Rustic Prairie Digital Kit

Lovin' this new kit 

Rustic Prairie 

by

Loni at GraceBlossoms4U

Here are a couple of digi scrap pages

I made with the kit as a member of her

creative team. 

The first uses a template for the challenge at

Scraps-N-Pieces.com

that I used as a sketch .

Thanks for looking =)

Early Signs of Spring

Amazing what happens in just a couple days time

when the temps jump to the mid sixties !

Walking out to the mailbox yesterday I noticed: 

Buds on the maple tree

Sap dripping from the maple tree

Daffodils sprouting

Winter isn't ready to give up yet

OWH Sketch Challenge 215

The new sketch at Operation Write Home this week 

is another fun one to use up scraps !

I have oodles of colored paper clips 

I bought so long ago.....

I'm glad I remembered them today

to add to these cards along with 

a scrap of ribbon for a fun detail !

"Happy Birthday" is a rubber stamp image

from the set Wacky Wishes by

Stampin' Up!

that I colored with water based markers.

Be sure to give your rubber stamp

a good "huff" of warm breath

before stamping onto your card stock

to moisten the inks that may have 

dried up a bit while coloring all

the portions of your stamp. 

5/21/2014 EDITED TO ADD:

Here is a link to a tutorial:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/inkingwithmarkers/

You want to use water based markers so the ink will be removed from the rubber and onto the paper since it stays "wet" on the rubber. The ink from permanent markers would dry and stay on the rubber. I'd recommend testing any markers you have if you are unsure of them, maybe on a small portion of a not so well loved stamp. Try Stazon stamp cleaner if the ink dried on the stamp. 

Papers are from an old Die Cuts With A View paper stack.

TIP: Often times I use a large chisel point 

permanent black marker

to draw along the edges of 

card stock and papers

to create faux black background layers.

Take your time and keep a tiny

portion of the chisel point off of the 

edge of the card stock onto a 

scrap piece of paper to help

make straight lines. 

I am right handed so I 

keep the far right edge of the

chisel off of the edge of the card stock,

drawing the lines downward toward me

with the left part of the marker tip.  

The chisel point should be 

horizontal to your vertical paper. 

Be sure to hold it steady,

keeping the wide chisel point on the

card stock or paper edge to make the

thick line / faux card stock layer.

You will want to test a scrap of the paper

first to make sure it has good coverage

before attempting it on your actual project.
Make sure the marker is good and "juicy" too
so it makes a solid, dark line. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Skunk!

There is a first time for everything: this is the closest I've ever been to a live skunk, it was right outside my kitchen door the other night !!!!!! I've never seen one this close to the house and any that I have seen were dead on the road far away. I do get a whiff of them once in a great while, but know that their scent can travel quite far. I hope it doesn't become a regular "visitor".

Mom Card

The Midweek Throwdown at

Operation Write Home

was to make Mother's Day cards.

I used purple white core card stocks from Lasting Impressions,

stamped then hand cut out letters from pink card stock ,

paper flower, purple ribbon  

and torn "sueded" paper (instructions below).

The adorable plaid paper flower was a gift from a pen pal -

it came in a wonderful assortment of paper flowers !

It's easy to make "sueded paper" / "faux mulberry paper":

Use a heavy weight card stock then crinkle it up enough

 to break down the fibers so you can pull the front and back

apart, creating two layers where one side has the fibers showing.

I used a crimper tool, running the card stock through numerous times

and at different angles. Once I see the gap forming along the edge

of the card stock between the front and back, I stop and pull it apart. 

I then crinkle them up to get rid of the ridges made by the crimper.

Sometimes, as in this sample, after unfolding I will go back over it 

with a bone folder to remove some of the harsh crinkles. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Birdwatching Cat

Bluebird on the tree out front ! 

Every once in a while I see a blue bird or

indigo bunting, I guess as they are passing through.

Watching birds and squirrels

from the chair I placed in front of the window for her.

It's her new favorite spot and she is rarely

caught sitting on the table to look out the back window.

T

Tuckered out from all the bird and squirrel watching.

Valentine's I Received

What a fun, sparkly card with the paper pieced

dress on the cute little girl !

Red handmade (?) paper and 

the textured card base are the perfect touches

the complement this vintage image !

Thank You Cards - CAS

I created these cards for the

 ODBD Challenge

at Operation Write Home -

Thank You cards.

Simple enough card to make overall.

Red, White and Blue card stocks

Stars embossing folder, Cuttlebug

Expressions Thinlits die, Stampin' Up!

(I cut THANK off of the THANKFUL die)

Alphabet die U, Stampin' Up!

bakers twine, dollar spot at Target

Thanks for looking =) 

Pink Overload - Sketch Challenge Card

TOO much pink.

Then again, it may be just the right amount for 

someone else ;) 

This card is based on the new sketch at

Operation Write Home today.

I didn't have any scraps of coordinating decorative papers

(seriously, I don't have many scraps of designer paper)

so I needed to cut into some new sheets from an old

 Die Cuts With A View Stack 4 paper pad.

I used the Full Heart and Heart To Heart paper punches

from Stampin' Up! for the hearts.

I lightly sanded the edges of the hearts before gluing

to the card front to help give the edges definition -

just so much pink and so many patterns going on with this card !

"Love" is heat embossed with white embossing powder.

The stamp was from Stampin' Up!

This is a nice, flat, mail friendly card.

Although it was soooooooo frigid today,

making the drafty old basement 50 degrees,

 I went ahead and did some crafting for a 

little bit. Bundling up, using a space heater

and my body adjusted to the cold 

so I was able to get some work done 

before calling it quits after about two hours.

My fingers were just too cold !

I'll share the Thank You cards tomorrow

that I made for another OWH challenge.

The severe cold temperatures and 

the freezing drizzle/sleet

were the only parts of the forecast 

from yesterday that held up where I live.

There isn't quite an inch of the white stuff

out there as of now.

Certainly no where near the 6-10" of snow prediction.

Be safe, stay home if possible, stay warm everyone ! 

We are hoping this is the only 

"lion" part of early March we see !

  Thanks for looking =)

DigiScrap Page - Silver and Gold

March 1st, ALREADY !???!!!!?

Gosh, mom and dad were right:

the older you get,

the faster time flies.

I'm trying to think of what I've accomplished

so far this year......... it doesn't seem like much of anything!

I hope you've made progress on your to do lists

or are doing a good job of sticking to your New Year's Resolutions.

For the first two months of 2014, I've managed to:

- Make several cards for Operation Write Home

and participate in some of the challenges at their blog.

- Made several bowl cozies

and although I was inspired to start

more sewing projects, I have not yet.

- Created digital projects for Creative Team commitments.

- Spent hours and hours (and hours!) on digital photos,

trying to get years worth gone through to choose

what to print so I can get them into photo albums.

 I've only made a small dent in that daunting project.

-Took some photos that of course will need to be 

edited, organized and some printed.... eventually.

- Reorganized crafty things in the "dungeon".

- Normal day to day life.

Enough of my rambling

(I took a cue from the challenge below to tell a story!). 

I made this digital scrapbook page

for a challenge submission at

Anything But A Card:

"Sharing a Story Through Scrapbooking"

A blog buddy is the featured artist this week,

congratulations Margaret !

Take a moment to read through her insightful blog posts

and be inspired by her projects.

Yeah, it's silly using lyrics from an old Girl Scout song

to relate to my vehicles, but I thought it worked well!

After all, my old car has gold, the "new" one has silver

and I am keeping my old car, "my friend".

We've been through a lot together  :)

I used My Digital Studio to create this page.

Very Vanilla textured card stock background paper.

Alphabet punch paper filled (custom) with my own

glittery, shimmery papers I made.

Sara's Sequins, resized.

Banner and arrow punches, paper filled.

Several text boxes.

Closeup to show the detail at normal resolution.

The textured paper doesn't show up on computer 

screens unless you increase the image view size.

The largest sequin is normal size;

I copied, pasted, rotated then resized to make 

the smaller ones.

Yet another huge storm is on its way this weekend.

The predictions seem to change every few hours,

but we do know that we will see freezing precipitation here.

The latest : we could see up to 10" of snow and sleet ! 

I have my supplies ready and have done some cooking today

as well as caught up on laundry, etc in case we lose power. 

Be safe out there all of you that will be affected by

this massive storm system ! 

Stay indoors and spend some time with your loved ones,

catch up on reading, crafting, etc . 

Thanks for looking =)