Waddup??

Paper Smooches free digi-stamp for April

Just LOOK at this little owl. He is part of Paper Smooches free digital stamp image for April. What an expression! I'm not sure if he is intended to look sleepy or maybe sarcastic (the suggested sentiment is "you're a hoot"), but my take was...sardonic. 

I combined the digi-stamp with the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge image for March 8th, this lovely wreath of felt flowers:

to create this ironic composition:

I love the combination of the beautiful floral wreath with the less-than-impressed owl.

My college/high-school age sons assure me this is the correct spelling of the contemporary "what's up?"

Using digital stamps is new to me, but they make for surprisingly easy paper piecing.  I just copy/pasted a few of the owl and branch images to a page, and printed it on regular paper. Then I taped small scraps of card stock over the printed images and printed them again. Then simply cut and pasted with scissors and glue, and added a little shading with markers.

For the wreath, I used the palm leaf stamp from PS' Zoo Crew, and a die cut flower "Creatable"from Marianne Design, in the Netherlands (another gift from my sister in Amsterdam--a whole 'nother continent of crafty stuff!). Can't recall where I found that burlap paper...old stash stuff! The font is Boing Alphabet from CTMH.

The inside of the card continues the sarcastic theme... You would have to send this to a really GOOD friend, or at least one with a sense of humour...

Now off to play with more of those little owls. I'm thinking book marks, with Whoo? Where? What? to help you remember the plot...

Bon Appetit...C4C133 and TSG152

While browsing through my blogger Dashboard today, I came across this posting by Sharon, the Island Stamp Queen.

Sharon's card

She made an adorable pop-up card, and included the link to the site where she found the video tutorial, by Dawn. Dawn's card is included below.

Dawn's card

Now, I was thinking about creating something for this week's There She Goes Challenge, which was to make something for your Dad; I also saw that TSG is sponsoring a challenge by Crazy4Challenges this weekend. The challenge there involves adding black cardstock to make your creation POP.  So one thought led to another and I decided to create a pop-up card and some wine labels for my Dad.

This requires a little back-story: my Dad is Scottish, and as such, loves a bargain, so in retirement he has started making his own wine, from one of those WineKitz-type stores. The other thing about him is that he was a Chemistry professor, and well, he just can't help tweeking those recipes a bit... The result is many bottles of wine that are just...okay. But he loves giving them to his children!  I decided to make some stamped labels for his wine, using the Bon Appetit stamp set from TSG.  Besides the chubby little chef, there are ALL KINDS of goodies in this set, for cooking, setting the table, putting items on his tray, you get the idea.

I used my printer for producing the "Castle Macdonald"labelling in Gothic font (Celtic "Chateau Rotheschild?") along with the wine variety. Then I cut them out with Nestabilities "Label 2", stippled around the edges, and stamped the wine glasses and bottle from the TSG set. I mounted them on plaid papers (more Scottish tie-ins!).

The pop-up card is an invitation to a wine-tasting! It actually folds flat, and can be put into an envelope for mailing. I assembled the card according to the tutorial directions (see link above).

I stamped the chef with archival ink, then coloured him with markers, paper-piecing his pants and kerchief. I added the wine bottle and a couple of glasses to his tray. I added the "Bon Appetit" sentiment to the front edge along with a paper flag, button and twine bow. Specifics for the wine-tasting party could be printed on the back of the standing part of the card.





So I hope that pleases the folks at TSG and Crazy4Challenges. I'll send the wine labels to my Dad, but I'm not sure we'll do the wine-tasting party with the "Castle Macdonald" vintages...

WILD thing...

Here is a sneak peak at one of the cards I made as part of my submission to the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge DT search... I know, I know, but a girl can dream, can't she??




That tiny little felt heart made me think of the little heart stamp from the PS set "Zoo Crew." It has a zebra-stripy design, which made me think of that old Chip Taylor song recorded by the Troggs ... (FYI, I did not know that trivia off the top of my head--I had to look it up...)

Here's the final version:

Isn't that little zebra the cutest thing?  I used a {Stamps of Life} background stamp called "animals4prints" as a setting for the zebra, who is also part of the ZOO CREW set.

 The zebra was high-lighted with markers and then I fringed and ruffled the mane, which doesn't come across so well on the photo, but gives a nice tactile effect.

The font is an alphabet stamp set called "BOING" which I bought second hand from a Close-to-My-Heart friend. It also seemed to fit the wild theme.

I may save this card for my DH, for when we celebrate our anniversary next month.  He can be wild (we were at a Stanley Cup playoff game last night, where he lost his voice!) and he does still make my heart sing... I'll add "I think I love you" to the inside of the card ;)

CSC #86--Bohemian Meets Steampunk...

This lovely image is the inspiration photo for the challenge this week at Case Study Challenge.  The new muse for April is Laurie Schmidlin, who has a delightful, eclectic style.
Now this particular card is a bit more shabby-chic/collage-ish than I am comfortable with, however, I combined it with a past challenge image from Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, pictured here:

You would think the two had ABSOLUTELY no connection, but here is what I came up with:

I was intrigued by the ghosted dress-making mannequin in the CSC image, which led me to a Steam-punk-themed kit of goodies I received from Paper Wishes (you can see the kit contents by clicking on the Paper Wishes link). The definition of Steampunk is: "The future as envisioned by the past." Typical images are Victoriana, gears and metals, inventions including early flight, collectibles, etc. Now you may be starting to see how I got from the pink onesie to the vintage image of the inspiration photo. The whole idea of clocks, time passing, butterflies developing and flying away...

My main image is the beautiful mannequin with the butterfly wings. It is a "papier tole die-cut," which you punch out and stack in layers with foam tape, to give a 3D effect. It is printed on foiled paper and is so shimmery and detailed. Here is a link to the item. I paired it with some pink foil paper and shimmery teal ribbon; I gave the mannequin a pink crepe ribbon sash to echo the ruffle on the onesie. The card base is grey patterned paper with subtle gears, from the Steampunk paper pack. The silver embossed words are another Paper Wishes product.

The clock face stamp is a Fiskars image, as is the sentiment, "time flies;" the clock hands are Dazzles stickers from the Steampunk kit. I added some extra flowers and a foiled butterfly, along with some jewels (I NEVER use 'em, but they fit this project so well!).

I used another of the sentiments from the stamp set for the inside of my card, along with some more patterned paper flags.


So I am very happy with how this turned out; I always like using up items from my stash (makes it easier to justify more purchases!) and I think I successfully captured the whole life-cycle, present-becomes-the-past idea. I just wish you could see the card in real life, to appreciate all that shimmer and shine!

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge-Part Deux

Here is my second submission to the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge for April 5th-18th, 2012.

The inspiration for this challenge is the following image:

For this submission, I wanted to do two things: firstly, use a PS image for embellishing a scrapbook page rather than a card, and secondly, to try out one of Paper Smooches' free digital images (a brand new venture, for me!).  I really just used the colour-scheme of the inspiration this time, blues with a hit of orange.

The image I downloaded is shown below, with the corresponding sentiment:
I printed them off on regular paper and then used a sponge to apply colour from an ink pad. I liked this so much I didn't bother experimenting any further (I had planned to try printing the images directly onto card-stock).

That spunky sun was the ideal complement for the summer photo of my son and his friend, heading out to frolic in the ocean at our cottage last August, with their brightly coloured "noodles." To make the sun more prominent, I matted it on a hand-cut sun-burst, in Creme Brulee card-stock, then wove some Mandarin and Buttercream twine from The Twinery between the spokes of the sun. It is also popped up on foam tape. Here is close-up of the detail:

I also had fun curling the edges of my double-sided paper photo-mat. I rubbed the edges with a wet finger, until they were softened, then rolled them up here and there and let them dry until set. This idea came from my crafty friend Corina, who provided a how-to video on her blog. The two sides of the Elemental paper from Close to My Heart were the perfect colours for this challenge's inspiration and echoed the colours in the photo as well.

The Paper Smooches digital image was lots of fun to work with and I look forward to more "playing" with them in the future!

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge!

This photo is the inspiration for the current Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge. I have only a couple of Paper Smooches stamp sets (so far!) but there are also free digi stamps available at this link, and also here. This company has such appealing critters but also funky sentiments, great graphics and fun retro designs.  The challenge runs until April 18th, and you can find the link HERE.

Here is my creation. I focused on the type-set letters and the general colour scheme. I love this sentiment...I'm sure this card will come in handy!

I used the Typewriter Keys alphabet stamps from CTMH, and the crabby guy from Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals set; I coloured him in with markers. The seaweed background was made using the jungle leaf stamp from PS's Zoo Crew set. I plan to submit this card to the Paper Smooches Sparks DT call, as well.

Here's hoping your week is NOT crabby...

A Good Friday

Here is a single page from my continued theme {last year's vacation album}, featuring a photo of my son, sister-and-brother-in-law and Hailey, the black lab, strolling on the beach.

I admit I printed out this photo in three sizes, 8x10, 5x7 and 4x6, not being sure which I would use. The largest one seemed to capture the moment the best. And I decide not to detract from the photo, by essentially extending it beyond the edges of the image onto the scrapbook page.

I used crinkle card-stock from Wausau Papers, available at Paper Wishes, kraft paper, tearing, inking and twine from the Twinery, to capture the summer sky, waves and sand. There is a companion page, using the photo-pockets, with photos of Miss Hailey cavorting in the waves--the full title is 

"Hailey on the Beach."

I find it so calming to look at this memory!

Enjoy this vacation weekend with your loved ones.

Channelling Corina... Summer Album Part VI

This is the most recently completed page of our summer vacation album.

However, the title to this posting refers to my sister's good friend, Corina, who is a FABulous scrapbooker, found-object alterer, and just generally creative person. She lives in the Netherlands and designs for the Dutch paper-crafting company Scrapdelight. She produces wonderful scrapbook pages with a wealth of tactile features, incorporating such hand-crafted details as crochet, embroidery, ribbon flowers, stitching, repurposed objects, and so on. She is also a great photographer, so her blog is a treat to visit. I am always inspired to see her work. You can check out her blog, "No More Sleeping {just scrapping!} HERE. She posts in Dutch, but you will see a Google Translate button on the left border, and can indicate your language of choice. Take a look at the Photography tab at the top, as well; there are some great images of Holland and other locales.

So for this page, I channelled my "inner Corina" and made it as texturally interesting as possible. I used a paper doily for my photo mat, and edged the upper mat with a Martha Stewart lacy border punch; a Fiskar's punch created slots for threading ribbon. I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the letters for my title--the perforations in them were perfect for the lacy theme.

 The grouping of goodies in the lower right corner includes a canvas sticker, lace flower and buttons, all CTMH's Bohemian collection.

 The image linking the two photos (my husband and me on a rare night out!) involves a stamp-edge frame cut with the Cricut, the last piece of patterned paper from the Elemental pack I used for the whole album, plus a stamped heart with a Maya Road stick-pin.

I made sure to include ephemera from the date (ticket stub) matted on a tag with faux stitching using a Signo Uniball white pen, and more ribbon. Not quite as gorgeous as Corina's work but I was pleased with the overall effect.