Color Inspiration #43

So it's another awesome Color Inspiration Challenge from Kristina Werner. Once again I'm making cards into the wee hours of the morning. I had a tough time with these colors. Actually I love them but the pumpkin pie and the brocade blue was really throwing me for a road block. I even had to shower in between the card making to come up with how to piece all the colors together. 5 colors is definitely NOT easy to work with. I toyed and fiddled and finally settled on the retired Stampin' Up set Delight In Life and the Wonderful Favorites stamp set. I'm quite happy with how the card turned out. I never used brocade blue or the Wonderful Favorites set so I'm glad to have those tarnished with ink. The only thing that didn't work out as planned, which is totally because I'm lazy... Is the ruby red sheet should've been a touch longer... Actually what happened was that the blue border was the same on both sides of the ruby red but the bottom was too short so I just ended up snipping the top bit. But then it made the top and side all funny. The more I look at it now the more it's buggin' me... I gotta go in and fix it another night if I can manage to pry it off the cardstock without destroying the card. Or I might just leave it and give it to a wonderful friend who doesn't make cards and couldn't care less about the mismatched borders... That's a good plan =) Guess Regan and Arlie are out of the question....
P.S. How do you like the photos I've been posting? I think I've found a decent program on my camera for white balance and lighting etc. Let me know what you think!

WUAC Wednesday / Mojo Monday 75 / Caardvarks Challenge

Hi gals (and maybe Jamie...). Can't believe it's already time for another WUAC Wednesday! This week I've decided to hit THREE birds with one stone. I know that's not how the saying really goes but it sounds better than killing two birds. I've combined this week's WUAC with Mojo Monday #75 and Caardvarks challenge to use kraft. Just a fair word of warning, my goodness there's a lot of layering this week. Like TONS as you can tell from the sketch on the left. So it's already 1:30 AM so we best get going.



I wanted to use a bit of designer paper as I haven't done so in a long time so I flipped through the little 6x6 pads that are usually found with Stampin' Up's lvl 1 hostess choices. The only one I really liked was the "Real Red" sheet but it totally looks way more like Rose Red. So I pulled out some kraft cardstock and rose red to match.




So as the sketch shows, it needs a scalloped edge and man do I ever LOVE my scallop edge punch. To think I used to do it with a corner rounder!!!

Next I decided the kraft cardstock needed a lil something something. So I whipped out my very new Bella Toile background stamp. At first I thought this background might be a bit floralish for me seeing how I don't like tacky floral backgrounds but for some reason I just adore this stamp. I inked it up upside down with sahara sand because there's no kraft pad.

Then I realized that layering it onto just rose red was sorta bland so I threw in some basic black! Now as I was taking the picture and checking back to the sketch I realized that the colors are pretty much the sketch colors!! Oh well... I'm copying the sketch and the colors I guess. Too late to turn back now.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to layer what and where... So in my mind I think I've got it straight.

You can see in this picture that I did lots of cutting (stupid extra piece of kraft in there took forever and it still doesn't sit perfect). I FINALLY got my order from Treehousestamps after I ordered it over 1 month ago. It was shipped about 3 weeks AFTER I ordered it. The lady only sent me an email saying that she lost internet due to a snow storm and was waiting for a backorder item AFTER I emailed her and complained and wanted to cancel my order. Arlie also ordered and complained and got the same email.. But alas, we both got our orders and needless to say, we're NEVER BUYING FROM TREEHOUSESTAMPS AGAIN. But back to the picture, I bought these little Dew Drops I guess they're called. Comes in a little shampoo like bottle with screw top lid and everything. I thought those'd be perfect for the little embellishments needed on the side.

Another new thing I got with my last order: Craft Stampin' Spots!! I was uber excited to try it out and only JUST realized tonite that my beloved rose red is actually in the RICH REGALS family!!! I was devastated for about 10 seconds before I realized I'd just try ruby red. So I get it open and stamp a bit onto some scrap paper and this is what I got.. Goops of grayish black color. I was mortified!!






But then I stamped it out and it was all fine. The stamp is from the new Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. I love that set. I wanted it stamped onto the little sentiment part but the rose ended up being too big. So wasted some paper, embossing powder, ink and most important TIME!!




Pulling into the home stretch here... I decided to ticket punch the corners a touch for added... I don't know... Elegance? Thought about adding a sentiment as opposed to an actual picture in the middle so from the same Fifth Avenue Floral set is a great sentiment. Stamped that guy in basic black, threw in a whole bunch of dimensionals and voila! Lets call it a night cuz it's 2 AM on the dot. G'nite

So to play WUAC Wednesday the rules are simple. All you need to do is use SOMETHING from my card. You can use the same layout and link it to Mojo Monday as well. You can do something in kraft and link it to Caardvarks. You can use the same stamp sets or even just the same colors. I'm not sure how many of you have Dew Drops but you can just use the same embellishments too. Link it below and my dedicated 3 followers (maybe 4) will hop on over to your blog and take a gander!

Color Inspiration 42 and CPS 104

I spent a good few hours this afternoon with Jamie just chillin' and relaxin'. He was knitting up a storm finishing off Amanda's handwarmers that she had ordered from him in DECEMBER!!! So I've been harrassing him a touch. I went through my order that I received on Friday and mounted all of my stamps. I just HATE mounting stamps. It takes me sooo long because I try to get them perfect and of course, it never does turn out perfect. Needless to say, I still had a very relaxing afternoon with Jamie. Sitting around doing our own thing and watching Gridiron Gang. Good movie by the way.

It's been a while since I've played one of Kristina's Color Inspirations. This week I was lucky enough that Kristina extended the deadline so I managed to whip up a card quickly after eating a banana split and watching the tail end of the Oscars. I've always leaned towards the Earth Elements family but I find it hard to use More Mustard so that was another reason I wanted to play.
I was poking around on the web and stumbed across a new challenge blog called Card Positioning Systems. I'm super excited to find another new challenge site because the more I have to choose from, the less limited I am in terms of deadlines. I love Mojo Mondays but like this week, I only had time tonite to make a card and tomorrow will already be a new Mojo sketch so I'll wait till tomorrow to play the Mojo sketch. I had a completely different card in my mind when I saw the layout. The layout picture totally reminds me of the stamp set Thoughts and Prayers from Stampin' Up! and I just bought that so I wanted to use it. But then I also bought Park Avenue Backgrounds and really wanted to use that too!! So Park Avenue won. I had a really tough time using the colors and the layout. Played around for a fairly long time and ended up with a card that looks like it took literally 3 minutes to make... Sigh. I hate that. Regan always says that if the card is gorgeous at the end of it, it doesn't matter if the card took hours. But when the end product isn't what you had imagined, even a 10 minute card feels like wasted time. Oh well...

So I started with a More Mustard card base and layered on Kiwi Kiss. I stamped the background in Kiwi Kiss and used a Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the pattern to match on the Whisper White. The sentiment is stamped in More Mustard. The little strip of Really Rust, although you absolutely cannot tell in the picture, I scored to make a grid/textured pattern. Then I just found some buttons out of my big jar of Walmart buttons and glued them on. And there you have it, literally a 3 minute card if I had known what I wanted to do, but instead took me about 40 minutes. Sigh, maybe I can redeem myself with a Mojo Monday/WUAC Wednesday card later this week.

Ingredients:

Stamps- Park Avenue Backgrounds and Elegant Cheer from Stampin' Up!

Colors- Whisper White, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, Really Rust

Accessories/Supplies- Walmart buttons, adhesive, glue dots, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scor-Pal, corner rounder punch

Secret Valentine

At work a few of us signed up to be part of a secret valentine exchange. So I think in total there were only 7 or 8 of us and we all drew names to see who we'd shower with gifts and goodies for this week. I won't say who I have although I'm sure she's probably guessed it by now. My guess is that my boss Dianne has me. Every morning on my desk there'd be a little goodie. It started with hand-painted fridge magnets and a notebook on day 1. On day 2 I think there were a couple design books for scrapbooking/card making and a card. On day 3 I think it was, I found a little yummy treat bag which I've taken a picture of. On day 4 there were some stickers and lollipops and chapstick and a handmade card. The writing looks VERY much like my boss but if she is anything like me, she might just be messing with my mind. Well I'm off to post a few things on Etsy then it's bedtime! I'm excited that it's Friday!!

WUAC Wednesday

So it's time for WUAC Wednesday! (I had Wheel of Fortune in my mind as I was typing that...) This week shows a card that I made as part of a set of birthday cards for my friend Amy. It's fun to have requests for cards with very little limitations. The only parameters I usually get are, "Just a thank you card" or "It's a girl's birthday". In this case, we're making a feminine birthday card. I actually saw a card that I really liked from Infinitecreations on Splitcoaststampers. So I decided to CASE it. The only problem was I don't have the retired Groovy Guava ink which I really don't mind because I truly just despise that color. So I've used yet again the Baroque Motifs set. Can you tell I really like this set?

So I knew I wanted to use Pink Pirouette just because it's such a soft feminine color. Now I did toy with the idea of other colors. I tried pretty much everything that was sorta pinky from Cameo Coral to Ruby Red. Nothing really had the look I wanted so in the end I just stuck with the Pink Pirouette ink as well. (Ahh good old SU and their matching cardstock and inks... gets me every time)

Now tell me who doesn't like a good pink and gray combo? So here I stamped the floral I guess it'd be called? design in Pink Pirouette onto Whisper White. Then I cut that out and layered it onto a scalloped circle of the pink again. Now I don't know about you but boy I found it absolutely HIDEOUS.

So that idea was modified a bit. I cut out the image a tad more and then layered it onto a 1 3/8" circle of Basic Gray. I popped those two up onto the Pink Pirouette scalloped circle and layered down a nice long sheet of Basic Gray again.

Now I couldn't very well leave the center with nothing! The original card had pearls in the center from the Pretties Kit but I've been breezing through those little suckers and now I feel the need to conserve them so I popped in a silver brad. I never realized how useful silver brads were and so much so that I actually ordered some gold brads on my last order. We'll see if I should've ordered another pack of silver instead of the gold.

So I repeated those little floral things 3 times and now I had a bunch of left over ribbon from gifts over Christmas. You know you sometimes get some pretty darn nice ribbon from gifts. I'm super cheap and I saved whatever looked even half decent. So here I've got two different ribbons to choose from. One is just a plain white satin and the other is a sheer almost cream color.

So I made my choice and hopefully you agree. If you found the white satin looked better well... too bad because it's already glued and assembled. But perhaps if I make another one of this exact card I'll try the white and see. So those little scalloped circles were popped up on the foam dimensionals.

I glued everything together and finished off the card with a simple Happy Birthday from the retired Stampin' Up set It's Your Birthday.

Now I know this picture isn't quite as good but I like the black background I tried to use. Anyways thanks for checking out another WUAC Wednesday. Hopefully my regular 2 girls continue to play and that some of the girls I've harrassed might play as well. 1:22 Am... time for bed. Maybe this is why I'm always so grouchy at work?? On a side note, I just tried to change the pictures a bit and my internet crashed. My heart skipped a beat but thank GOODNESS for auto save.

Valentine's Day Card

This beautiful v-day card is from my good friend Jinnee. Now don't be fooled by the card. I'm sure if must've taken her a LOOONG time because you can't really tell from the picture but the elephant is actually stamped on gray paper then CUT out!! And all the hearts on the main image are also cut out from pink cardstock then layered onto the main image. That's a LOT of work. Especially cutting out his little toes and stuff. It's a gorgeous card and I love how she used the tag because I can never find a cool way to put a tag on a card.

A second part of this post is about my new paper holder! Over the long weekend, Jamie and I stopped by Office Depot since it's going out of business. Seems to be happening quite a bit lately. First Linen N Things (which we have a flipping $50 gift card to... GRR) now even Office Depot! So there's this paper organizer thingee that was there for $25. It's on wheels and I really wanted something to hold more of my paper so I could free up some shelf space. I promised Regan I'll take a picture of the entire card thing but it's late and I'm tired so I'll just show you the top view of the card. It's two tiered but as I was filling it, I realized that if I fill it to any more than 1/2 full, I won't be able to access the bottom tier. So I made Jamie drive me back to Office Depot today to buy another one. There's about 4 of them let so if you're interested, GO NOW!! To the one on Calgary Trail and like 38th ave or so. Now you can't really see the full potential of this little cart but if you look to the top left, you can see the top of my desk. So this little paper cart actually fits PERFECTLY underneath my desk!! I was so excited. I just gotta move my sewing machine that's covered in dust over so I can fit both under there. And I also need to go get more hanging folders. But the way I've got it now is full sheets sit behind the manilla folders and all my scraps sit inside the manilla folders. Are they actually called manilla folders?? Anyways it's late and I've gotta work in the morning so g'nite and my next post will likely be for WUAC Wednesday!

Stamp Something Chocolate Challenge

This little treatbag full of chocolate kisses fits perfectly for Stamp Something's Chocolate Challenge! There's a great blog candy giveaway and there are some super creative entries! If you have a few minutes swing by and check out the site. The challenges are always great! Ok now it's really good night!

Paper On Paper is BORN! / Happy Valentine's Day!

So I nagged and nagged and Regan finally decided to make a blog!!! You can find it HERE. I'd really like to think that my constant bickering made her surcome to the blogging world. (Side note, I just went to dictionary.com to see how to spell surcome and I'm not really sure if it's really a word...) I think that having found the High Hopes Challenge, that really pushed Regan to make a blog because she told me you need a blog to enter. Who wouldn't want to enter to win loads of free stuff? Especially since the High Hopes collection is ridiculous cute.

Anyways, Regan came over today after an uneventful dim sum with the ladies from work (no chicken feet or cow stomach was consumed or so they think.... jk) we sat in my little crafty room and made cards. So as I'm typing this very sentence, a thought just crossed my mind... What if Jay (and I know that isn't how you spell it but I won't get creative cuz that will just make me look worse) comes and checks out the website and sees this card that's made for him? But now as I just typed that sentence I realized two things. 1. It's past midnight so it's technically already valentine's day so Regan will likely give the card tomorrow and Jay will likely not come and poke around on my blog. 2. It's flipping valentine's day and here I am blogging instead of making a valentine's day card for Jamie!!

So I guess this is really a two part post. The first part is dedicated to Regan. Check out her blog to see how she came up with her blog name. Now this second part is dedicated to Jamie. We've been together for 4 1/2 years now and at the beginning Valentine's day was a big deal. But I've definitely gotten lazy over the years and found Valentine's day to be just another day. I don't have anything special for Jamie but I did custom order this AWESOME donut key lanyard for Jamie from a fellow Etsian Enchanted Fairy. I think I remember her telling me it's made from polymer clay and she makes them all by hand!!! How insane is that? Now it may be hard to tell how big those mini donuts are but the small ones are just a touch smaller than a penny!! How she does it I have no clue but I love it and I hope Jamie does too. He's got this weird thing for donuts especially for the one that looks like Homer Simpson's donut with all the sprinkles. Jamie's probably not dreaming of the pink frosted donuts and sprinkles and definitely not dreaming of it in a heart shape but hopefully he'll like it. He's snoring away in the living room right now so I'll surprise him with it by leaving it on his pillow =)
G'nite!


**UPDATE**
So Cynthia kindly filled me in on how to spell SUCCUMB. Who would've thought that's how you spell it?? Geez... And Google wasn't quite smart enough to figure it out for me with the "Did you mean..."