Library (Birthday) Card

Today is my dear friend Oliver’s birthday. I met Oliver years ago when working in a college library. He was a librarian who has long since retired, and I have long since left the library. And it has been a long time since I’ve seen him. But he loves getting my birthday cards, so it’s a good thing I made this long before I got so lazy about crafting and posting!

I had a heck of a time getting the colors right in this picture. The red is not quite as bright as it looks, and the foam letters (Thickers) are black, not bluish. The dots on the side of the pocket are from the Thickers package also. Here’s a shot with the library card out.
I used stamps from several different sets. The Celebrate stamp is from a Cornish Heritage Farms birthday set; the others are from various PTI sets. The card itself was a free download from Heather Nichols. Unfortunately I can’t find the post she attached it to. The houndstooth paper is from the Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage pad. That and the red herringbone ribbon stapled onto the card are available at i {heart} papers.
I know I’ve been a really bad blogger. No excuses here. I’ll try to be better. Really.

IHP Birthday Bash – Day 2

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the i {heart} papers 2nd Birthday Bash! If you missed yesterday’s post, be sure to scroll down to participate in the scavenger hunt/blog hop to earn your 20% off coupon in Kate’s store (and see some really amazing projects from 25 incredible designers!)

Today’s challenge is a sketch challenge from Kate. Here’s my take on the sketch. I used paper from the DeLovely 6x6 pad, and the OCL set Sunshine Cheer.  I masked the cloud so the sun would be peeking out from behind it, and airbrushed the oval while it was still in the Nestabilities die with a light blue Copic marker (sorry, I put it away before noting which one it was!) The little bling-y flowers are from the Hero Arts Sparkle Gems Small Blossoms, but there was no orange in the set, so I colored a couple of the yellow ones with an orange Copic marker. Luscious orange silk ribbon accents the middle of the card.

We’d love to have you play along for a chance to win a prize – it’s a super-easy and versatile sketch. Be sure to post your direct link on Kate’s post, either as a comment or in Mr. Linky, and tag your uploads with IHPBB10S. 

Tomorrow Deb will be hosting another challenge for you.
Winners for each day will be randomly drawn from the day's challenge entries, and everyone who plays along, either with the challenges and/or the scavenger hunt will be eligible for the grand prize drawing that will close the festivities on Friday.

Additionally, ALL orders placed during the Bash (Oct 19-21) will receive a free goodie bag of surprise merchandise. The more you spend, the bigger your goodie bag!

Also, there will be random drawings for additional prizes from our Paper Craft Planet group members, our mailing list (sign up on the right side of the store’s homepage) and our fans on Facebook. If you are on all three, then you’ve got triple the chances to win!

I do hope you’ll play along. Deadline to enter is Friday morning 3AM EST.

Happy Birthday, IHP!!!

Hello and welcome to the i {heart} papers 2^nd Birthday Bash blog hop and scavenger hunt! You should have arrived here from Kate’ blog. If you're jumping into the middle (or if you're lost!) be sure to start at Kate's. You don't want to miss a thing!

Today we’re celebrating two great years of IHP and are delighted to have some fabulous guest designers playing along with our talented design team members to bring some birthday paper-crafting inspiration your way! Our design team and guests are revealing their creations for this month's design team challenge--to design the "Perfect Pair"--a birthday card and coordinating gift, tag or other presentation item.  

We would love if you would join us in making a Perfect Pair of your own (upload to your blog or an online gallery with the keyword IHPBB10). Be sure to post your link on Kate’s blog so we can see your project and enter your name in our challenge prize drawings. 

In addition to today's design team challenge, we've got some fun celebrating in store for tomorrow and Thursday! Don't worry - you won't have to hop every day! Kate will be hosting a sketch challenge tomorrow on her blog, and Deb has another challenge for you on Thursday. Winners for each day will be randomly drawn from each day's entries, and everyone who plays along, either with the challenges and/or the scavenger hunt (more on that below) will be eligible for the grand prize drawing that will close the festivities on Friday.

Submitting your challenge projects is not the only way to win! Tucked into the text of today's blog posts we've provided clues to an easy scavenger hunt (most have to do with our favorite products and tools or hobbies and interests we have) that we invite you to play as you hop. When you find the answer, click the link to visit the store and collect "evidence" that is listed on that particular product’s page and email your complete list, in blog hop order, to Kate when you're finished. You can take your time and stretch the hop over the three days of our Birthday Bash celebration...it's not a race, but like any other sale, the earlier you shop, the better the selection! Deadline to submit your scavenger hunt entry is Friday morning, 3AM EST.

By participating in the scavenger hunt you'll receive an exclusive, one time use 20% off coupon code to use when you shop at i {heart} papers. (This will be emailed to you after the Bash when entries are checked.) You will also be entered for your chance to win the grand prize $50 gift certificate drawing on Friday.

ALL orders placed during the Bash (Oct 19-21) will receive a free goodie bag of surprise merchandise. The more you spend, the bigger your goodie bag!

Also, there will be random drawings for additional prizes from our PaperCraft Planet group members, our mailing list (sign up on the right side of the homepage) and our fans on Facebook. If you are on all three, then you’ve got triple the chances to win!

For my Perfect Pair project, I made a birthday card and matching wine bottle tag. Every birthday should be celebrated with a nice bottle of wine, yes?

The card uses this week’s sketch challenge from Paper Craft Planet. You can’t tell from the photo, but I punched a circle out of an acetate sheet to put on the crystal ball. It’s adhered with Glossy Accents. Oh, and before I covered it, I added some glitz to the presents with Spica glitter pens!
The wine bottle tag is very simple. The same punch I used for the sentiment on the card and for the acetate ball covering was used to punch a hole to slip over the wine bottle.
For these projects I used:
Stamps: OCL Crystal Clear, CGD Birthday Wishes (for the presents)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, PTI Fresh Snow
Paper: SEI Happy Days, PTI Hawaiian Shores, Melon Berry & True Black
Other: Oval Nestabilities, Bright Green Silk Ribbon, SU circle and scalloped punches, ZVA ADHESIVE DIMENSIONAL SQUARES (HINT, HINT!)

Your next stop on the hop is Cathleen! There's a list of all of the participating designers on Kate's blog just in case you get lost along the way. Happy hopping, and good luck with the scavenger hunt!

Birthday Bunny

I am such a bad blogger! I don’t know what’s been happening to my time, but I certainly haven’t been using it very efficiently. I can’t keep up with all the blogs I follow any more than I can keep up with my own. Shame on me!

Anyhow, I have a backlog of cards to share, and I’ll start with this one. I used Jen’s SFYTT from last week. I love her sketches – they’re always so inspiring.

The image is from The Cat’s Pajamas set Forget About the Cake and is colored with Copic markers, and the patterned paper is from the Kaiser Craft Hippy Girl collection pad. The greeting is from PTI’s Around & About Sentiments set. I think I used SU! Kiwi Kiss cardstock for the base.

I’ll keep this short and sweet – lots to do today. Enjoy the weekend!

And now for something completely different…

A huge departure from my usual style in every way! Subdued colors are not the way I roll, but sometimes you have to shake things up. In a subdued sort of way.

There’s no bling on this. At all. The borders that appear to be black are actually chocolate brown. The image, from OCL’s Vintage Traveler set, is stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa on cream cardstock, then sponged lightly with Chamomile ink to “vintage” it up a bit. The delicately delicious paper is from the Gossamer collection by Memory Box.

The one thing that is consistently “me” in this card is that I  used another sketch challenge. This time the SCS #300 sketch. I can’t believe they’ve done 300 of them! The format of the sketch and the Eifel Tower just seemed meant for each other. Especially when the sketch is turned on its side.

Well, it’s been a prolific stamping day for me. I think I may be done for today. But maybe not. We’ll see…

Happy WCMD (Part 2)

Yup, I managed to make another card to share. Sorry, but I’m not sharing the fugly ones.

This is for the SCS Pink Holidays challenge for the month of October. It’s part of their Hope You Can Cling To card drive to benefit the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

I used Papertrey’s Merry & Bright Additions. I stamped the tree with a glue pad and covered it with some pretty fuchsia glitter from my stash. The base of the tree was stamped with Memento London Fog. The part that took the longest was finding the right paper to go with it. I ended up finding it, of all places, in my Basic Grey Lemonade pad. I couldn’t find just the right color ribbon, so I took some light pink taffeta ribbon and colored it with Copic marker RV17. The old (retired?) SU! Purely Pomegranate was a good match to mat the image. Super simple, but cute! And it uses this week’s sketch challenge (yes, I loves me some sketch challenge) from Mercy. 

I don’t think I’m done yet, so I may be back again for a record-breaking third post today!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Yes, my non-stamping Facebook friends who are seeing this, there really IS a World Card Making Day -- and I’m gonna celebrate it to the max!

My first card today is in honor of my friend Lisette, who spent the afternoon here with me yesterday and almost died when she saw this “smooches” stamp – one of her favorite words. So here you go, Lisette – it’s yours next time you come over. :-)

Oh, and it uses this week’s Sketch For You To Try – thanks for another great sketch, Jen!

  
What I used:
Stamps: Love is Sweet (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento black, Copic Markers (R83, R85, YG93, YG95, E42, E43, W1)
Paper: PTI White, Hey Birdie (Kaiser Craft)
Other: Nestabilities (Labels 13 & Big Scalloped Petite), Light Fuchsia Faux Suede Ribbon, Stickles

Stay tuned – there will be more!

IHP DT Challenge: Treats & Tablescapes

This month the i {heart} papers design team was challenged to create a project that could be used as a treat or as part of a table setting.
I had been wanting to do something with the clever new Chicken Girl Design Witch Eye Brew image from the September release, so that was my starting point. I needed some kind of candy that resembled eyes, so I went to the drugstore to poke around; I thought for sure one of the candy manufacturers would have some kind of candy eyeballs out for Halloween. Well, maybe they do, but not at my drugstore. But I did see the starlight mints, and my mind started spinning -- they looked like bloodshot eyes!
A couple of punched circles glued onto the wrappers, and they sure were! Now, what to package them in? Something clear so they would show through…
Out came my pillow box die, and I started looking for some heavy acetate sheets. I didn’t have any that I thought would be heavy enough, but I did have some of the acetate card boxes that Kate is now selling in the store. Perfect! I got 2 pillow boxes out of 1 card box. A strip of i {stick} papers holds the box together – the ends are just folded in.
I printed the image out on some Copic Blending Cardstock, sized to fit a 2” wide piece, so I got 4 across the page. Isn’t it cool how you can do that with digital images? It’s colored, of course, with Copic markers. I used more i {stick} papers to hold the image onto the box.
How spooky-cute is that?!!! And really quick and easy!
Go see what the rest of the design team came up with:
Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy
Kate
Have yourself a madly creative day!

Playing Along with OCL

With my newly rediscovered mojo calling to me, I decided to play along with the OCL (Our Craft Lounge) design team for their weekly sketch challenge. I just got this new set and couldn’t wait to use it.

Something just called out to me when I saw this fortune teller chick. I had to have this set, Crystal Clear, and apparently lots of others did too, since Kate seems to have run out of it. However, if you go to her site and request it, she’ll re-order it. Here’s the inside of the card:

I pulled my colors from the oh-so-delicious Olivia 6x6 pad from Basic Grey, which as of this moment Kate does have in stock! The base of the card is PTI Ripe Avocado, with a layer of Melon Berry. The ribbon is black Glimmer Ribbon which Kate also has in stock. You can’t tell from my crummy picture, but there’s lots of sparkle in it! She also carries the Nestabilities that I used to cut the image out. Isn’t cool how I made it look like the fortune teller was inside another crystal ball?

OK, gotta go try and clean up my stampin’ space a little so I can keep the groove going!

I found it!!!

My mojo, that is. As I suspected, it was buried beneath the layers of stamping detritus that was heaped on my table. Once I had a (relatively) clean space in which to create, it was easy to fall back into the swing of things. Perhaps this will teach me to straighten up after myself. OK, who are we kidding?

Anyhow, I’ve been quite prolific over the last couple of days, but I’ll start out by showing you this simple card. It was inspired by something I saw in one of the Paper Crafts magazines, but I have since forgotten which one.

Please forgive the crappy photo. I have the hardest time getting aqua colors right on the computer, and no amount of image editing seemed to do the trick.

I used paper from S.E.I.’s Happy Days 6x6 pad for instant impact. This paper is soooo pretty – you can’t see all the shiny, glittery accents on it here, so you’ll just have to trust me. The strip with the little white stars is also from that pack, and I ran over the edges with a glitter pen to mimic the glitter in the larger piece. Kate at i {heart} papers has the pad with some custom-made matching buttons.

The greeting stamp is from Papertrey Ink’s Enjoy the Ride set, which you’ll see more of in the coming days. The double punched borders are made with one of the SU! border punches. The cardstock used is PTI Dark Chocolate and Vintage Cream.

I will be back tomorrow with more stampin’ goodness!

Still here…

My mojo has gone mysteriously missing – I think it’s buried under the mess on my table. I haven’t been able to sit down and create lately – with one exception. This is a card I made for my very wonderful stepmother for her birthday this past week. It uses the special PTI set, Four of a Kind, that was given out at the CHA Supershow in Chicago (with purchase, of course!).

I used the rock’n’roll technique on the larger flowers, inking them first in Summer Sunrise, then rolling the edges in Pure Poppy. The flower centers are embellished with Sage Ultra Fine Flower Soft. The background panel (Ripe Avocado) is embossed with Diamonds and Dots folder; I think it looks a little like a trellis for the flowers. Both the Flower Soft and folder are available from Kate at i {heart} papers.

The greeting and punched oval are from my Stampin’ Up! stash.

One of the many things I’m hoping to accomplish this long weekend is clearing off my table. If I find my mojo under that mess, you can expect to see more posts in the near future!

Happy Labor Day, my friends! Have some fun!

Couch Day?

While I still had my Wisteria paper out from my previous projects (see this post), I figured I’d use it to make a card for the FTL103 sketch.

I’m not quite sure what a couch day is – probably different things to different people. But to me it spoke to the comfort of having a friend over, sitting and chatting on my sofa (are you reading this, Lisette?), which I haven’t had for a while since my sofa has been covered with stuff for what seems like forever. See, my crafting has taken over my entire living/dining room. No longer is my (used-to-be) dining room table the only place I craft; the coffee table is my secondary spot, where my Big Shot now sits, surrounded by more stuff. Gotta do something about that so I can have friends over again!

Anyhow, I was so happy with the way this came out that I made another one, exactly the same but with different paper for a different feel. This one uses paper from the BG Nook and Pantry pad.
I used Papertrey’s On My Couch set for both, and added a little shading (hard to see here) with my Copic markers.

There’s nothing good on TV tonight, so maybe I’ll do a little straightening up. Maybe.

IHP August DT Challenge – Get Organized!

This month the i {heart} papers Design Team was challenged to create or alter something organizational. As crafters, we all have lots of I know my table (where normal people would eat, but I craft) is overrun with it. However, my bedroom is also full of stuff. My desk (with my computer) is in there, and my bedside table is always overflowing with books and, well, stuff!

Long ago, in a galaxy far away – oh, wait – different story. Anyway, several years ago I bought a wooden desk organizer at Ikea and have had it on my desk holding various forms of, ummm, stuff. It was a nice, finished wood piece, but I always meant to decorate it. Never did. You know how that goes. Well, now was my chance! I looked through my 12x12 paper collections (this thing is big!) and found the BG Wisteria Collection Pack that I had bought when it first came out. The colors spoke to me. And I realized that they spoke to me because they were the SAME COLORS as my bedroom! And this is what that desk organizer looks like now:

Forgive the creative Photoshop treatment. The sucker was too big to really fit in my light tent.

I only covered the 4 outer sides. It seemed a waste of time, energy and paper to try to line the insides, which wouldn’t be seen much anyway. The two sides have the same large-scale print, and the back has a different coordinating paper from the collection. You’ll have to trust me on that. I used Royal Coat clear decoupage finish to adhere the paper to the box. I like it much better than Mod Podge. I had to patch the paper on the front and back, because the thing is about 13” wide. That’s kinda why I used the striped paper on the front – makes it harder to see the seam.

But I couldn’t just stop there. I also have a (huge and growing) collection of Crystal Light containers of all shapes and sizes that I’ve been saving for some kind of organizational purpose. Or something. They begged to be covered with more of this yummy paper. Et voilá! (or is it voilà? – I’m accent-challenged)

These are 2 containers, the newer oval kind, covered and attached to each other with i {heart} papers’ very own i {stick} papers redline tape. Worked like a charm! I trimmed the shorter one in the front a bit so I could grab my reading glasses out of it more easily. When you’re “of a certain age,” you find yourself with multiple pairs of these drugstore beauties strategically placed (lost) all over your house. At least I’ll be able to find one pair!

You’ll see that not only did I make use of many of the papers in the collection, but I also used some of the adhesive embellishments (um, stickers) from the pack; the plaque and letters on the box are from the collection. So is the circle border piece on the larger cup. The cute little bee on the shorter cup has some Stardust Stickles on its wings.

I had a lot of fun with this! Hope it gives you some ideas. Oh, and Kate still has (as of the moment of this writing) 2 of the Wisteria Collection Packs in the store. Just sayin’.

Now go check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this challenge:

Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy
Kate

Enjoy!

did somebody say…

You know how sometimes you can look at a sketch for inspiration and nothing comes to you? And then you look at the same sketch and POW!, it just jumps right out at you. That’s how it was with the FTL102 sketch on the clean&simple stamping blog. I looked at it all week, and then tonight it just hit me. So here it is:

Now look at the sketch and tell me how I, the queen of martinis, missed that until today:

 

I wish I could remember where I got this stamp. I went through a phase where I bought every martini-related stamp I could get my hands on. This is unmounted rubber, so I have no idea who makes it. The olives are just made with punches.

Anyhow, I suddenly have the urge for a drink. See ya!

Purple Fuzzy Monster

I had such a great time in Chicago this past week at CHA. Sure, it’s fun seeing all the new lines and products coming out (and getting free samples), but for me the best part is seeing all the old and new friends that I’ve made through this wonderful world of paper crafting. I wish we didn’t have to wait for these events to get together!

Anyway, while walking the show floor with the i {heart} papers gang, Jannie Ho (creator of Chicken Girl Design stamps) and I stopped at the Our Craft Lounge booth where she was introduced to Sparkly Fluff. I got a sudden inspiration to use one of her monster images with some Sparkly Fluff, and it was the first thing I stamped when I got home. I present to you the Purple Fuzzy Monster. How cute is that?!!!

Here’s a closeup of the monster:

The image is from one of her first sets, Silly Monsters, which is available (and on sale!) in clear stamps, since it was before her line went digital. I colored it with Copic markers before applying the Sparkly Fluff, and added large drops of Glossy Accents to the eyes. I used black cardstock as a base and to mat all the layers. The patterned papers are from S.E.I.’s Black Orchid and Bridgeport lines. I used the Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge #291 for the layout. 

I have a vague memory from early childhood of being afraid of a Fuzzy Monster. Or maybe it was my brother. It was many, many moons ago, and you know how memories get warped over time. Anyhow, I don’t think anyone could have nightmares from this cute fella!

Sweet dreams!