

Other: clear embossing powder by PSX, dark green pigma pen, fancy brad from the crafting section in Zellers, if you can believe it!


On this one, where the challenge was to avoid the use of patterned paper and chalks/pastels, I decided to use a variety of papers to add interest. :) On the card base, I tried out creating a scalloped border using a corner punch for the first time ever, and probably for the last time too, at least the last time doing it all around the edge of a card made from a whole sheet of CS! Even with the mix of paper textures and the scalloped edge, this card was a little plain for my tastes until I added the blingy brads and applied lace stickles to the three flower clusters that are part of the quotation stamp.

Stamps: quotation from Unity, large butterfly from PSX

Ink: Tattered Rose and Faded Jeans Distress Inks

Paper: Not Quite Navy cardstock by SU, grey generic cardstock, vellum, pink mulberry paper

Other: blue pen, blue crystal brads by Making Memories, diamond lace stickles, large corner rounder punch by EK Success

So there's my giant post of my Unity WCMD challenge cards. I am so appreciative of my husband, who not only was happy to see me participate in the challenges and make a bunch of cards, but also things all of them are beautiful! Isn't it funny how when we look at are cards, we mostly see what they are NOT, while if you ask anyone else, they just see the awesome things you did!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!!!!!

Oh wow what a great morning. :) Got to sleep in, and browse and comment on blogs while I waited for my headache medicine to kick in!!! Sounds like a great start to WCMD to me! And I get to try out my new MM trimmer and a couple of new sets from Inkadinkado today! I didn't plan on getting the Inkadinkado sets last night when I was at Michaels picking up my trimmer, but I was in no mood to talk myself out of them (they filled a vacant niche in my stamp collection!!) and I knew I loved them and would use them, so I just rolled with it. I got the rock star set, and the new fairy set -- fun, modern, and unique takes imho on images for men, boys, and li'l girls!

I will be celebrating WCMD by following the special challenges at Splitcoast Stampers -- you can find the master list of today's SCS challenges here.