Can we say "OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE"???

Ok...I really do like how this card turned out...but it is SO not my style! ;-)

This morning I went blog hopping looking for some inspiration and found it here in the form of a sketch challenge. Doesn't hurt that there is a potential "prize" for this sketch challenge! But mainly I just chose it because it was different than anything I've ever done.

When I printed the sketch I envisioned a pink/yellow card using my flourishes set. Very soft floral...even thought about making it into a baby card. As you can see...that is SO NOT what it evolved into! :-) I'd called this "grunge"...others call it shabby chic I believe. Here are the pics and I'll tell you what products and such I used after the pics.







Ok...like I said...I started with a pastel idea. I stamped SU's Linen background stamp tone on tone 2nd generation on the pink cardstock. Then I stamped the Happy Birthday (CTMH) in black...but it looked SO black that now the rest of the card looked silly. So I inked all the edges of everything. I stamped the flourish (Autumn Leaves) in 1st generation pink. Still looked unbalanced...so restamped the flourish in black...moving it just a bit to the right. The bottom scallop is made by using SU's slit punch...repeated punch moving down the strip of cardstock. Then I went back and used a regular hole punch in the middle of each scallop so the yellow showed through. And THEN I went back with the 1/16 punch and punched a tiny hole it each of the larger holes. I added the flowers (and inked them as well). The strip of yellow is faux stitched. Used my SU piercing guide and punched every other hole and then connected.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Jane

Good morning?

Hopefully today is better than yesterday. Yesterday I spent the day in bed puking my guts up. So today HAS to be better than that, eh? ;-) I'm still feeling weak but I'm on the mend. Luckily I don't get sick very often. The last time I remember vomiting was at the c-section delivery 7 years ago! Unfortunately, anethesia and I don't get along.

So...are you ready for new artwork? Are you REALLLLY ready? This is a card that I made using my new Memory Box penguins. Sometimes I'm such a dork and don't think about only using part of a stamp. But if you can think outside the box you can get so much more use out of your stamps. For this card I used the kissing penguins...but for the side pieces I only inked up one and stamped it. That way they look like they are heading towards the center where they meet up with a kiss. Now I'm thinking I need an ice cube stamps! LOL! It never ends.

This card also uses little hearts from CTMH, Flourishes on the background (Rhonda Farrar?) and the saying from TAC.



I wrote a letter to the editor re: mental health and my friend's suicide. They wrote yesterday saying they planned on printing it but that that can change based on space. So we'll see if it shows up. I've had a couple letters actually make it in the past.

Ok, gotta go get ready for work. Have a great day all!

Jane

Happy Sunday!

I'm back from Scrap Camp with some adventures to share. I started off my weekend on Friday (took the day off of work). It took me several hours to pack my scrapbooking stuff (because you never know what you're going to need). I didn't have hardly any pictures printed (whole last year was still on the digi card). So I also needed to do that on my way to camp and I needed to get new tires put on my PT Cruiser. So I left the house about 2:30. Drove into Tucson - stopped at CVS pharmacy. Spent about 45 minutes picking which pictures I wanted...zooming...correcting coloring...making beach pics sepia...and when I was all done I saved them. They told me it'd take about an hour so I headed over to get my tires done. They also said that'd take about an hour. So I left my car and went and got my hair cut and came back. I HAD to be at Scrap Camp at 6:00 for the check-in/announcements. At 5:00 they were still working on my car and I still had to pick up my pics. A little after 5:00 CVS calls my cell and tells me their computer went down and they are unable to print my pics. I finally get my car back and head to camp barely squeezing in under the time limit. I used the valet parking at the front and they told me it was free if I had it signed by the person at the convention. Get all my stuff down to the ballroom and check in. The lady helping me with my "luggage" tells me that she doesn't think valet is free and she'll double check it for me. Turns out it's $20 - so I need to get my ticket validated and move the car to self-parking if I don't want to pay. So I listen to announcements and then head off to try and get my ticket validated. They wouldn't validate it without me having something. So I order a kahlua and cream (by then I needed it! LOL!). $8.50 later (and a $1 for tip)...I get my ticket validated and go move my car. Then I went back and scrapped till about 11:30 that night and then drove the hour home. I was back up at 6:45 the next morning - with my goal to be at Camp by 9:00. I left here and on my way I called CVS to make sure my pics were ready. Still not so I tell them to cancel the order and I'll take them somewhere else. I hadn't brought my digi card...so I had to turn around and drive back to the house to pick it up. Then stopped at Walgreens and spent another hour picking out the photos and prettying them up. Went to finish the process and literally half way through the transfer it says it has encountered an error and needs to shut down. Argh! At this point I literally cried. I spent $120 for the weekend and have no photos to scrapbook...and now it's 11:00 and my day is half over. So I head back out to Camp. Figure I'll just watch everyone else for the day or make some cards or something. Luckily when I got to camp one of the ladies had a self-standing printer with her and I was able to load the card and print enough photos to get me through. So from there on out it was a good weekend!

I had a GREAT secret pal and received lots of goodies. I have more chocolate than I'll ever be able to eat...I have brads in every shape/size color. I have scrapbooking kits and ribbons to match. I have a stamp set I'd been wanting. Lots and lots of stuff! And I never had a clue who was giving to me.

I also had fun with my secret pal. I left her packages all weekend. And instead of just walking up and revealing who I was...I left her a list of clues and she had to go around to the tables asking people things like "do you have a tattoo? do you know how to ride a motorcycle?" It was so funny. :-)

So, with that being said...I'll share the rest of HER gifts here today and then through the coming week I'll share my scrapbook pages that I complted (all 14 of them! it's a record I think!).

Here is her first gift for yesterday morning - an ice chest full of her favorite soda and a bag of M&M's.

Then her second gift was a box of embellishments with this tag:

Then I gave her a plain box of scrapbooking stuff (so no picture to share) and then this was her final gift for the weekend (it's filled inside too! it's a rolling SBing cart).

I also took an alcohol inks class over the weekend so I'll be able to share some of that here soon too. This was the 10th year for Scrap Camp and it's been determined that it's the final year. The people who organize it have decided that it's time is up and they just aren't able to do it anymore (now full time jobs, etc). I'm hoping someone else takes it over. I've even considered it myself. But it's something I'll need to discuss with my hubby. Right now there is a team of 7 or 8 people who put it together. So it's no small undertaking. Generally runs close to 100 women.

Well...LONG post for today. Does that make up for the several days where you didn't have one? Hope so.

Jane

EXCITING NEWS! (Yes, I'm shouting!)

I've been invited to be part of a Design Team! I'm still waiting to find out the details (how many samples I'll be expected to create and if I'll get "paid" in rubber stamps and/or cash). But I'm psyched either way! The company is called Clear Dollar Stamps and their website is http://www.cdstamps.com. So check them out!

Here is another one of the cards I made this weekend. It has a unique triangle fold (the main image is only attached to one half of the triangles below it. It stays closed by the ribbon (and I added a photo turn mount just for good measure).