Still Kicking!

Believe it or not, I am still kicking around and I am still crafting! I don't make as many cards nowadays because I'm trying desperately to catch up on my Project Life. I'm only about 2 years behind now, but that's not what this post is about. I got a watercolor set in one of my card kits from Studio Calico quite a few months ago and have been meaning to try it out. The card from Betsy inspired me so I just CASEd it. At first I was using the crappy brush that came in the set. It was absolutely awful and shed worse than my puppy, but then I remembered I had an aqua painter from Stampin' Up! Worked like a charm! And I didn't have to keep rinsing it off in a mug of murky water either! Till next time my fellow card makers! 

FTL #266

I love me a simple sketch! What I don't love is how it my end products always look like they only took 10 minutes when in reality it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. I rant on this all the time so why stop now? That bloody cupcake stamp set and coordinating paper punch... Why did I buy you?!? First I had to stamp the images, then punch them out, then layer them. Not a big deal except that the punch includes all 6 pieces to the cupcake. And you can't change how it punches... Not a big fan at all. It's no wonder I waited, what? 2 years to use it? Anyways that's enough ranting for a Tuesday evening. Here's my take on Fall to Layout #266. Have a good evening! 

JAI 142

I haven't participated in a card challenge in ages. There's been way too many other crafting musts in my life right now and card making wasn't making the list on top 3 things to do. But with my entire basement dedicated to paper crafting, I felt the need to get back into it. The crochet hook will just have to wait till another night. I know this whole "Keep Calm..." catch phrase has been going around like mad, but I couldn't help but purchase the darn stamp set. This is from Stampin' Up! called Carry On. The little cupcake is from the stamp set Create & Cupcake. Can you believe I've owned this stamp set and the coordinating punch since it was released but it's the first time I've inked up this up? You know you have it bad when you haven't inked over half your stamp sets up but you continue to buy more. Anyways, this is my take on Just Add Ink's sketch #142. Have a great weekend and remember to turn your clocks back an hour! 

Circles!

I'm thrilled with how the first card turned out. Then I decided to try and jazz up the second one. Definitely don't love it as much but I had gone through all the trouble of lining up the circles to punch out and you all know how much I hate wasting. The circular flower stamp is from the stamp set, Just Believe. I used a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the pattern but I think I would've liked it more if they were random. 

Words, Words, Words.

I absolutely adore Crumb Cake. I love how it's neutral enough to use everywhere but not so plain that it's blah. Here I've CASEd the lovely BeStempelt. I think she's German? I'm totally guessing based off the blog's foreign language. I really like how her image was stamped onto a longer piece of card stock. Unfortunately, I looked and looked but couldn't find a stamp that had a nice long stem like hers. Instead of actual pearls like she used, I used Liquid Pearls. Remember those? The trick to having them not look like little pointy pieces of poop or a cold nipple is after you've applied it, hold your card stock up face up and flick it from underneath a few times. This settles the liquid a bit and makes it look more rounded. 

Birthday Love

I recently used an American Crafts scrapbook layout as inspiration for both scrapbook pages and cards! These cards actually threw me for quite a look. First off, I made the blue one but when I went to put the sentiment using rub-ons, I ran out of room!!! The darn doily was too far over. I couldn't salvage it no matter what I did because I glued the doily on with liquid Tombow. The paper ripped to shreds and took the card front with it! So then I set out to make another one. This time, I got all confused with my words! The bottom blue card was supposed to say "birthday wishes" but then I started putting the word "happy"! I screwed up twice so ended up using way more rub-ons than needed. In the end, it turned out quite cute! Here's the original link to the inspiration. 

Doubling Up!

I'm all about trying to be efficient when it comes to card making so whenever I'm creating a card, I will try to make 2 at least. Today I was inspired by Connie's card over at Constantly Stamping. I loved the pop of Poppy Parade and the simplicity of the card. Here's my CASE. I still like how Connie used Poppy Parade because it pops way better than Rose Red, but I'm trying to clear my desk of old DSP. Have a great weekend everyone! 

Clean & Simple

I fell in love with Susan's CAS card layout found here and decided that it was definitely copy worthy. So I set out to CASE her card and I love how they turned out! The white on white looked better in Susan's photo than the cards that were sitting in front of me so I decided to layer all the rectangles and pop them up on dimensionals. You could stamp any sentiment in that top right corner since the flowers and colors are suitable for any occasion... Except a manly man's birthday. Unless said manly man is so manly that he's comfortable with his femininity. 

Happy Birthday

I've been trying to make more cards lately but it hasn't been easy finding time. I think that's why I've resorted to taking all my card photos with Instagram. It's quick and easy, requires no processing on the computer and it pops right onto my photostream through iCloud. I've been making a lot of pink cards lately for some reason. I definitely need to start branching out as I don't think all my girlfriends love pink as much as I'd like to think they do. 

Happy Bermuda Bay Birthday!

Wow, I just found this post in my drafts... from who knows how long ago... 

Card Recipe

Stamps: Happy Everything (SU), Of The Earth (SU) 

Ink: Bermuda Bay and Summer Sun (SU), Versamark

Paper: Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Elegant Eggplant

Embellishments: Corduroy buttons in Summer Sun (SU), Amethyst embossing powder (Stampendous), 

Tools: Heat gun

Sweet Cake

If you haven't purchased this new stamp set yet, Sweet Cake, please do! I love the feel of this little stamp set. It's fun, hip and young looking. Everything that I feel I'm not right now. I can see myself getting a ton of use out of this little guy and I sure hope they keep it around for the new 2012/2013 catalogue. Hope you all had a great weekend. 

A Bit Late

A dear friend had her birthday a few days ago. I didn't get a chance to see her so I decided to make a belated birthday card. I forgot about those little leaves die for the Big Shot and how much I love them! That houndstooth background wasn't my favorite but it's definitely growing on me. It works great as a background and not a focal point because some of the other impressions folders I have draw way too much attention. The card CASEd Kristina Werner's card found here. 

Girly, you rock!

Running off to dinner to celebrate a lovely friend's birthday. I CASE'd this card from the talented Kristina Werner. It uses the little heart punch from Stampin' Up! and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I have forgotten how much I love Papertrey products. I'm making a trip down to the states a couple times this year. Perhaps I need to make another order... Have a great weekend everyone! 

Happy Birthday

Yeech, iPhone photos sometimes aren't that great in low light situations are they? I figured it's either mediocre pictures with my iPhone that actually get posted or the non-existent photos that I don't get around to taking with my normal camera. As you can tell, I decided on option A. Sorry about the weird angle too. I guess I should have gotten down to eye level instead of sitting in my chair and guestimating. A few weekends ago, I attended a stamping meeting and it reminded me of the love I have for paper crafting. These meetings are always fun because we often will make 4 projects and this meeting was no different! We focused on using Sale-A-Bration and new catalogue items and the cards turned out great! I'll post all our projects over the next few days. Here's card uno! I'm actually really enjoying that stamp set and even the fun new ribbon! And if you know me at all, you can never go wrong with Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) card stock!