Let's clear up some misconceptions here...

People who don't scrap or make cards sometimes seem to think that the clean and simple style is "easier" or "faster" to execute than my usual embellie-happy, crazy layering, lots of stuff style. Well, what's the nicest way to put this? Ummmm....how about: oh, hell, no! At least, not for me, anyway. For some reason, I have a really difficult time not throwing every embellishment and patterned paper I have at each and every card, just to see what sticks. It can take me longer to achieve the clean and simple style than it does to throw together a card with buttons, flowers, flourishes, bling, and so on. Well, I had to suck it up today, because I wanted to play over at the Outlawz. Today is the first day of their fun western-themed party, which involves so many goodies to win and fun challenges to enter. "Challenge" is the right word, because I was definitely challenged by the clean and simple style today. The inspiration picture was this awesome pair of boots. Check them out. I kinda want to own them, and I don't even wear cowboy boots:

You can enter each challenge up to three times. I've got a few ideas, inspired by these cool boots. For my first idea, I decided to be literal and take the cowboy theme. I used a light blue background to mirror the leaves on the boots.

To make sure to get a crisp, white outline on this cute stamp and the doodled border, I used my signo pen. I just got a new one, so it was working so smoothly. Then I typed and printed out the sentiment on vellum, adhered it with a brad and gave it a bit of a curl. The card looked unfinished to me, so I added the twine at the bottom. It still looked unfinished. See what I mean? It's just so hard for me to stop! I finally added the button and took a picture really quickly, before I could be tempted to add even more.

I've got a few more ideas floating around in my head, courtesy of those fun boots. Please don't tell me where I can get a pair, because I am liable to buy them and then never wear them. I just love to look at them. Anyway, I'm off to do more laundry and then maybe I will challenge myself with another clean and simple card. If not, well, it's pretty impressive that I finished even one, you know?

Fun, dancing ghouls and other Valentine's Day happenings

I recently won a challenge over at Anita Be Stampin'. With the credit that I won to her store, as well as my Paypal balance that's been sitting there for all of....oh...maybe a week, I purchased the Diva stamp bundle. This fun little dancing ghoul is part of the bundle. I don't think it's available any longer, but you can still buy the stamps individually.

My friend Michele is a huge fan of horror movies and all things scary, so I had to ink her up and make Michele an unconventional Valentine's Day card. Now, I know, I have been going on and on about how I don't "do" Valentine's Day. However, Michele has been going through some rough times lately and recently got some news that just sucks. I wanted to lift her spirits a little. Since it will be late if I mail it out now, I'm going to sneak by her house at some point tomorrow and leave it where she'll find it right away. I hope she likes this little chickie, and I hope this doesn't make you think that I actually like Valentine's Day. I'm just indifferent. If you want to send me some chocolate to change my mind, feel free.

Are you tired of seeing me yet?

Wow, this has been a creative 24 hours for me. I worked on a few projects last night and quite a few today, too. Some of them, I can't post yet because they are either for a DT project or for an upcoming event for someone who reads my blog. Essentially, I'm saying that those things will show up later, so I will be back again to bug you at a later date. As of right now, though, I think this is post number four in the last 24 hours. I lost count. I'm not bragging, I promise. I'm more sitting over here in wonder that I actually got so much done. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

Today, I had a stellar mail day. Only one bill, and it isn't a hefty one. Plus, I got my order from Anita Be Stampin' today. I was pleasantly surprised, because I just placed the order on Wednesday afternoon (or was it Thursday morning?). Wowza. That's some awesome customer service. Anita is super sweet and friendly. She was so helpful when I had some questions, and as I have already said, she was super speedy with shipping.

I needed a card for my mother-in-law. She's having knee replacement surgery on March 2nd. I wanted to get the card made long before then, so it was one less thing to worry about. I used one of the new releases over at ABS. Check it out:

I know it has the look of a Valentine's Day or love card, but I promise, it's not. I'm going to put a note inside to encourage her to heal quickly and to let her know that I am thinking of her. I knew she'd think the bear and all of the hearts were cute, so that's why I went with all of that stuff. Besides, she'd be right. This little bear really is too cute. I'm thinking I need to color him up in blue, yellow, or pink for a baby shower. Too bad my cousin's baby shower was last weekend. Hey, wait! The kid's not here yet....perhaps, I need to do a "welcome, baby!" card...hmmm.....

Wait, I am digressing once again. The design of this card came from the sketch this week over at Anita Be Stampin'. Go check it out. You can win a $15 shopping spree to her store. Totally worth it!

Bats can be cute. Really.

So, the challenge over at The Stamping Bazaar this week was to make a Valentine's Card using one of their images. Well, I am not keen on making Valentine's Day cards. I don't much care for the holiday and have never really celebrated it. However, I recognize that many other people do, so I'll shush that little snarky voice now. My sister-in-law loves bats. Halloween is her favorite holiday. She has a bat tattoo'ed on her ankle. If you give her a bat stuffed animal or figurine, she's happier than me with chocolate, and I didn't think that was possible. Well, I bought this cute little Marvin the bat image ages ago. I mean, I'm talking probably six months or more. For some stupid reason, I hadn't printed him out yet. Today, I decided to change that. I mean, look at him. He's so stinkin' cute. I told you bats could be cute.

The sentiment says "wishing you a day filled with good things." I went over it with a stardust pen. It looks good on my desk, but didn't photograph well. If you like the papers, head over to Target's dollar spot. That's where I got them. The design of the card is based after this week's sketch at the Outlawz (see link in my sidebar). I made the apples with my spellbinders. I had such fun coloring this image with my copics. I need to head over and get some more Stamping Bazaar images. I've only got a few, and I need more, because, well... they are so darned CUTE!

Something about them just grabs me

I have said before that I am obsessed with Ching Chou Kiuk's images for Sweet Pea Stamps. The challenge this week over at In a Sweet Pea Dream is "Anything This Time." I just got a bunch of new stamps for Christmas and I am slowly but surely inking them all up. Something about these stamps just grabs me. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the intricacy of each one; there's so many details. Maybe it's the faces, with those big, serious eyes and delicate, pixie-like chins. Maybe it's the long, flowing hair. Who knows? I just love them. They're also so much fun to color. Here's my latest creation, achieved when there was nothing on tv and my book wasn't holding my interest. LOL.

This card is also for the challenge over at the Outlawz copic group, to use shading or highlighting. I've done both. I had a difficult time with her dress/top. The colors didn't want to blend this time, but all in all, I guess it doesn't look too bad. Papers are We R Memory Keepers. Rhinestones are from a big Prima flourish that I cut up to fit. Here's the huge amount of copics I used:

I don't know yet who will receive this card; she was just made for the fun of creating. I don't get to do that often, because it always seems like I am behind with some event or another! Well, thanks for stopping by again. I hope you have a great, crafty weekend!

Ok, seriously, that WAS a challenge...

...for me, at least. Ok, let me back up and explain myself. I'm trying to be better and support my friends on various DTs. Mainly, I am trying to participate in the challenges their groups sponsor. This does two things: 1) the one I already mentioned - it supports my friends; and 2) it gives me the opportunity to get cards done and maybe even win cool prizes. Wait, I think that's really three things. Anyway, this time around, I'm participating in the color challenge at Outlawz. My friends Brenda and Guylou are on the DT. Well, let me tell you, I don't know who picked these colors, but they sure as heck meant to challenge at least some of us. I am one of that group that was REALLY challenged. The colors are basically a shade of orange (the name of which I've since forgotten), turquoise, and white. I have a really hard time with orange. I don't know why. My friend Tracy and mother-in-law both love orange, so I've used it plenty of times. Each time, though, I find it really challenging. I do better with peach or light shades, but saturated orange is just hard for me. As usual, though, I'm rambling. Here's my card.

This little cutie is from Belles N Whistles, another store and blog that I love. I was having one of my "winter, would you just go away?" days. The papers are Cosmo Cricket. I used ultrafine flowersoft to make the sand. I added glossy accents to his swim shorts. The background came from a cat's eye pastel chalk ink pad. The orange outline on the image was drawn with one of my creative memories journaling pens. These are the copics I used:

As always, thanks for stopping by!

It's party time!

Well, I hope to be partying along in my pj's. The Outlawz are having a party. There's tons of chances to win awesome, cool, amazing stuff. Digis, copics, and other yummy things! I don't know about you, but I never turn down copics. I've got a ton of them, but I am one of those people who believes you can never have too many! So, come on over and play!

Seriously, there will be so many ways to win. So many challenges in which to play...surely, one of them will suit you! Come on, join the outlawz!

Witchy in purple

Nothing like coming in under the wire. The Anita Be Stampin' pretty in purple challenge ends tonight. So, when did I work on a project? You guessed it...tonight. The challenge was to use light purple, dark purple, yellow, and kraft. My yellow is in the image, on her hair. Otherwise, I pretty much stuck with the purple and kraft. I made a magnet to hang on my fridge. Here she is:

I used my an image from Anita Be Stampin'. This little cutie is named Tabitha and she comes with her friend, the bat. In this case, she has her friend, the flying monkey! I have a thing for the flying monkeys. I don't know why. I've got flying monkey figurines, signs, even a snow globe. Well, a couple of years ago, my cousin found these little rubber flying monkeys in a novelty shop. She got me a few packs, figuring I could use them on something. In this case, I used my awesome KI Gloo and glued one on to the hanging part of the magnet. I cut around the image with the scalloped circle spellbinders, then inked the edges of the scallops and all of the papers with creamy brown cat's eye ink. I used my paper piercer to pierce holes around the edges of the scalloped circle.

It's hard to tell here, but the large portion of the project is 4x6 and will fit into one of those clear acrylic photo holders that has a magnet on the back. You can get them for a buck at AC Moore and Michael's. The the bottom part of the sentiment ("I have flying monkeys, and I'm not afraid to use them!") will hang freely. To make sure the magnet does not slide out, I'll use some adhesive along the bottom edge of the acrylic frame. The pink grid in the backgrounds is my Fiskars self-healing cutting mat.

Since this is a magnet and will go into a flat frame, I had to keep the dimension to a minimum. Therefore, I used gold cord that squishes a bit, and rather than adding pearls or rhinestones, I used liquid pearls. Once they are totally dry, they'll flatten out but still add visual interest.

Tabitha is colored with the following copics:

 
Thanks for stopping by. My flying monkeys are napping and all is good with the world tonight. Check in again tomorrow and I'm not sure I can say the same! I'm moody like that.

Have a heart!

Oh, wait, I mean "I {heart} you." Yeah, that's the name of this challenge. I'll get it right eventually. As for having a heart, well, I know, I know. We hear it all of the time. Do this or do that to stay healthy. Sometimes, I feel like I am getting smacked over the head with all of this information, so it’s fun to be the one doing the smacking for once! LOL. Seriously, February is Heart Month. We all know that without that awesome heart muscle, we wouldn’t be around to share in our lives with our friends and family. Keep your heart healthy! Some of the ways to do that are:


Don’t smoke and if you are a smoker, quit!


Exercise. This doesn’t have to mean joining a gym. Take a daily walk around your neighborhood. Go up and down flights of stairs a few times, rather than taking the elevator. You get the gist.


Keep your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control.


Eat less fat. Darnit, that’s a hard one.


Reduce your stress level (this one always makes me laugh because I don’t always have that much control here! I’m a drama queen, you know?)


Visit your doctor regularly and listen to the man (or woman!).

Ok, you have been sufficiently lectured now, so we can get on to the fun stuff. Hey, cut me some slack, wouldja? I’m not a mom, so I’ve got to lecture someone! Otherwise, that need just festers and I release some flying monkeys on a poor, unsuspecting neighbor kid. Well, more likely, some idiot on the expressway who got his license from a crackerjack box.

I’m getting to it! What you need to do is make any project using a heart and submit it over at Guylou’s Inimitability by February 17. For you people who are always late with your cards, this counts you in by giving you a few days past Valentine’s Day. Guylou rocks, right?

So, what do you get by playing along with this oh-so-easy challenge? Guylou will draw a random winner, who will win the digistamp of his or her choice, as well as the opportunity to be a Guest Designer on an upcoming challenge. As a guest DT, you’ll get another free digistamp, too.

I used G's image called "love seat" to make my card. Although I've given away a huge hoard of stickers, I still have a few sitting around. I decided to make use of them on this card.

I added a cute little Tilda from Magnolia stamp company, paper pieced the loveseat, and used my heart punch to make a border going across the top. A fairly simple card, but it makes me think of being a kid and hanging out at the neighbor lady's house after school. She was this super sweet elderly lady who was lonely and loved the company we neighbor kids provided. We loved her, and not only because she gave us candy. She gave us candy AND listened to us ramble about our day. It kept us coming back. Smart woman.

Happy Birthday, Tracy!

I belong to a wonderful, giving, generous, caring circle of friends over on scrapbook.com. Tracy is in that circle with me. She is such a wonderful friend to me. Without this group of girls, I don't know if I'd have pulled through the last year and a half as well as I have. I know I am prone to drama, but in this case, I'm not exaggerating. They are a huge support system for me. They somehow always seem to make my bad traits seem good, and just accept me as I am (flying monkeys, irritability, moodiness and all). So, when Tracy's birthday rolled around, I really wanted to let her know how much I cared with a card that made me think of her. I started with Elisabeth Bell's "A Child's Prayer" image from Belles n Whistles. She makes me think of Tracy because Tracy has such a strong bond with God and is known to pray for the group whenever we need it. I added some flowers and other girlie touches to keep the card soft and pretty. Here it is:

This is my second attempt at making a shadow around the image. I think I did much better with it this time, but I'm still trying to perfect it. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, with the exception of the big rose in the center. I got that at the Dollar Store. The inside of the card says, "on your birthday and every day." I colored the image with copics. Here's the ones I used:

Tracy, I hope your birthday was fantabulous. LUG!