100th post!!!

Subtitled: Busy, busy, BUSY!!
Subtitled: OMG, It's been a week since I posted!

Whew, I've running around like that poor chicken. (You know, the one that's missing it's head.)

Here's the short version as to why. Went from 0 jobs to 2 jobs (albeit part-time), kidlets are busier with summer sports (which I'm coaching 1 team) and lots of outside work that needs to be done. I'm so busy I actually let two project go out the door without taking pictures of them. *gasp*

Anyone remember this post? This is going to be one of my new jobs. Turns out the (extremely lovely) woman who had been hired for this position got offered her dream job. Guess they should have hired the uneducated shlub after all. ;-)

I do have a card. My mother asked me to make a birthday card for her to give to my brother. It's kinda plain on the outside but it's actually what you don't see in the pic that I like about the card. First of all it's got a neat all-purpose sentiment on the inside that I stole from a card company's website. Let's call them Mallhark. So the sentiment reads: "I'm always telling everyone else how great you are. Today I'm telling you." Though I have to admit it's my own added sentiment, handwritten on the back of the card in teeny-tiny letters, that I like the most. it reads: "The opinions expressed in the previous card are those of the giver and do not neccessarily reflect the views of the cardmaker." heheheheheh



For:

A Spoonful of Sugar: celebrations
Tuesday Taggers: It's a man's world
Little Red Wagon: birthday

Rectangles and squares are not the same shape.

Okay, I did actually know that, and I'm sure you do too. So why was it that when I was making this card, I figured I could just cut a piece of patterned paper the size of the card, cut it on the diagonal, and then flip the one piece so both sides of the patterned paper would show on the front of the card? As you probably know, that would work fine with a square, not a rectangle. Best you can do with a rectangle is make a kite shape. And, that doesn't fit on the front of a standard card. Well, not in the way I wanted it to anyway.

I did get it figured out in the end though.



I made this card for my mother to give to my father for Father's Day.

For:

Crazy 4 Challenges: sketch
Quixotic: sentiment focus
Meljen's Designs: spotted
Charisma Cardz: 3D

Patchwork Card

When I saw this I remembered this, so I made

this



For:

Everything But the Kitchen Sink: sketch
Hope Stamps Eternal: photo inspiration
Pile It On: photo inspiration
EtsyInspired: For this scarf and background from Michelle Brusegaard.

Rock on, Dude

Made this card for my nephew's birthday, which is today. He's turing 10 and somehow I managed to get my Cricut to cut that number patterned paper so the 10 is most prominent. Total luck as I have a love/hate relationship with my Cricut.



For:

Mojo Monday: sketch (loosely based)
Daring Cardmakers: cards for boys
Design Dollies: circus/animal
Creative Inspirations: card for a child

My first double layout

Ta-da!




For:

Design Dollies: blue, green brown & white
Crazy Challenge: something new (paper & it's my 1st double layout)
Practical Scrappers: patterned paper
One Stitch at a Time: anything but a card
Crafty Ann's: anything goes
Ann's Creative Nook: round & round

Definitely not your typical birthday card

But since it's for a younger brother who achieved Grand Master status in the "I know you are but what am I?" game at a very young age, it's fitting.



I won some Grungeboard awhile back and, while I like the possibilites of it, I find it kinda icky. (No offense, Leah!) The texture is strange and it smells yucky. So, I touched it as little as possible and then covered with embossing powder which hid the smell. And that, my friends from Tuesday Taggers, is what was I did to step outside my comfort zone. (I would like to say that the whole style of the card was outside my comfort zone but really, it's not. Scary, eh?)

For:

Allsorts: birthdays
Get Sketchy: sketch
OCC: male birthday
Little Red Wagon: brads
ABC Challenge: U for unused stash (brads)
Tuesday Taggers: step out of your comfort zone
Cute Card Thursday: for someone special

Men like scallops too....

....and I'm not talking about the seafood.



I dunno, I look at this card and something seems....a bit off. So, I guess what I'm saying is I'm slightly less than happy with it but not embarrassed by it.

For:

2 Sketches 4 You: sketch
Practical Scrappers: punches
Creative Belli Blog: hole punches
Cupcake Craft: buttons
OCC: male birthday

Me? Featured?!?

I was extremely honoured to be featured on Paper Craftorium which is a new blog "to showcase regular papercrafters and bloggers, who may not always get the chance to be showcased otherwise. It was created as a regular place for regular people to help promote "the little guys" much like ourselves." Very cool idea, eh?

The post (with the totally awesome title) is here if you'd like to check it out. Poke around their blog a bit too. It's a great site.

Scrungy!

My last few cards have been very cutesy, flowery creations so I felt the need to get a little dirty and let my inner grunge out. I was a little peeved at myself for stamping the "i" in the "hi" directly on that vertical line.

I actually have a tip to share! Now, for all I know this might be an old (and obvious to most) tip but it was new to me. Most of my ink comes form the dollar store. (Yep, I don't even try to fancy myself up with the word frugal. I know I'm cheap.) I did invest in some clear VersaMark ink though. I don't have black embossing powder, and under no circumstances will my clear embossing powder stick to the cheap ink. So, what I did was stamp the sentiment in black, then carefully stamp over it in VersaMark, covered it with the embossing powder, and, well, you know the rest. If you hold the card right up to your face you will notice that the embossing is slightly off. But, if you hold any of my cards right up to your face I'm sure you'll be able to pick out numerous flaws so slightly off embossing didn't really bother me.




For:

Design Dollies: pink, cream, orange
Hope Stamps Eternal: For this this pic.
One Stitch At A Time: going dotty
Crazy Challenge: bling
EtsyInspired: For this pic from Lindsay Brackeen.

Happy Mother's Day video

Somehow, somebody was able to go into the future and send back this video of my two boys. Happy Mother's Day, Moms. Enjoy.

Can't we all just get along?

I've been collecting digi stamps as of late and I decided to use one on a Mother's Day card. When I started colouring the image I found out that my printer ink and my Copic markers did not get along. We're talking mortal enemies here. It was terrible! It went a little something like this:

Ink: Hey, hey, HEY!! Yeah, you. Ugly yellow marker. You're ruining me. I'm running all over the place because of you.

Copic: (Well, Y13 must have been in quite a mood 'cause it's response was too nasty for polite company.)

Ink: *gasp*

Me: Now, now, everyone. Let's just calm down.

Ink: But, but, but.....

Me: Ink, I'm sorry but Copic is an alcohol-based marker. And, well, alcohol tends to make things, um, sloppy.

Copic: nah, nah, na, nah, nah

Ink: I'll show you!

At this point Ink retaliated by inking the end of Y13 black. This caused the marker to squeal and jerk in panic trying to dislodge the black spot off the end of it's tip. I ignored them both and finished the image.

So now I have to be very careful how I colour my images lest another fight breaks out. *sigh*




For:

Ann's Creative Nook: diamonds Ack, it's really hard to see in the pic, but to go along with diamond-looking accents under the pearls on the pins, the dots around the flowers are Stickled.
Kaboodle Doodles: celebrate spring
Creative Card Crew: April showers bring May flowers
Easy Craft Projects: spring
Aud Sentiments: Happy Mother's Day

Pot for Mother's Day

Flowerpot card that is. (tee hee)




For:

Little Red Wagon: pink & green
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge: shaped card
The Cuttlebug Challenge: Mother's Day
Hope Stamps Eternal: For this pic.
If the Shoe Fits: for Mom

Ignoring the Mother's Day projects.....

......I need to make to work on this. (Can you say procastinate? I know I can.) It's not actually Teacher Appreciation Week here in Canada so I this will be an early-made end of the year card.



The neat thing about this card (if I do say so myself) is that there is a magnet glued to the inside of the card as well as a magnet on the back of the little quilled quy's head. So he can be easily taken off the card.



See, there he is on my fridge hanging out with his pet turtle and his buddy Cailliou.

One could say it's almost magical. (And the DT from Crafty Creations thought my card had nothing to do with magic. Oh ye of little faith. Okay, the connection is pretty lame I know but it's worth a shot.)

For:

Design Dollies: teacher inspired
Sentimental Sundays: sentiment + for someone special
The ABC Challenge: thank you
Crafty Creations: magical
Pile It On: boy colours
Cute Card Thursday: boyz to men
One Stitch At A Time: children

I'll bet she's wearing the button right now......

.....NOT! I made this card for my sil's 40th birthday. I think I found that button in the middle way funnier than she did though. The colours are more boyish than girlish but I wanted to make sure the button was well showcased.



For:

Get Sketchy: sketch
Belli Challenge: birthday + something old (paper)
Practical Scrappers: stickers
The Creative Cottage: circles
Crafty Catz: spots
Pile It On: boy colours

Monochromatic Layout

You know, after I got this layout all done I got thinking that it was really lacking in the embellishment and kazow departments (Yes, it's a department, really!)...but then I decided to like it anyway.



For:

Design Dollies: sketch
Tuesday Taggers: memories
One Stitch At A Time: children