Struggling

I've been struggling with migraines for over a week now, and haven't felt much like crafting. Today is tolerable, and after seeing my sister (yay! Hi Sue), I came home and made the last card for the 10 Minute Craft Dash. Oh, Paulina, I love this challenge! Sometimes when I'm crafting, I play around with the ideas, and change the layout. With the TMCD, I just go with what was in my head (besides the migraine, that is..). Great color combo at the TMCD, be sure to check it out:

This card will also go into Addicted to Stamps and More, where participants need to "make your mark". Using pens, markers, colored pencils... This qualifies as the cake and frosting were colored with Copics!

Here's my card:

Scraps from my scrapbox, and I only know that the yellow polka dot is an MME. A bit of navy ribbon from SU, Jenni Bowlin navy ink, magenta and yellow Copics, all LF stamps, and a dash of MS glitter. The flag was cut using my MFT dies. And yes, this only took 9:49!!! Talk about a "WHEW"!!! But if you look at the basic design, it really went together quickly.

My next card is for the Pinspired Challenge. They have a fun and funky pinspiration photo for us, and if you hurry, you can still play! Check it out:

Coffee and cake. Sweets and flowers. My main inspiration came from the horizontal stripes (cake), and the colors. Oh, and the coffee of course! See what you think.

A wonky photo. Guess I just suck at photography...Anyway...More scraps. Every little piece is out of the scrapboxes. Colorbox brown ink, PS coffee cup stamp, MFT sentiment, MME yellow dots, and I made the pink ones. Not sure if you can see the sparkle on the pink ones. I used my paper punch and punched out the pink paper. Added a layer of Wink of Stella, and then Glossy Accents, et, voila! Cool in real life. 

Now, if I promise only one more card today, will you still look? Hope so, and I do promise! It's for Retro Sketches and Less Is More.  At LIM, we're to use patterned paper in a CAS way. And check out the cool sketch from Laurie Willison:

So love this sketch! Very cool. And my card:

Scraps. Again. Yay!!! SU baby stamps. I stamped and fussy cut the boat. EZPZ. A bit of brown ink from Colorbox, SU yellow, and an aqua-ish/blue/green ink from Colorbox. Love the simplicity of this sketch. Okay, I'm done, as promised and will try, head willing to do more tomorrow. Happy dances everyone.

Squeaking One In

There's just a bit over an hour before the current Lawnscaping Challenge closes. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had wanted to make a card similar to this one; I couldn't stop myself. Compulsion driven. Inability to stop. The addiction called. I answered.

I had leftover paper. The inks were still out. I. just. had. to. make. another. But this one's a bit different...

I recieved the navy polka dot paper, the woodgrain sticker strips (and a host of other goodies) from a dear sweet friend. Thanks again for them honeygirl. They're from Fancy Pants. The greenish paper is from a 6x6 Kaiser Craft pad. Jenni Bowlin Spice Tin ink (love this pad!), a scrap of twine and some pop dots. The tag die, and the sentiment is from LF. I adore that font! And now, off I go before the deadline passes and I'm still posting...Happy Dances Everyone!

Why is it?

Why is it that as the holidays approach, that we seem to get busier? So many things to do, and so much less time. I could make a list. I could describe appointments, baking and cooking and cleaning, shopping, and the like, but you all know how busy it is without me telling you. There all the things we have to do, and then there are the things we want to do. And amid the haves and the wants some perspective is in order. The Biblical account of Mary and Martha comes to mind. My first priority, no matter the season or "busy-ness", is to put God first in my life and everything else follows well and good. So that's what I'm going to try to do.

I wanted to make cards today. The rest of the week is iffy. Too much going on, including an overnight trip to watch the grandkids in Madison -- and I get to watch the new baby too!! So while I have the time, I'm popping in three cards for three challenges. My first card goes into CASology, where Geri G. is Guest Designer over there this week. The cue card is "Triangle."

This is a "well-shut-my-mouth" card. Darn clever!! 

My card goes something like this:

You might ask where the triangles are...well, some are on the paper airplane, and if you really think about it, all the stars on the scrap of dp are made up of them too! That was a happy accident, finding that dp in my scrapbox. I was actually looking for a cloudish paper, but this blue struck my fancy. The stamps and die for the paper airplane are all LF and stamped with black SU ink.

Next up, I have a card for Seize the Sketch, a challenge I've been wanting to play in, but haven't had the chance until today. 

Very cool sketch. I can see using this one again. Since I wanted to make some little girl cards, this worked out well.

It's a prettier pink than it shows, and it actually is somewhere in between the 3-petaled flower and the bottom half of the strip above the polka dots.  Scraps again, both the cardstock and the dp. The felt flowers are from SU, and the stamp is Imaginisce. Studio G ink. Pretty darn easy. And I think a young lady will like this one. 

And last but not least, I am playing along with the Lawnscaping Challenge, where the sentiment is to be made the focal point of the card. 

I liked the idea so much, that after I finish this post, I'm hoping to make one more card along these lines. We'll see how it goes...

All the stamps and the little smiley face are LF, of course. A scrap of white for the speech bubble, some Kaiser Craft dp, and the navy polka dot strip down the left side is a sticker from Fancy Pants. Jenni Bowlin Spice Tin ink, and a smidge of Studio G. Oh, and an MFT die.

So that's it for today. Happy dances everyone.

I feel like the white rabbit

So much to do and so little time today. Won't bore you with the details, and will get right to the cards. Two more cards for a few challenges. The first up will go into City Crafter Challenge blog, with this as an inspiration photo:

Can you just picture this room in a cottage over looking the beach? Yum.  This is my interpretation of this: (Think beach cottage in winter...)

It's nearly a one layer, Ardyth...but not quite. So alas, no OWL challenge for this one. The base is some kraft from Gina K. onto which I schmeared some Studio G pigment ink. The stamps are all from My Cute Stamps. The snowflakes were stamped with PTI Aqua Mist, and the sentiment with VersaColor Sand Beige. Three little pearls on some of the snowflakes, and even though you can't see it, I brushed on some Wink of Stella in different areas. QACAS.

This next card is very CAS, and will go into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, as well as the Muse. 

Here's the card:

The ever fabulous Laurie Willison is our inspiration this week, and what a treat for a card she's made. I'm sure you'd all agree. Since this is my second card for the Muse, I decided to go in a different direction than my first...to a degree anyway. No pretty greens like Laurie's card, but I did try to keep to her overall design. After it say on my desk for a day or two, I tried adding some stars, and more enamel dots. Just didn't look right, so I left it alone. That's some washi tape across the bottom, and a hand drawn line in black with one MME black enamel dot. PTI's birthday die cut out of a red scrap, and LF masked sentiment. That's it. EZPZ. Love those kinds of cards don't you? Happy dances everyone

Why I hate heat embossing

Okay...maybe hate is a strong word. Intensely dislike might fit the bill well enough. Anyway...I hate, er, intensely dislike heat embossing because of its warp factor. I even took Ardyth's advice about holding it against a square piece of chipboard. Still warped. Don't get me wrong, I love the effect. Love the glisten. But I'm going to limit my heat embossing...there are plenty of other techniques out there that I want to try. And every now and again, I'll heat emboss something just to reinforce my opinion of it.

I actually do have a couple of cards to share. This really isn't just a whiney post about embossing...Both cards will go into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog, and one will go solely into OWL165 - No Red/Green found this week over at Ardyth's blog, MASKerade.

Now this is a crummy photo...you can't see the sparkle from the Ranger holographic embossing powder I used on this card. And it's bland looking here too. But I think you get the idea. IRL, it's pretty pretty. The stamps are from My Cute Stamps, Memento pink ink, and Jenni Bowlen gray ink. One layer. Might try this in aqua without the embossing....

Next up is my second card for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge:

To quote Darnell, this card was a "QACAS", (quick and clean and simple). The paper are scraps (!), the stamps are from ME, LF, and NN. I used black SU ink for the sentiment and line, and pink HA for the little heart. For such an easy card, I used three different stamp sets, and just a bit from each one. Still, it's kind of nice to get good use out of them. And that's all I've got for today. Do a little Friday happy dance today!

YKW & Pings

So far, I've been free of YKWs today for the first time all week. YKW is an acronym for "You Know What". That's what I call my migraines. I have chronic intractable migraines. That means lots and lots of them. All the time. Really painful ones. But today is a good day! And I've spent it well. Catching up on household chores and card making. Last night, while basking in the pain and stupor of a YKW, I had a big Ping!! So see, some good does come from those stupid things! I used my ping on two of the three cards I'm posting today. Curious? Okay, I'll cut to the chase...

First use of ping is going into CAS-ual Fridays. Embossing. Easy, right? Well, I wanted to make something unique for me. And I think I did.

So what did I come up with? Here 'tis:

What's "unique" about this you ask? Well, I'll tell you. The MFT die cut was cut then embossed with my Cuttlebug dotted swiss folder, and slid into into the negative space cut into the gray. All the papers are scraps! I masked an MFT stamp for the 'birthday' portion using gray ink from Studio G. And the enamel dots are from MME. The gray is actually more gray & the green is less garish, but lighting troubles today due to rainy and overcast skies.

My next pingy thing is for the current Dynamic Duos Challenge. I haven't played there in a while, and thought I'd give it a shot today. Might play again with these colors before the challenge expires.

And my card:

I see some flaws. I hate flaws. Really hate them. I will remake this, then edit this post tomorrow in hopefully better light too! But you get the general idea.... Again, all the paper is from my scrap box - woohoo!! Once again I embossed the MFT die with my Cuttlebug swiss dot folder and reinserted it into the negative space on the blue portion. The "Christmas" sentiment is masked from my NBUS stamp set from Lawn Fawn, and the snowflakes are old wooden one from Stampabilities, both using Studio G ink. A little bling and that's it for this one.

And my last card is going into the Muse Challenge. Have you seen Laurie Willison's card over there????!!! Totally in love with it, and I'm so glad we can CASE it. Check it out:

I was inspired by everything about this card. And I made one in similar colors. Then I pinged a bit, and went with it. I kept the washi tape along the bottom and the ampersand. It's a bit different, but I think you can see Laurie's influence here:

So easy. I might be making this over and over again using different washi tapes and letters. John will soon have his stash of Christmas cards if they all go as quickly as this.  Just some washi, Thicker glitter letters, and a masked off sentiment from Mama Elephant. SU black ink. With that, I'm done, and am going to head to the kitchen and start dinner. Go and do a little happy dance today. See you all soon.

Guest Designing for CASology

As you know, this card won top honors over at CASology when the Cue Card was "Country".

How much fun is it to be GD over there for this week's Cue Card?!

I chose to go straight to the color, and give it a punch up with some blue. Robin's egg blue. Love these colors together. Very non-traditional Christmas card. Thanks to Melissa and the DT at CASology for having me as GD this week. CASology so rocks! (can I get an Amen!?!)

It's a very CAS card. I found a large brown scrap in the cardstock scrap box, and a small one of the blue. I die cut the letters with my MB alpha dies (love! them!), added a legless brad, then topped it with an old semi-clear snowflake sticker. Done and done! Happy dances everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACEY!!!!

(...a little bit late.) As you all probably know by now, yesterday was Tracey McNeely's birthday. And I missed linking up on the day. Oh Shoot! However, I didn't miss the entire party. Joyce, over at Cards-by-the-Sea is keeping the party going all week long, so I'll link up today. Thanks Joyce! A week-long party... Very cool!

So this part in the italics is for you Tracey. Happy Birthday. You have been an inspiration not only to me, but so many of us in this card-making blogworld. Your cards are gorgeous. Period. And you always have the kindest, sweetest words of encouragement for us all. I am grateful to 'know' you. I hope you were able to celebrate your birthday with all those you love, and that Joyce's little linky party helps to make your whole week special. You deserve it! Happy Birthday!!!

And if you have been off-planet for some time, Tracey's blog is In My Creative Opinion. Go. Visit. Enjoy! I did make a card for this auspicious occasion. I CASEd one of her cards, hopefully, in tribute to her. This is her card (and dang!, it was nearly impossible to choose just one!!!):

And here is the card I made to help celebrate:

Other than the sequins, ink, and cardstock, everything is Lawn Fawn. 

Now, everyone...go do a little happy birthday dance for Tracey!