Wednesday, June 24, 2009

You Rock!

Saw an adorable clear Disney set of stamps at Walmart for $2 and had to pick it up. It was probably more for the teenage generation. But I liked several of the stamps. One being this drum set.



My oldest brother is 10 years older than I am. And he played the drums. We had a drum set in our family room for as long as I can remember. He'd crank the music up and drum and I'd jump rope. (Luckily there was a door to close off some of the noise.) Later my brother who is 2 years older than me also chose to play the drums. And by then we were in a different place with no family room. My poor Mom. Drum set in a singlewide mobile home. But she never complained...just encouraged us to enjoy music.

Jane

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

Well, I doubt I have a whole lot of men visiting my site...but if it applies to you then...Happy Father's Day! :-)

My husband really likes the cards that I make that are "aged" or "distressed" so I started this card off with that in mind. I used an image from Stampin' Up. I don't own the stamp set but someone had stamped me some images. I colored the image with my prismacolor pencils and then aged the piece by sponging on brown ink and then dragging the edges with scissors. It was still a little too white for my liking so I added some light brown ink to the "Linen" background stamp (also Stampin' Up) and stamped over the entire image. Lastly I faux stitched around it. The rest is very similar...lots of sponging of ink or using the ink pad 'direct to paper' to give it the aged look. Also dragging the edges or folding the corners. The only 'embellishment' per se is the tiny screw brads in each of the four corners. I had originally planned on using silver screw brads but they looked entirely too bright with the rest of it. So I stuck with these mini brads which are more of a copper color. The map paper is from Close to My Heart. The inside simply states, "Happy Father's Day to our 'Classic' Dad". (Printed from computer.)


Here is a close up of the main image. If you click on the image it will get larger and then you can see all the distressing that was added.

Jane

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Little Silliness

Sometimes I just love to "play" on words.





The donut stamp is from Michael's $1 bin. The saying is stamped using Karen Foster Snap Stamps. I stamped the donut twice and cut the frosting off the second image and popped it up on top of the first image for dimension. If I could FIND my "liquid glass" I would have used that to make the frosting looks glazy...but I can't find it (the story of my disorganized life). Also, if I had them I would have used some beads as the sprinkles on the donut. Instead I just colored the frosting area and used stickles on the sprinkles.

All in all, I still like it, just had invisioned it with the ideas noted above and then couldn't carry them through to fruition. Hate it when that happens!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tri Fold Shutter Card

My mojo is BACK! At least for now. I love how this card came out. After I saw the tutorial here on THIS blog I decided I HAD to try making one myself. Here is my finished card:



Here is the top view (ignore the dust!)



And here is a close up of the "main" portion of the card:



My card is definately not as "dressed up" as the sample card...but I like my simplicity. Goes along with the saying and stamps/papers I used. All stamps are from Close to My Heart.

Enjoy!

Jane

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mojo somewhat reinstated...

I've made a few cards over the last couple days. I'm not sure I'm totally LOVING any of them. You know...sometimes you make a card and you want to show it to everyone you know. Well, my stamping mojo isn't THAT much back yet! LOL. But I do like the cards I've made well enough. So...here is one of my "somewhat mojo reinstated" cards. :-)



For this card I used an old stamp set from Close to My Heart which has solid shapes in it. I used a circle stamp and then did the "rock and roll" technique with Citrus Leaf and Clover Meadow inks and stamped the circle. Repeated 5 more times trying my best to get them equidistant from each other. Then I added the greeting (another CTMH set) and the shooting star (from a Disney set I got at Walmart for $2 clearanced). Added the ribbon and tada...done. Simple but I like the color pop of the green. Looks better in real life. Had a hard time getting a decent picture of the true green color that it is.

Jane

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bridal Box

Remember the cards I made for my niece? You can see them here in THIS post. Well, I needed a way to package them. I had one card box but it only held 4 cards and envelopes...and I needed one that would hold 10. I also wanted it to have a clear front to showcase the cards themselves. So, what's a girl to do???

Well, she goes over to THIS tutorial that Sharon put together on her blog (No Time to Stamp?) In this tutorial she shows you how to make a box of ANY size of your choosing.

So here is my completed box from a couple different views. I used some stretchy silver cord from Close to My Heart to keep the box closed. Honestly, it looks like something you'd buy in a store. I'm so happy with how it all came out!





To package it all up I included a book of stamps and placed it all in a gift bag with some tissue paper and made a tag to match. Hope they like it!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

One of Those Days?

This is very similar to the "Terrufic" card I posted a few days ago. I like the idea of sticking with same sketch, same colors but different stamps. Makes coming up with two cards very quickly...easy!



I haven't stamped at all this week and I apologize for not posting more. I do want to post a picture of my nieces' wedding thank you's (all boxed up). But beyond that I need to find my creative mojo - cause I'm not feeling it right now.

Jane

Monday, June 8, 2009

Playing Hookie!

I took all week off this week from work. I've worked there for close to two years and have never taken more than a couple days off at a time. I've been feeling very stressed out and at the end of my rope...so decided to take this week off. As part of that, I'm trying to spend time doing things I enjoy, with people I enjoy.

Yesterday, dh and I took the boys to see Night At the Musuem 2. It was good. Not great...not as good as the first...but good.

My sister-in-law is in town...so today we got together with all the kids (my two boys and her two boys and one girl). We took them out to Sabino Canyon and let them play in the water. Luckily, there was some water...but not as much as there will be in a month or so. They had a BLAST playing. Then we took them to McD's afterwards and they played for another couple hours there (tag, running and screaming). I think we are all tired out now. But it was a nice day. Here are a few pics (notice how I purposely made sure I wasn't in any of the pictures!) LOL.









Tomorrow I'm taking them swimming over at a friend's apartment (and then she and I are going to hang out afterwards to quilt and/or make cards). Wednesday I have lunch plans with another friend (and probably a little shopping for me). No plans yet for Thursday. And Friday we have to go to Phoenix for my niece's wedding. The week is going to fly by!

Whew!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Ter-ruffic Card

This is the latest/greatest sketch challenge over on SplitcoastStampers. They post a new sketch every Wednesday. Sometimes, they are more involved than I like...I like clean simple designs. But this one called to me...and I sat down and made two cards in a few hours time.

This first card is made with a stamp set from Close to My Heart. My friend gave me the stamp set because she didn't want it any more. I think this is the first card I've made with it. But I'm really happy with how it came out.



What do YOU think?

I also came up with a box for the wedding thank you cards I made. I haven't taken a picture yet...but will be sharing that soon. So you can look forward to that. I'll even share the tutorial I used so you can make your own boxes of any size.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Turkey Flip Card

I bet EVERYONE that works in an office has a few non-favorite management folks who just grate on their last nerve. Well, it was in that thought process that this card idea was born. I've had it in my head for over a month. Just couldn't find the time to make it. And then I THOUGHT I had a live turkey stamp but I didn't...or maybe I do and I just can't find it...LOL.

Anyways, I've blurred the names to protect (the not so) innocent - but moreso to cover my butt! You never know when what you post on the internet might come back to bite you in the rear. So...I've blurred the names but I think you'll still get the idea! :-)



As you pull down on the ribbon, another panel flips up. Each panel has a particular cooked "turkey" shown.



I used a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers to make this. I had to modify my sizes just a bit because my turkey stamp was bigger than the measurements given in the tutorial. All in all, I am SO happy with how it turned out.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wedding Thank You's

I've been working on some wedding thank you cards. This is a set of 10 cards and will be my gift (along with postage) for my niece and her new husband. I am really happy with how they came out. Unfortunately, I don't think the pictures do them justice. The bride and groom is stamped inside the card with a square cut out window. Then it is dry embossed around the square. "Thank You" is dry embossed on the bottom right. A ribbon is added to the left (which has glitter and sparkles) and I added a nice big "bling ring" to the bride's hand just for a little extra.



Here is a close up of the "bling ring". Don't you wish you had that kind of a diamond ring on YOUR hand??? Well, maybe not. People would cut off your finger for a diamond of that size. LOL.

Now I need to figure out a way to "package" them. I have a clear box but I'm not sure if it'll hold 10 cards and envelopes or not. Will have to figure that out next.

Jane

Monday, June 1, 2009

Perfectly Normal Employee?

I saw this saying (except it said 'family') and I knew I had to make it for one of my coworkers. Our small department is pretty unusual. One of the ladies talks (and sings) quite loudly to herself. Another is OCD and everything has to be just "so". Then there is me...probably the most normal...but still far from normal! LOL. Anyways, that's the history behind the card idea. Here's the card...



When you pull out the tab it says, "We should get us one of those." :-)

I kept the card simple - trying to keep the office "feel". I stamped the computer then stamped it again on a post it note. Cut out the one from the post it note and masked the one on the cardfront. Then used four post it notes to create the square around the computer and sponged all that area green. The saying I printed off on the computer. The cardstock is all Stampin Up. For the pull out I just made a little sleeve to hold the pull out and attached the sleeve to the back of the card front.

Hope you like it!

Jane