MOJO154 and Curtain Call 45 Thank You

I think it's been a long time since I did a MOJO Monday sketch.  I can't really say what kept me away.  I really look forward to Monday when I get in to work and check the sketch for that week (don't tell the boss).  I'm just glad to get back in to the MOJO swing of things.  For this card I combined the MOJO154 sketch with the Curtain Call 45 color challenge.

There's that crumb cake again!  I can't seem to resist a challenge when I see crumb cake.  And this week I also get to use concord crush.  I believe I have gushed lately about how much I love that color too.  So here's my take on the sketch and colors.

Once again I chose to make this card 4 1/4 inches square.  It's such an adorable size.  If you haven't tried it, you should.  It's really the cutest thing.  And, it fits in an A2 envelope, so no need to worry about extra postage in a square envelope.  (And what's up with that, by the way?).

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

A Little Chalkboard Technique

I've wanted to try the chalkboard technique ever since I saw the tutorial on Splitcoast many moons ago.  For some reason I never got around to it.  Then I decided to attempt it with this card.

Although I like the soft look of the image there a few things I have a problem with.  The first is the "soft look."  The very nature of using the pastels to color in the image means that you're going to get a lot of pastel dust everywhere on your card.  The instructions say to use a swiffer to wipe away the excess.  The swiffer works pretty well removing the excess dust, but there is a hint that remains around the stamped image.  Kind of like a shadow, it sort of creates that fuzzy, dreamy quality, but it's kind of bugging me.  The second problem I have is that you can't really touch the card without getting pastels on your fingers.  I think I can resolve that pretty easily by spraying it with hairspray or some kind of fixative in the future.  And the third thing is sort of related to the first thing.  As I was using the swiffer to wipe off the excess pastel dust, I experimented with rubbing directly on the stamped image.  Maybe I was rubbing too exhuberantly, but some of the pastel wore off which is why you see some color missing from the stems and he flowers.  Overall, I like the look of the technique, but I think I need to experiment more.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

PPA57 Thank You

Once again, Margaret Moody has given us a really great sketch over at the Pals Paper Arts blog this week.

I'm fairly certain that I was subliminely influenced by the new colors and layout of the PPA blog, because I chose to make my card using basic black, poppy parade and very vanilla.  When I saw the sketch, I had it in my head that I wanted to use those colors and as a bonus, it gave me an excuse to break out my Newsprint dsp from Stampin' Up! 

Oh, the power of suggestion!  In any event, I really like how this one turned out.  To make sure that the flower panel really popped, I inked it up with Versamark and embossed it with black embossing powder.  It's really quite dramatic in real life.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Matchbox Favors

I love making favors and for some reason, whenever I do I always seem to reach for my matchbox sizzix die.  Here are a couple I made recently.

I made these for a very sweet lady who is gathering soon for a reunion with some of her college friends.  She told me they all met when they were freshman in 1961 and try to get together every three or four years.  How sweet!  Hopefully her friends will like these!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MTSC88 and CTD107

I love a card with a lot of layers.  That heaviness that the layers give the card feel somehow satisfying when you handle the card.  So when I saw Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge this week, I knew I had to give it a go.  Then I saw the fabulous colors from the folks over at the Color Throwdown and I set to work.

For some reason, whenever I see layers like this I want to drag out my adorable Janome Sew Mini and zig zag some stitching on my cards.  So today I did!  I just love that little machine.  So glad I bought it!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Color Lab Challenge 7

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab. I love the colors this week.

I seem to be on a crumb cake kick lately. It’s really a great color to work with as a card base and goes so nicely with lots of other colors as well. For this color challenge, I got to pair it with garden green (which I almost never use!), wild wasabi and chocolate chip. It’s a great combo of nice earthy colors – give it a try!

I decided to use the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge for my layout and I added those adorable clear flower-shaped buttons for a little more visual interest.

Thanks for visiting today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

MOJO153 Almost

I had a really nice idea to make an autumn themed card using this week's MOJO sketch. 

My card was all put together.  I embossed some really nice leaves with copper embossing powder, I had copper brads, I used chocolate chip cardstock (one of my faves).  In short, I thought I had it all going on.  But once I really had a chance to look at it, I thought "blech."  What a mess.  So back to the drawing board I went.  Here's my second attempt:

Not only is this card not anywhere near an autumn theme, I have taken quite a bit of poetic license with the sketch.  I hope I'm not in trouble, but Julee always says that we should have fun with the sketches!  And I did have fun with this one.  It's very spring-like.  Go figure!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

My First Halloween Card in 2010

The other day I was going through some stamp sets when I stumbled on my Halloween stamp set stash (say that five times fast!).  Now, I'm not sure why, but I just love all things Halloween.  I was never really into trick-or-treating when I was a kid.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the candy, I just didn't love the whole "knocking on the door and pretending to be excited when you screamed "trick or treat" at the exhausted neighbor who had already had enough of the candy" thing.  Go ahead, call me the Scrooge of Halloween.  I can take it.

BUT, I love Halloween decorations.  The scarier the better.  Which is probably why I love this stamp set so much.

I mean look at this guy.  He's got sunken eyes and bats for hair!  How awesome is that?  He's even got a jack-o-lantern coming out of his cheek!  I'm sure this is the first of many Halloween themed things I'll make this year.  I just can't help myself.  And special thanks to the Fall-To Layout Sketch 80 that provided the inspiration for the layout.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!