Sunday Morning Sweethearts...

You probably know that I teach Sunday school, and direct our Children's Choir. My class ranges in age from three-year olds to kindergartners. They are naturally funny. Little Miss H., who is three, came down to the fellowship hall where I was sharpening colored pencils for one of our crafts. She's dressed all pretty in a little white dress with a full tulle skirt. She looks up at me and clear out of the blue says, "I don't have to listen to you!" I wanted to bust out laughing, but instead said, "Oh...why not?" Little Miss H. says, "Because I'm a princess!"   Can't argue much with that! I've been laughing about it ever since!

I actually do have a card. Started it yesterday and finished it up after church. It's going over to the Lawnscaping Challenge, where we're to try a new technique. Didn't figure I'd play with this one, but as it turns out, I'm getting more brave these last few days, at least as far as trying new things in papercrafting.  My last two cards involved stenciling, which was a new technique for me, but since I've already posted cards with stenciling, I thought I'd branch out. I've got one here with embossing paste. Well....sort of... I didn't have any of the real stuff, so I took a hint from dear friend, Anita, and used some spackle, which I tinted. To mix the color in, I grabbed a disposable knife. Loved the ridges it left in the mixing process, so decided to go with it on the card. You'll see...

Here 'tis:

Don't the stars look like corduroy? Love how they turned out! All the stamps are from LF. Black SU ink, MS chunky white glitter. Scraps of yellow and blue card stock (yay!), and a Neenah white base. And since I'm behind on commenting, and emails, I've got to run for this afternoon. Happy Palm Sunday everyone!

ETA: Anita (dear friend that you are!...) let me know I should link up to the Colour Me Challenge. So will do! Thanks, Anita!!

A Little Something for Muse

This week's Muse over at the Muse challenge, is none other than Vicki Dutcher. She has a beautiful card posted with the most vibrant red colors. Ever since I was a little girl, I've been drawn to reds, and my sister Sue to blues. Once, when I was 10, mom and dad took us to Target for new spring jackets. Sue liked the blue checked one, and just to be contrary, I pleaded with mom to let ME have it. I must have been a real stinker in the store because I walked away with the blue checked jacket, and Sue was stuck with the red one. I knew that eventually the red one would be mine too! Best of both worlds! Poor Sue, though... Blue was her favorite color back then, and she looked really pretty in it. I stole that from her. Decades have passed, but I've never forgotten that incident. It must have made an impression on me, because I don't think I ever stole her color again. And I still love red. So when I saw Vicki's card, I was drawn to it immediately. Unfortunately, a design was not forthcoming. It took Mr. Mojo TWO days to come up with something. Creep! Well, I fixed his wagon! Either he cooperated, or there would be no more cards this weekend; I'd clean the basement instead! Ha! It worked!!! Fix your eyes first on Vicki's card:

Isn't that just rich?! Gorgeous!! For my card, I naturally went with red, but if you look at her roses, you'll see a smidge of brownish, and also some green. So I pulled those colors too.

I wish you could see this irl... the flower circle is more rich than it looks in the photo. I had sitting on my desk this circle which I had cut with my Cameo for weeks. I pulled it out in defiance of Mr. Mojo, popped it up on the Neenah white panel, grabbed a couple of ink pads (Colorbox & Studio G), and my finger daubers. Rather than try to dab the spaces in between the flower and leaves, I used an SU brown water color pencil and filled in the areas. Then I painted with my blender pen. Love the texture it gave! The font is Upper East Side, and is computer generated. Some Michaels' ribbon, and done. Now because I've lived dangerously and used a stencil, I'm also going to add this card to Virginia's View. And there you have it. Happy dances everyone!!

One small step...

I've tried stenciling. I totally sucked at it. I mean really, really sucked at it. The stencils moved, the inks were uneven, the colors stunk, and the whole image looked AWFUL. What a waste of paper, or so I thought. There were sooooooo many gorgeous stenciled cards out there, and I was longing to give it another go. Then (duh!) I started watching some of the stenciling videos. (Oh Laura Bassen, you are a saint!) Was there hope for me???? And I started remembering things too...like Geri's advice: "Start your project with clean hands." And the carpenter's or cook's rule: "Use the right tool for the right job." Hmmmmm.... Sometimes, making do with what you've got just doesn't cut it. So I thought I might try this stencil thing again. Especially after seeing what was up on Virginia's View Challenge. Oh what the heck! After a morning's running errands with DH, and a trip to Michaels for some PROPER supplies, I got to thinking that it just might work. Then....I got ambitious. Not a good idea for a beginner. You won't see my first card here. It's not as bad as it could be, but it's something I want to use as a comparison when my stenciling gets better. Maybe later I'll post it. (But don't hold your breath...)

Decided to go with a simple, yet appealing to me stencil. I cut a journal card with my Cameo on some cardstock, after enlarging it a bit. Added some bits and bobs, and there you have it:

Simple stencil. Worked for me. Neenah white base, Studio G ink for the stencil, Ranger ink with the N&T "you are" part of my sentiment. SU flower and leaf, MME enamel dots, and SC sequins. The pinks are a pretty medium color, but look almost orange or 'hot' in the photo. So sorry.... It's a sweet card irl. And just in case you're interested, you can see my first post of today here. Happy dances everyone.

Squeaking In

With less than two hours to go for the current Curtain Call Challenge, I actually have a card. I finished it yesterday, but had so much going on that I had to wait to post it until this morning. So will cut to the chase, no chatter this morning.

And mine in non-traditional colors:

Neenah white base, with a scrap of dp, and scraps of orange and green. The onsies stamps are from Newtons Nook, the sentiment from SU. Black SU ink, and Copic markers on the onsies. Red, blue and orange sequins, and a bit of KF twine for the clothesline. The frame was cut with an MFT die.

And while I'm here, I might as well add the second card. One for The Card Concept Challenge. Using a chipboard butterfly, I kept this one simple. Not CAS, but more clean and layered...I think.

And my butterfly looks like this:

Again a Neenah white base, a Gina K. woodgrain textured panel, three little pearls, a scrap of green ribbon, a PTI sentiment and some Ranger green ink. EZPZ. I don't remember who made the butterfly, sorry. It really looks pretty irl. So before I'm off and running AGAIN today, happy dances everyone.

YKW afternoon

Just going to say that I really, really, really wanted to play along with Muse before the deadline passed. Love this card with all the little 'twizzles' (thanks for the descriptive word, Darnell). After this, I'm taking big drugs and try to lose the migraine. Don't worry, I'll live...

Loved Jacquie's card. Such fun colors and textures. I saw die cuts, stars, and that amazing color combination for mine.

Neenah white base, all papers including the triangle of vellum are scraps, SSS stamp with PTI ink, MME enamel dots, and a PTI birthday die. Cut the stars and 'ribbons' with my Cameo. Going to go now. Happy dances everyone.

A Little Spring Cleaning...

...But why oh why haven't I won the lottery so I could have an everyday housekeeper???? I suppose it would help if I bought tickets more often...(as Sue would say...) "Ya Think???!!!" I'm working on Spring cleaning, and started with the bathroom. It's small, cleaned regularly, but still needs the twice yearly deep cleaning. I've gotten much of it done, but am now waiting for the freshly scrubbed floor to dry (and yes, hands and knees with a mop bucket and scrub brush), then it will be the drawers and cabinets. *sigh* I'd rather be making cards.

Started a card for a very dear dil yesterday, and finished it off today. Popping it into the Colour Me...! challenge. Played with some NBUS for this one, as you'll soon see.

At first, the orange didn't do it for me. But then a ping ponged, and voila!, a card was born! Gotta love that!

New goodies are always fun! Ordered the PTI Deco Die, and am fully and totally in love with it! Cut an  orange scrap and some Neenah white and pieced it together. The sentiment is not new, but is from one of my favorite sets from PTI. The fancy-schmancy brackety thingies are from a small set, also PTI, and is called Boutique Borders: Sympathy Stamp Set. A little SU ink, and done. Oh!, to get the whole thing straight and centered, I tried out my new Stamp-a-ma-jig. Lovin' that! Will be using that again!! Happy dances everyone, it's back to cleaning for me...

A Little Something Punny

I love CASology. I've played there fairly often since its inception, but unfortunately I haven't been able to as of late. But I have a card for their Cue Card today. The cue is "Joke." Mine's just punny. And very CAS.

Went together in about 5 minutes.

Not so much a joke as a pun.  The base is Neenah white, SU black ink and green marker, and the stamps are from My Cute Stamps (sheep), and Joy's Life (sentiment). I dotted the sheep with my Tombo Multi glue, and then sprinkled on some Cotton Ball White Fun Flock. You can sort of see it...almost... I like it, it's not too baaaahd. Happy dances everyone. ; )

A New-To-Me Challenge

So many of us card makers love challenges. I know I do. With my large huge family, I need multiple cards every month. Sometimes, Mr. Mojo decides he's taking some time off, so the challenges are a real boost to creating the perfect card for the son/daughter, sil/dil, grandchild (x 20 as of next month), various siblings, one father...well you get the idea. So a day or two ago, I was visiting Kimberly's blog, Wienerhoneymooners, and saw this smashing card. Then I noticed it was entered in a challenge that I hadn't heard of before...so I just had to head over to Paper Crafting Challenges to check it out. Looks like fun! This week they have a sketch with pearls. Curious?, well go over and check it out!! They have made the challenge even more enticing by offering a Lawn Fawn stamp set of your choice as a prize too. You should play along! Here's the sketch:

I was tickled that once again today, I could use all scraps in my design.

We're a bit overcast here today, and even with an added light, the aquas look a bit faded, and the yellow looks a bit orange...*sigh* This went together rather quickly. A Neenah white base, the scraps of dp, a big Dear Lizzy flair button, two MME brads with their little legs ripped off (bwaaahahahaha) and popped up, four bitty pearls from Basic Grey, a LF sentiment done in ME Smoke ink (love Mama Elephant's inks, btw...), and that's about it. This is so happy and bright irl, wish you could see that too. Anyway, I'm going to get a few things done, but perhaps will see you later. Happy dances everyone!