Sending Flowers...

...will never go out of style and now, what makes it even better is that you can send flowers that won't die and leave a mess to clean up afterwards!

My project for today is a little bit of a double-trouble, two birds with one stone, etc., etc., and so forth...

I wanted to showcase another way to use Flower Soft other than just the normal glue-dab-and-sprinkle technique, so I got out my Flower Soft accessories (ie. wire and vase) and went to work on Mojo Monday's sketch for the week! Let me just say, although I'm usually a more is more kind of person, I have always had a hard time with layers on my card. I have been improving with practice over time, but I layers have always intimidated me. Maybe because it also involves a knack in coordinating colours and papers and I haven't really done much of that either. In any case, the Flower Soft project and Mojo Monday has definitely gotten me to step up to a couple of my own personal challenges! I didn't use as many layers as the sketch suggested. Instead of adding the last layer on top of my base, I got out my mini mister, Perfect Pearls (in heirloom gold) and water and mixed me up some Perfect Pearl mist to give a nice golden, shimmery sheen to the base of the card (my cardstock). Completely matching/coordinating paper without another added layer (I was afraid my card would topple forward when I tried to take a picture of it! *LOL*)

Here's the sketch for this week:

...and here's what I came up with:

I was having a really hard time with the flash and the super shimmery paper that I used, so that's the images there with no flash, and here it is with the flash, just to give you an idea of the shimmery goodness...

Whew! Lots of pictures for one little card, huh?! HAHAHA...that gorgeous paper is my never-fail DCWV Luxury Stack and it's oh-so-lux-uuuuur-ious! I feel like I can just rip any of the luxury stack papers and smack them down with glue and it would still come out lookin' nice and fancy. That's what LUXURY STACK means...*LOL*

Anywho, I actually had a lot of fun with this sketch! Once I finished the actual Flower Soft part (which also didn't take that long either!) everything came together pretty fast!

I won't get too into the nitty gritty of everything as Marti will have a complete tutorial of how to get the wire and Flower Soft to co-mingle on her blog >>HERE<<, so I'll just jump right in. I got my Flower Soft onto the wire and left them to dry while I was working on putting together the rest of the card. Cutting my paper and arranging them into my Mojo layout nice and easily - how did I not get into sketches before, they are SUCH a help - plus the sketch was awesome! I opted out of the optional embellishment as I didn't want to take anything away from my Flower Soft goodness and the only other embellishment I used was my SugarPops skittle beads! Pretty much the only other little details that give the project that extra oomph is the flourish stamp that I stamped onto the vase and the edging that I got from using my new EK Success edge punch. If you haven't already noticed, I finished off the inside of the card as well using the extra larger bits of scraps I had left over after all my cutting and trimming. I stamped my sentiment using a Versamagic Dew Drop (creamy and rich and stamped onto my smooth, shimmery paper so nicely). To avoid any oopsies, I heat set the ink.

That's it for me today! Blogaversary is just around the corner, I'll be getting my super blogaversary giveaway together into one whole picture just so everyone can get the scope on what's up for grabs as my big THANK YOU for a faaabulous year! This wouldn't be any fun if you weren't around to read it, right? Tune in tomorrow for some more Look Ma, No Coloring! projects and don't forget to check out my DT leader and DT sister's blogs for their takes on stamping without colouring! Thanks for dropping by!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are available from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp(s): Butterflies a-Flutter by Pez-a-Doodle Designs, Studio G
Ink: Distress Ink, Versamagic Dew Drop
Paper: DCWV Luxury Stack
Embellishments: Flower Soft kit (Flower Soft, wire, vase), SugarPops by Sugar & Scraps, Perfect Pearls
Tools: Heat Gun, Mini Mister

CURRENT MOOD: CONTENT CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: THE HEATER GOING

Footprints and full moons...

...my favourite EVER religious/inspirational story (that's not in the Bible) is Footprints. I remember it making me cry when I first read it and it's always stayed with me ever since. I know everyone has different ways of coping and getting through things and I know a lot of people have experienced different/difficult/hard times, but for me, this story has always helped me through those hard times.

Like TODAY! Let me walk you through a little bit of history and proven facts. Lunatic is borrowed from the Latin word lunaticus which is derived from the stem luna, which if you watch enough Dora (thank you, my little niece Tiana) means the MOON. So all of this was taken from the theory that there is a commonality between madness and the phases of the moon. Based on today, I would like to second that motion with a nice, clear, loud "AY-AY!" I swear it must have been because of the full moon that the MOST difficult people in all of university's UNIVERSAL history came out today and ended up in/on my line. I kid you not when I say that I could have generated a whole household's worth of heat for the whole day the way that my blood pressure was rising. ANYWHO...I do not mean to belittle anyone's actual sufferings by comparing it alongside my trivial workdays, so MOVING ON! (P.S. Thanks for letting me vent a little...)

So when I saw this stamp at Michaels, I knew I had to have it - even after I'd already dropped some change on COPICs and Nesties - and today I used it for my main focal point for Mojo Monday!

Here's the sketch for MM:

And here's my take:

Can I just say how much I'm loving participating in these sketches? It's just like its name, definitely gets my crafty mojo going! I'm only really just getting into sketches and challenges, but for someone with a short attention span and not a fan of being told what to do, these sketches are great! Definitely inspirational!

So I would say that mine is a sort of loose take of the sketch...I didn't follow through on some things, but it all came together and I am still loving how everything turned out! Before I finished, I kept looking at it and considered adding different things to it just because...but I decided that this was really all it needed. I didn't want to take anything away from the quote and the simplicity of it all. When I realized I left out a little part of the sketch (ie. for the sentiment) I added the little flower but I'm considering taking it out just to keep things nice and neat. We'll see how I feel about the flower when I wake up tomorrow!

Anywho, for today's MM card, I also decided to get my fingers inky! I got out my Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) and my foam tool and...well, let's just say what DIDN'T I ink?! *LOL* I stamped onto nice and clean, bright cardstock and thought it was just too bright with the paper that I wanted to use, so at first I just inked the sides...and then I made a teeny mistake and then I just ended up inking the whole rectangle...just darkening the edges for a nice 'vintage photo' look to go with the name of the ink! I dragged the edges right along the stamp pad to really make the edge stand out.

Thanks so much for looking! If you've just misplaced your mojo and can't seem to find it, I definitely recommend checking out MM and seeing if your mojo is hiding there!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Paper: K&Co. (Costco)
Stamp: 'Footprints' by Inkadinkado (Michaels)
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink (Black) and Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
Tools: Foam applicator tool
Embellishments: 'Faith' ribbon slider (Dollarama), embellished flower (Sugar & Scraps), ribbon

CURRENT MOOD: CALM CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: THE HEATER GOING

Valentine Words...

...there's nothing like finishing off a Monday than by getting your mojo going! And what better way than to participate in Mojo Monday's first Monday of the month contest!

This is pretty much my first time participating in anything, so I am very excited to just have something to contribute! *LoL*

Here we go:

The Mojo Monday sketch for today!

And my take on the sketch, a la Valentine's Day...

Well...I'm sure I could have done more with it, but I still LOVE how it turned out! I had started it last night without even thinking about the challenge and luckily, it worked out with just a little bit of tweaking. Sooo, here's the 411 on the card du jour!

All products and materials from Pez-a-Doodle Designs unless otherwise stated
Stamps: Studio G (Holiday Series)
Paper: Bo Bunny DP from Pezzy's Picks line at PaDD
Embellishments: Foam hearts from Dollarama
Other: Flower Soft (dyed to match using Alcohol Inks from PaDD) and Martha Stewart edge punch (Michaels)

Thanks for looking!

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: