Look Ma, No Coloring OR Stamping!

...HAHAHAHA! You've got to cut me some slack...if this were 'Fixing Dinner' on the Food Network, Thursdays are mine and The Mister's "Fright Night."

I was pretty much all over the place yesterday with work and appointments and a mad rush home to get the house clean-looking (notice how I didn't say CLEAN...*LOL*...just clean-looking!) in time for choir practice. Everytime I think that okay, after this one thing, things will die down...something else happens to replace whatever it is that's just finishing! I'm trying not to think of how full my plate already is and how much MORE things are being added to it to avoid going crazy and just dropping off the face of the earth again (I'm NOT going to, Marti!*LOL*)

Even though things were hectic, I snuck away from Chewy and The Mister during after-practice cleanup to go play in my scraproom - which has reached DANGEROUSLY high levels of mess...so high, it has never been recorded...ever. I have to put things on my lap while I'm working on them to avoid losing them in the craptastic pile of stuff in front of me!

Apparently I was suffering a mojo meltdown because I couldn't really find anything that was turning out the way that I wanted to. Ran out of really nice cardstock, so I tried printing on a lesser quality one and found that my COPICs were bleeding all over the place and the image was already so small that I couldn't even make adjustments to compensate for the bleeding. I tried colouring with Prismas, but I couldn't find my blending stumps in all the mounds of stuff and my watercolor pencils were in the other room and far be it for me to get up to go get them now that I was already sitting and comfy! Okay, so I figured there'd be no coloring and I'd pretty much used all the stamps that would look good with the no-coloring techniques that I had been playing around with this week. So last resort, there'd be no stamping either!

I poked around my scrap stash and underneath layers of...I wanna say crap...I saw cute little faces staring up at me. I stared at them and they stared back...so I stared some more and an idea started forming while we were having our staring competition. I took out the little cuties and my chalks (whom I've been getting along with very well lately!) and got down to business. It always takes a million times longer for an idea to come together, but it only took a few minutes to actually get this card together...

C'mon say it with me, "Awwww!" (I didn't hear you say it, Marti...HAHAHAHA...). Thank you for those who joined me in my "awww-ing". I don't care how bad it sounds, but I am LOVING how this card turned out. As soon as I saw those cute little babies staring up at me (from their holographic backgrounds - ew! I got rid of those as soon as they were out of the packaging!) I knew that I wanted to go for a baby-themed card. With what feels like EVERYONE in my family being pregnant and about to explode, there is definitely going to be a need for some baby-looking cards! Because there were four specific animals I wanted to use on my card, I chose to have it be non-gender specific and I resorted to the four basic baby colours. Baby pink, baby blue, baby yellow and baby green. If I had one more animal, there'd be a baby purple too, but the alligator in the sticker set was a lot longer than the rest, so he would have thrown off my symmetry. Sorry to say he was booted...your time will come, my little alligator friend...your time will come...

Picked out four sponges (in this case, I used makeup sponges. A pack of bajillion for a dollar at the dollar store, you can't go wrong there!) and loaded each up with my chalk colour choices and started circling away on my cardstock. I randomly circled each colour and then went back and filled out the blank spots with the other colours until I had a nice soft tye-dyed effect. Pop-dotted my little buddies on their own chalk-edged mats and voila!

I ran out of sheer white ribbon and the only thing I had that was close was a white ribbon with some silver threading and the white was just SO white it was contrasting hideously with the background, so I did my next favourite thing to with ink pads besides applying them to stamps. I laid out my ribbon and started swiping with coordinating Studio G ink pads!

The Studio G ink pads were PERFECT for this project as the ink on them is a bit chalk-y-like, so the colours definitely worked well on the ribbon. So up there, you can see the white WHITE of the ribbon as it originally was, and with those four little pads, turned it into that rainbow looking swirl of ribbon. I applied the ribbon to the card using the "cheater" method (I also had to finish the inside of the card to cover up all the ribbon taping I did to the inside of the card) and I was done! I considered adding more to it, but I figured since I was doing the no colouring, no stamping technique today, I should also apply the no overdoing of the embellishing technique as well! I did take my Glossy Accents and Stickles and highlighted a few things on my little cuties, otherwise, I reined myself back in to keep the card oh-so-soft and so simple!

Thanks for stopping by today! I know you're probably ready for the weekend about as much as I am (and believe me, I've been ready since last Monday!) Even more fun things to look forward to on this particular weekend as I will be celebrating my first blogaversary this Sunday, March 1st! I hope you'll be able to stop by and celebrate with me! Stay tuned tomorrow for the giveaway roundup of pictures!

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

Stamp: Zip, zilch, zero, NADA!
Ink: Studio G
Paper: Plain ol' white cardstock
Embellishments: 3D stickers, ribbon, Glossy Accents
Tools: Chalk, sponge applicators, pop dots

CURRENT MOOD: TIRED CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: AFRICA

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

Look Ma, No Coloring...

...our own fearless DT leader Marti has definitely set us up with a challenge with our DT assignments this week (or TORTURE considering that I *just* got my COPIC markers...*LOL* however you choose to look at it) our mission: stamp but nooooo colouring! *gasp* I KNOW! How could she DO this to me? Hahahaha...

Actually, my poor neglected COPICs aside (which isn't that big a deal since I don't even know to really use them yet!), the challenge was AWESOME! I love how it got me to pull out all the other materials I've been hoarding but haven't really used to their full potential!

So today I am looking at Distress Embossing Powders!

These are the colours that I used for this project:

Dusty Concord	Peeled Paint	Dried Marigold

The difference between these embossing powders and the other powders that are normally used is that when heat is applied, these don't melt down into the shiny, raised look that most people associate with heat embossing and powder. These distress powders end up with a rough, gritty feeling and the weather-worn look when heat is applied - just like the packaging says! They also differ from other embossing powders in that they have to be shaken very well first get the "distress" crystals distributed before use. These crystals is what gives the embossing powder their name! Once sprinkled onto a project and heated, when the powder has cooled, you can rub your finger over the area you have just embossed and these crystals will give the project it's distressed look! I don't really emboss much or distress enough to really be able to say that the project gets an authentic distressed look, but I *LOVE* using these embossing powders as it definitely lends any projects a totally different look and feel that other regular ol' embossing powders just don't do!

Anywho, I used these on my no-colouring project and this is how it turned out:

Can I just say that I *heart* how this turned out!?! So to break it down, I first made sure that I had shaken all my jars of embossing powder that I would be using and had them open, lined up and waiting to be used. Then I stamped my image on the INSIDE of the card with Versamark. While Versamark was still wet, I took a pinch of one colour of powder and sprinkled it over certain areas of the wet stamp and did the same step for the other two colours. Once I had a nice sprinkling in different areas of the colours that I wanted, I held up the card and tapped my fingers underneath the card to make the powder "dance" around. This ensures that all the areas are covered in powder. Then I just dumped the excess powder in the trash...with the colours all mixed up, I knew I wasn't going to be using it again. But feel free to save it if you think you'd like to use some funky, mixed-up colours to emboss one day. So once I had everything powdered, I applied heat, let it cool and then rubbing the living daylights out of it to distress certain areas. To finish up the card, I pulled out my brand new Oval Nestabilities and punched out an oval at the front for my stamped image to show through.

I also used another no-colour technique for the front of the card...I wonder if that gets me any bonus points with the DT leader! LOL...but for the front of the card, I embellished my oval window with a flourish stamp that I inked using three matching Studio G ink pads. So basically, I attached my clear stamp to the block and went at it with the three different coloured ink pads starting from the lightest to the darkest. When I stamped, all three colours showed through making it nice and multicoloured without me having to bust out any colouring materials! Less the effort but maximum effect! I sure like that equation! I also did the same technique with the Studio G sentiment and finished it all off with coordinating FLOWER SOFT and paper piercing! *swoon*

That's it for me today, I'm supposed to be lookin' busy stuffing tax receipts! *giggles*

Thanks for dropping by and visiting!

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

Stamp(s): Butterflies a-Swirl by Pez-a-Doodle Designs, Studio G clear stamps
Ink: Versamark, Studio G ink pads
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder, Flower Soft, rhinestones
Tools: Paper piercer, Oval Nestabilities, Heat gun

CURRENT MOOD: OVERLY CAFFEINATED CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: STUDENT COMPLAINTS

A year of -isms III

"Just now, I asked The Mister if there was any holidays or special occasions coming up where people have to buy me stuff. He said our anniversary and I "Psssssh-ed" it because that's in September. He said the only thing coming up is Mother's Day and is it kind of bad that I half-wished I was pregnant so I could demand him to buy me a cart? I would choose New Arrivals of course..."

Hel-looo! Only one more week until my blogaversary! I'm very excited about it...too excited probably by the looks of how the giveaway is growing. I've been gathering here and there - some more K&Co. stuff which I am loving and also a couple hand-made kind of things from yours truly! Like this:

GLITTER!

I'm all googly-eyed! Okay, so I didn't actually MAKE the glitter - I have no idea how that magic happens, but I did make them into all these prettiful colours! I took my jar of plain ol' white glitter and dyed them a bunch of colours and put them in jars just like that! So in with my giveaways, this set of sugary glitter just for my blogaversary winner!

I hope everyone had a good weekend - we got a lot more snow *makes face* and I'm all bitter now at the cruelness of Mother Nature and how she teases us with nice, warm, spring-like weather only to snatch it back give us more snow instead! BAH! But I did have a little bit of playtime in my scraproom and I got to play with more Flower Soft and to colour my very first Lockhart stamp!

Another plain and simple card so as not to take away from the main focal point of my image! Even though I've been all COPIC-crazed right now, I coloured in my image with my watercolor pencils and trimmed the stamped image out (*waves* Thanks fairy craftmother!). I used my oh-so-pretty Flower Soft for the hydrangea's and a generous sprinkling of fine glitter - yes, I am ALL ABOUT the glitter lately! I used my little bottle of Glossy Accents and randomly dabbed at the berries before sprinkling with the glitter!

Next I used my BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Oval Nestabilities (*waves* Thanks, Terri!) and used that as my focal image mat. For the rest of the card I just used my Scor-Pal to add detail and some yummily lumpy SugarPops!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll still be adding a little bit more to my blogaversary giveaway so don't forget to stop by on March 1st to play!

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

Stamp: Karen Lockhart
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Bo Bunny and plain white cardstock
Tools: Glossy Accents, Watercolor Pencils, Aquapen, Scor-Pal, Oval Nestabilities
Embellishments: Flower Soft, SugarPops, Ribbon

"Sorry the pictures are so far away and blurry, I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to get closer. BWAHAHAHAHAHA…" (Paris Hilton at CHA)

CURRENT MOOD: CALM CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: WEIRD RATTLING IN THE OFFICE

All that SPARKLES...

...is glitter, Glitter and more GLITTER!

And me thinks that this silly girl went completely OVERBOARD with it! It's hard for me to deal with crafter's block. I get so frustrated and irritated with myself when I sit down to make something and I come up with ABSOLUTELY nothing! Then I get more frustrated and then of course it doesn't help me come up with anything...

Anyway, today was one of those days...I sat down and looked around and...nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Blah.

So I reached for a big, huge jar of not-so-fine glitter that I've had for over a year and I decided to play!

I started with this...

And with a little tweak, a couple light bulbs going off and my good ol' friends ALCOHOL INKS, came up with this:

Red Pepper

Stonewashed

Lettuce

Wasn't really sure what to do with them separately, so I took a little bit of each and ended up with this:

...and from there, I ended up with THIS:

So is there such a thing as glitter overboard? What on this card did I not glitter? *LOL* Another question would be, is there anything that Alcohol Ink can not re-colour? I love, Love, LOVE this stuff! From being so scared to try it out to colouring everything I can get my hands on using it! *LOL*

The card is also a very loose interpretation of Mojo Monday's sketch:

There was already a lot going on with all the glitter, so I decided that I would omit a few of the extra embelly-like things and just stuck to the basics of the sketch. Hope it hasn't deviated too far from the original sketch to not actually COUNT as a Mojo Monday sketch...LOL...when I get started in the scraproom, it's hard for me to go back to the other room to look at the other details I'm missing. I usually only remember a few distinct details of the sketch and go from there anyway...but thanks for looking!

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

Stamp: Fairybella (okay, I just made that one up, I can't actually remember the ACTUAL name right now, but I know for sure it's by) Stamping Bella
Ink: Adirondack Dye Ink
Medium: Copic Markers and Sakura Glitter Gel Pens, Alcohol Ink
Paper: Plain white cardstock (100 lb)
Embellishments: GLITTER

CURRENT MOOD: COMPLACENT CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: BENJAMIN BUTTON BLATHERING ON AND ON...

Rrrravishing Red Riding Hood...

...mama mia! guess what I haven't talked about yet?

These came in the mail the other day! Well I shouldn't say it just like that, it makes it sound so easy, like they handed it to me with a box of chocolates or something. Because of duty and whatnot, they would NOT leave the box at my door because I owed them money, and the thing about UPS is that they'll say that they'll keep trying for THREE days to deliver. Meanwhile, I STILL won't be home any of the times that they would try so I had to call the center, go through the most ANNOYING voice prompt thingy where in the VERY FREAKING end, the machine won't understand what you're trying to say and will STILL put you on hold to get a real person which was what you wanted ANYWAY and then you'll have to tell the real person everything from the beginning! *breathes* So the nearest UPS facility is CLEAR across town and the rain and fog were SO bad the other night that we got LOST. Yes, in my own CITY! I mean, I'd been there once or twice before, but with all the fog, everything was just...blaaah! We got lost and it took us an HOUR to find the place. Then there was a line-up as all the trucks were getting in and unloading EVERYTHING so the place was a mess and the girl couldn't find anything that anyone wanted to pick up. Long story short, there's my babies - and I've got 24 more of them coming! *giggles* Certification class, here I come!

So of COURSE I had to play with them! Found out first and foremost that yeah, any of the inks I own don't work. Place a quick order with Marti...I love knowing people in high places! *LOL* While the order is coming I *whispers* printed off some digital stamps I just HAD to have now that I have COPICs on my work's laser printer. And here's my very first attempt at these oh-so-fickle COPICs!

I loves Anya! Okay, in real life (as opposed to what, right?) I had played around with my COPICs and the hood some more, but then I got this brilliant idea to FLOCK the whole hood, so all my wonderful shading disappeared. It wasn't all that great anyway, so you're just missing an opportunity to laugh at my colouring skills. But holy, moly I couldn't stop running my finger along her hood, it's so niiiiiice! So as you can see, I had a little bit of creative vomit go all over this card. I think I tried a little bit of everything on this...*laughs* If you'll notice my FIRST attempt at a stickpin/hatpin, WHATEVER pin. You can say it's ugly. I told it so myself...it's feelings weren't hurt that much. As you'll also see...if you're not blinded by the whole hot mess, SugarPops have made a little bit of a comeback. Named Ravishing Red after Miss Hood over there...

As I already mentioned, we're not the Valentine's Day kind of folks, so we're off with a huuuge group of friends (I say that like 3 other people and my brothers are a HUGE number...) are going TUBING! So fun, friends and snowpants are as romantic as it gets for this girl! But hoping you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Thanks for visiting!

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

Stamp: Red Riding Hood Anya Digital Stamp - The Greeting Farm
Ink: Laser Printer (*teehee*), Fired Brick Distress Ink
Paper: Bo Bunny from Pezzy's Picks (oh yummalicious!)
Colouring Medium: a la COPICs
Embellishments: Doodlebug Flock, SugarPops by Sugar & Scraps, stick pin, white paint pen, ribbon from Pezzy's Picks

CURRENT MOOD: CONTENT CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT - COREY HART (?)

Ready to Paaar-tay!

...well at least Pezzy is anyway! She's on her way to masquerade at Mardi Gras, I would say!

*LOVE* this little girl - both the stamp and the actual bundle of cuteness that inspired the stamp! I love how I feel like I'm watching Pezzy grow up with Marti's stamp sets! When her first Pez-a-Doodle stamp sets came out, Pezzy was this cute chubbly little baby climbing over cakes and stuff! Now she's all grown up going to Mardi Gras! Some beaded fluourises just for fun in the background...and there's perfect pearls there again! It's kind of like...once you start with them, you WANT to keep using them again! Over and over! Missy also has some sparkly, bedazzled dancing shoes there as well. She is SO ready to party!

Please excuse the craptasticness of this picture! I just can NOT seem to get the focus on my camera going...I'm hoping it's not because I dropped it the other day. *OOPSIES* Anywho...the general idea of this was to get a closer look at Miss Mardi Gras Pezzy here all decked out with her Mardi Gras beads! I've never been to one, but word on the street is, if you're going all Mardi Gras then you'd better have the beads! I strung her up a little one so she can twirl it around in the air when the party really gets going! *LOL* I also wanted to TRY to get a little bit of practice in with my Doodlebug flock, so I flocked the diamonds on her pants with a little bit of purple flock. It's not a LOT and I doubt anyone would have noticed had I not pointed it out, but it was a little sample for me to try...next, I'll flock a bigger area! But see how classy Pezzy is? Velvet pants!

I used a Pez-a-Doodle stamp today because I've got some Pez-a-Doodle ANNOUNCING to do! I would like to...*drumroll here*...welcome TAYLOR USRY of Musings of an Addict as the newest Pez-a-Doodle Designs DT member! I am so excited that our team is GROWING and well...another addict...how can we not get along!? She just understands me! *LOL* If you've got an hour or two, mosey on over and say hello and welcome! I said an hour because for those who'll only plan to stay for a minute or two...you'll end up being there for hoooours! Taylor does FABULOUS work!

Don't forget to visit my favourite PDP girls: Marti, Christine and Robin. They've always got something fun and fabulous going on!

That's it for me today! I don't have anywhere fun and fancy to go like Pezzy does up there, but I'm definitely very glad it's Friday! Have a good weekend everyone!

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

Stamp: Pez-a-Doodle Exclusive Stamps
Ink: Archival Ink
Paper: Random bits and pieces from the floor of my scraproom...I kid you not...
Embellishments/Tools: Doodlebug flock, watercolor pencils, aquapen, Perfect Pearls, Dimensional Pearls, seed beads

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

My, Oh, MY...

...*YAWN* WOW! I can't stop yawning...I think things are catching up with me pretty fast and I just can't get ahead of the game!

If you didn't already know, I work in an educational setting (post-secondary institution) and they've all announced some serious budget cuts over the next few years...and we all know what budget cuts REALLY mean, right? Anywho...to get started on that, everyone's positions and departments are being "re-evaluated" and esentially it pretty much wants you to describe what you DO in your job and how that contributes to the whole organization. The questionnaire was initially about 25 pages with blanks and spaces to fill in, but when I was done with mine, it came to 60 pages. (It wants us to compare our jobs to when the last "re-evaluation" was done - which was a million years ago, so the job has definitely evolved since then!) Anywho, to really WRACK your brain to think of EVERY SINGLE thing you do and how what you do contributes to the organization and to defend what you do and rationalize why you should stay (without actually saying that) and also to rationalize why the position could possibly go up in grade and pay (since a LOT has been added to the job) is SO exhausting, time-consuming and just...BLAH. By the end of the day, I felt like my evaluation papers grew arms and legs and kicked the living daylights out of me.

So....all that blah blah blah up there pretty much means, is that I didn't have time to really do up a very fancy sort of card... *sad face* I did end up turning to my Footprints stamp again as first of all, it's my only religious/inspirational stamp (so far...) and secondly because I really felt like I needed it after the mental wringer that we all went through.

Anywho, there it is...with very little embellishing or detail - with the stamp there, I really don't think it needs much more anyway! But I did pierce around the edges and add stitching (which took up the majority of time) and then used my Tim Holtz paper distresser to distress the edge. Inked it up a bit with Distress Ink (I can't even tell you what colour right now, my brain is so fried..) and just embellished with ribbon and that little picture frame charm. It looks cloudy right now, but I glued some paper in it and inserted a heart-shaped pearl heart and filled in the frame with diamond glaze.

P.S. A little bit out of left field, but if you ever wondered where I took my pictures...I use the bathroom sink. *LOL* Just throwin' it out there...

Off to get some SLEEP - I need to conserve my energy to keep up with Hurricane Marti. Good things coming and some fun announcements!

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

Stamp: Footprints by Inkadinkado
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink and Distress Ink
Paper: Bo Bunny Back to Basics Black and K&Co.
Embellishments/Tools: Foam ink applicator tool, Vintage Flowers with SwirlyPop centers by Sugar and Scraps, ribbon and metal charm from Dollarama

CURRENT MOOD: WRECKED CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: CHOIR PRACTICE

Shimmery good luck...

...ugh. That's all I have to say about yesterday. Mentally and physically draining. And I had a Grande frappuccino after lunch so it kind of escalated everything that I was feeling and added a physical syndrome to it. I was stressed out, frustrated, irritated, jittery and palpitating. *LOL* Just a rough day all-in-all and it didn't get any better when I got home.

SLAM. Creative road block.

Can you believe it took me over two hours to get this card together for Daring Cardmakers? And the sad thing is, I've done something similar already. The dare was definitely a challenge...I don't know why I had such difficulties with it! It's not my most favourite card ever, but all in all, I still like how it turned out.

I got out my rarely used PERFECT PEARLS and I pretty much used it on EVERY piece you see here. I first started by 'inking' up my Oriental background stamp with Versamark and stamping it onto Bo Bunny's Back to Basics textured black cardstock. After I took my fluffy paintbrush and opened up four pots of Perfect Pearls and pretty much went crazy. Dabbed the brush into one colour and applied it aaaaall over the wet card and repeated that step with all the different colours until the entire piece of cardstock was SHI-MER-EEE! The texture of the carstock helps add to the whole look, I think. I stamped my lucky bamboo on the same cardstock with Versamark and chose only to cover in green PP. I trimmed them, and chose to pop-dot certain ones to add a nice 3D effect.

I printed out the greeting on plain paper and cut it out and dabbed my foam applicator into both brown and green dye ink as well as the purple PP and then swirled it all over like crazy onto my sentiment. I chose to print it out onto plain paper and cut into strips to kind of immitate...imitate...?! What the heck is it...my mental mojo is failing me! *LOL* To look like a fortune from a fortune cookie.

Thanks for looking and I hope to beat down that creative roadblock for tomorrow!

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

Stamp: Oriental stamp set by Rubber Stamp King
Paper: Back to Basics black textured cardstock by Bo Bunny
Ink: Adirondack Dye Ink (brown and green), Versamark watermark pad
Embellishments/Tools: Perfect Pearls and applicator brush, foam ink applicator tool, printed sentiment, gemstones

CURRENT MOOD: FRAZZLED CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: OFFICE ENVIRONMENT

Have Your Cake...

...oh how I can't wait for the long weekend coming up! Thank you to all who decided that there should be a statutory "Family Day!" I will most likely ignore mine and lock myself up in my scraproom to play! *LOL* But again, just like Valentine's Day, I don't think that we should have called this extra day off "Family Day" anyways. It just makes it seem like that's the day that families should be getting together to do things, and I think that should be done on a waaaay more regular basis than when someone up there says we should. To me, Sundays are family days. Maybe they should call it "EXTRA Family Day" so that people don't get confused! Hahaha, okay I'm off my soapbox! We all know that the extra day off was just to give people a break from the Winter Blues and the looong days - so I really shouldn't be look a gift horse in the mouth, now should I? I'm just sayin'...

Anywho! I have broken through the strong hold that PINK has on me! Today's card is NOT PINK! I don't think there's even any pink at all (albeit, a teeny, tiny bit in the patterned paper - which is not my fault!). I also took a break from babies (there was actually a reason why i was doing 'baby' kind of cards. My cousin's baby shower is coming up next month and I had a couple requests to make some cards for the occasion) and came up with this birthday card!

Can you believe I've had this stamp for almost a year now and haven't used it on ANYTHING!? It's already been inked because I think I tried everything out once I got it, but I haven't put it on a project at all! WOW! And here I am thinking I need more things! (Well, I still do...that doesn't change anything...LOL).

So that's my birthday card! I don't know exactly who I'll be giving it to, but at least for any birthdays that sneak up on me, I know I'll be prepared! So like I said before, the photograph came up a bit more saturated than it really is. The yellows aren't really that dark...it's more of a bright sunshine yellow, but I didn't really have time to go in and edit it (okay, I didn't feel like it!). But it's nice and cheery - which is how the weather has been looking for the past couple of days! Goodbye winter blues, hel-LOOOO COLOUR!

MATERIALS
All products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs (hyperlinked) unless otherwise stated

Stamp: It's My Party by House-Mouse (HM Stamps)
Paper: DP - Bo Bunny (Pezzy's Picks), cardstock package (Michaels)
Tools: Watercolor pencils (Michaels), Aquapen (Michaels), Chalk (coming soon)
Embellishments: Stickles, Dimensional Pearls, ribbon (Wal-Mart), stickers (Dollarama)

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

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

It's Spring, Baby...

...no, it's really not, but it sure feels like it outside! Since yesterday, our temperatures were in the +6 (C) area...sorry, I don't know what the faranheit conversion of that would be, but let's just say it's very warm! It continued like that today and I hear it'll feel like this for the next couple of days! It would be cruel of Mother Nature to tease me so and let me feel such nice balmy weather and then take it all back and give me snow...just cruel, I tell you...

I've been looking at my latests posts and can I tell you that I'm seeing a lot of PINK. WOW! Blame it all on Marti for giving me such DELICIOUS, YUMMALICIOUS Bo Bunny paper for my birthday! I hadn't actually ever used Bo Bunny until now, but it's so nice and I *LOVE* how they're double-sided! Double the options, double the fun!

I was recently on SCS the other day and you know how easily enabled I am. They were talking about cheaper alternatives to COPICs (so this would be at the time when I hadn't gone crazy and ordered them yet)...actually, on a COMPLETELY different track, I just realized that I was sitting here typing in complete DARKNESS. It wasn't dark when I started, but now I can barely see anything but this screen! *giggles*

Okay, where was I? Oh right, the enableness of me. They were talking about using watercolor pencils and from the tips and techniques they were sharing and from the examples they were showing, it was like a complete mind-takeover. I NEEDED them. I think I actually zipped on over to Michaels with my wrinkled 40% coupon right after work that same day.

So even though my COPICs are coming (hopefully tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed...and your toes too, for added luck!) I have found that I am loving using watercolours! It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's so much fun and having a paintbrush in hand definitely makes me feel more artsy fartsy. The card I did for today was coloured using watercolor pencils and my brush pen!

Please excuse the picture...I know my photography leaves something to be desired, but hopefully that will change soon - one money-consuming hobby at a time, my friends...

So I didn't upload a very large picture, but if you looked closely, you can kind of see the sparkly-ness of my little hedgy baby and her hammock. Again, being pre-COPIC-era, I also don't have Spica pens, so I used my Sakura glitter gel pens and they seemed to work pretty great too! They were a bit strong, but I took my aqua pen and blended them into the colouring and it turned out fabulous! A little extra shading and SHIMMER! I tried really hard not to go overboard on the shimmer...I stopped myself before I shimmered the baby itself.

MATERIALS
All products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs (hyperlinked) unless otherwise stated

Stamp: Penny Black (Scribe's Nook)
DP: Bo Bunny
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink
Embellishments/Tools: Reeves Watercolor Pencil set (Michaels), Aquapen (Michael), Sakura Glitter Gel Pen (Scribe's Nook), Scor-Pal, CM Oval Cutter (CM), pink flat-backed pearls (Dollarama), ribbon (Dollarama), Sticker (Dollarama), dimensional foam (Dollarama)
Techniques: Coloring with watercolor pencils, painting with Sakura glitter gel pen and aquapen

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Spring flowers...

...am I ever ready to see them! I am so tired of this SNOW!

Maybe that's why I keep turning to my Flower Soft. It makes it feel just a little bit closer to Spring and warm weather! According to the weather forecast, it's supposed to go up to plus six (in Celsius) this Friday! I can't WAIT, so to celebrate the warm weather coming, here's a little Spring-y looking baby card:

I'm sorry this post is a little on the short side! I've got a little puppy who keeps jumping up on me, insisting that I pay attention to him or else he'll chew up my shoes again!

Materials:
(All products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs unless otherwise stated)
Stamp: Victorian Flower Carriage by Uptown Rubber Stamps (Scribe's Nook)
Ink: Adirondack black ink
DP: Bo Bunny (Pezzy's Picks)
Accessories/Embellishments: Flower Soft, chipboard tag (Dollarama), ribbon (Michaels)
Techniques: Coloring with (Reeves) watercolor pencils, water and generic paint brush

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

I Heart You...

...there is nothing like a card full of prettiness to turn a frown upside down.

It's just one of those days, lemme tell ya! But here's a card that pretty much made itself last night! I was really happy with how it all came together as I was pretty much working off the top of my head.

I think working in a clean scraproom is definitely an asset - which is too bad, since after last night's creation station, it's not as clean as it was right before I started! Oops! A friend of mine had come over the other night to help with the scraproom overhaul and she made me promise to employ the 'make-and-clean' strategy since I'm more of a 'make-and-leave-it' kind of creator. We'll just keep her out of the scraproom until I get that stuff cleaned up, I guess! *LOL*

Anywho, on to the prettiness:

I can't get over how much I love how this turned out! After all the fussiness of cutting out the stamped images, it was pretty much stick and go from there! Thanks for looking!

Materials:
All materials from Pez-a-Doodle Designs unless otherwise stated.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Autumn Leaves (Wal-Mart), Inkadinkadoo
Ink: Memento Ink
DP: Bo Bunny (Pezzy's Picks line)
Accessories/Embellishments: Martha Stewart Lace Punch (Michaels), chipboard ribbon slider (Dollarama), Inkssentials white gel pen, Stickles

CURRENT MOOD: IRRITATED CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: MINDLESS DRIVEL FROM AN INSIPID, MINDLESS DRIVEL-ER