July 4th Weekend and WMSC54

Just a quick little post about the July 4th weekend and a card for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #54.

My card for WMSC54 is the card that I gave to my husband for our anniversary this past long weekend. It's our second anniversary so the theme is cotton, but I couldn't help but to incorporate a little paper too. For cotton, we got some cotton candy at the county fair that we went to. :) It was the first time my husband had ever tried cotton candy! The sentiment for the card is from Half Pint Heroes.



Here's a few other pictures from the weekend. We drove up to Santa Rosa Sunday after attending the Marin Country Fair. Then Monday was a tour of the coast at Sonoma Coast State Park with stops in Sonoma itself and Napa. We even caught some fireworks Monday night back at home...a perfect ending to the anniversary weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

WMSC #51 & Gallery Idol

Just a quick post today. I wanted to make sure that I got this card submitted as I've been working on it for the past two evenings. It has a lot of fussy cutting to get all those flower layers. I did think that layering the little flower images in the Say It With Style set was the perfect excuse to combine the WMSC51 sketch (by a good friend even!) and a submission for the Gallery Idol open auditions. It was the inspiration for the scored box and the three flowers. I want to say that I just flipped the sketch so it was from the left instead too. You can see it right? I teamed the flowers with the trusty "Congratulations" sentiment from the same set.

Here's the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!

Congratulations - WMSC48

Over at the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge there is the challenge #48 going on right now. I always find great inspiration from the sketches over there and today was no exception.

I needed a congratulations card and the many circles were my inspiration for all the hearts. First, the box was going to be full of the hearts, but I decided instead to change it up a little and use the Say It With Style frame and sentiment in the middle. Also tried a new trick to get my ribbon through the card front but only in the space of the center square. I'm pretty happy with the result. :)

Be sure to head over to the challenge blog and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Two cards for WMSC44

I was inspired by the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #44 for these two cards I created today. For one, it was a great sketch that reminded me to use those Cuttlebug embossing folders I had in my stash! I sometimes forget how cool an effect these little folders can make, and such a simple technique too.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my two takes! For both, I turning the sketch on its side. I tried out the sketch with this first one, which is a basic interpretation of the sketch. The stamps used here are from Holiday Labels 14 and Frame It. This is a card being sent off to two friends that found out they are having a little boy come August. :)

And then also wanted to try it out with some paper with a white core so I could sand the embossing a bit for a fun, distressed look. More of the crinkle ribbon was used on the second. The stamps used here are from Holiday Labels 14 and Frame It once again. I did some masking to the sentiment so it would fit inside this small label.

And now I've sent off all the packages and cards I need to for the lot of birthdays of family and friends that happen about this time. Some will even get there early...some about right on time. But they are all out, so that makes me happy. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

WMSC42 - Birthday Wishes

I'm in the middle of getting together a few birthday cards in the mail here today. I needed another and turned to the trusty Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge blog for some inspiration. The sketch for WMSC42 was just perfect for what I wanted to achieve with this card. I simply asked DH for a color and went from there. It had been a while since I had done a WMSC challenge so it was high time to submit again. :) And great news to see another Mischief Maker has been added...congrats Kelly!

I did do one little trick for this card. Did you catch it? I used the March released Bitty Banners for my sentiment part of the sketch. Only thing was that I wanted it a little longer so I stamped it twice for almost twice the length. Just masking off the particular end I didn't need for each time I stamped accomplished this quite easily. I also pulled out my trusty Martha Stewart butterfly punch and some pearls for a little added touch.

Here's the sketch:

Okay, off to get these cards in the mail!

It's A Boy!

Ok, so we already knew it was a boy for quite some time now, but it is exciting once again when they are born, right? No, not me...two good friends in Minnesota had their baby early this morning. I've been thinking about them a lot today so I thought I should use some of my creative energies in making them a card. This should, if I can get it off in the mail here soon, make it in time for when they return to their home. :)

The challenge sketch I used for this card was the latest WMSC#33.

Ever have one of those cards where it turns out not quite how you were picturing, or even figuring it would go? This is one of those cards. But, I'm liking the result and just went with it. I used some Martha Stewart baby stamps for the main panel. The background and race cars are Waltzingmouse Stamps. And well, it just had to be blue!

So congrats, Mike & Katie! Can't wait to see the little one sometime soon in person!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21

So this card came to thought at 3am this morning. I was thinking this was what I wanted to do for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21, but it wasn't until 3am that I really figured out how to do it. I was tempted to just get up right then and tackle the project, but I knew sleep was slightly more important then.

This is a card for a family member who recently had a birthday (yes, it's slightly late). But, hopefully its coolness factor will counter the lateness. Here's the sketch I followed:

And here's my take. I used Half Pint Heroes for this card, putting a little head that kinda looks like the recipient into the rocket ship. Then to make good use of that pocket I decided to have it take off! :) The sentiments are also from the same stamp set, although I had to get a little creative and use bits and pieces to make my "blast off!" one. Claire..."blast off" is missing! LOL!

And by the way, that grass is handmade...I might need to invest in some Martha Stewart fringe scissors! And my husband is already making a request for a card like this too...hee hee!

I hope you enjoyed your visit. And now to get this card in the mail!

Other challenges:

Cards for Men - Anything Goes

WMSC11 & Color Throwdown 107 - Thanks for being my friend

Over at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge there's an interesting scalloped circle sketch this week. And my color inspiration was from the Color Throwdown challenge. I'm intimidated by circle cards, I'll admit it. But I was up for a challenge today (what's one more today...as today also starts graduate school! YIKES!). So here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

The scalloped circle edge made me think of flowers once I had my two scalloped circles, one red, one yellow cut out. I used my Silhouette....DH will be proud I put it to good use today! I offset the two circles and then I thought I had a pretty fun flower. I made the center with more red and a circle stitched stamp from the Waltzingmouse Stamps set Faux Fun Circles. And what's a flower without a butterfly? So I pulled out Waltzingmouse Stamps Earth Angel to create my own pink and green butterfly and sentiment. :) It's a little bit of a stretch on the sketch, I'll admit, but it got me to think outside my nice square-card box!

Thanks for stopping by!

You're My Star

Following the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge, I created this fun little card with the star stamp from the Sewing Box Christmas set. The sentiment then comes from the Seasons of Love Tags set.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:

Paper - Georgia Pacific

Stamps - Sewing Box Christmas Star, Seasons of Love Tags Sentiment (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Ink - Colorbox

The Everglades Layout

(If you are looking for my Scrap Our Stash Christmas in July Blog Hop post, please visit here.)

Hot off my craft table is this layout about the recent trip we took to Florida and the Everglades. The photos lent themselves pretty easily to the sketch that I had in mind to use. That sketch was the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge WMSC6. I know, I know, these are card sketches, but after doing WMSC4 as a layout I wanted the added challenge to try and make the sketch a layout once again. Add on that making sure to use Waltzingmouse Stamps and it turns into a pretty good challenge! The perk, of course, is that I get more layouts completed, which my DH reminds me regularly on how behind I am.

So anyway, here's the sketch and color inspiration (As I must have had the last Friend of WMS blog hop on the brain cause I stuck to green and blue, which works for this week's Color Throwdown #102!) :

And here's my take:

I first drew my quarter circle on some scratch paper and then figured out how the photos were going to be placed. I knew I wanted the one big 4x6 and then went from there. These photos worked well because with different cropping aspects I could get interesting environment pictures (ie. the warning sign and the tram) and then smaller parts of a bigger picture could be easily cropped out and showcased (ie. the bird and alligator small pictures). I did cheat by gluing down all my photos on the green cardstock, cutting the perimeter of the arc, and then cutting and attaching strips of the remaining sheet to look like I had spaced out the photos perfectly for a grid-like feel. Do you like?

A busy photo collage means I wanted to go less so for the background. I used Waltzingmouse Stamps Off Beat Backgrounds for the grid and zig zag embellishment to my page. I'm thinking I might need to add in some Free Spirit stamps here soon cause my layouts tend to be more masculine than flowery anyway, but for now Off Beat Backgrounds is just the perfect set. I love how the stamps are big to cover a 12x12 with only two across and maybe about eight down! They are so big that I use my cutting mat from my cuttlebug right now as my block! It works!

So, another layout complete. This one was fun to make. Now maybe you'll consider to take on the WMSC challenge? As a layout?

 I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Challenges:
WMSC6
Color Throwdown #102

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Martha Stewart)
Stamps - Off Beat Backgrounds (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Ink (Colorbox, Studio G)
Embellishment - Thickers (American Crafts)

Christmas 2009

I was inspired to get a Christmas page done when I saw the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge. I think part of it was also my friend Belinda's little wreath on a window sample too. But anyway, here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

I went back to the first Waltzingmouse Stamps set that I purchased: Sewing Box Christmas with the little holly leaves. My craft desk was littered with the little leaves last night as I turned it into an assembly line of stamping, clear embossing, and cutting. It took until today to really set up the wreath on the paper how I wanted it (which including needing about three more leaves). I decided to add some dimension by popping up a leaf here and there. Buttons in pearl red completed the deal. And what's a wreath without some sort of bow, or in my case a star tag from the Seasons of Love - Tags set!

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Martha Stewart, Making Memories - Fa La La), Patterned (Making Memories - Fa La La)
Stamps - Holly Leaf (Waltzingmouse Stamps, Sewing Box Christmas), Star Tag (Waltzingmouse Stamps, Seasons of Love - Tags), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Pine Needes, Color Box - Black and Maroon, Ranger Watermark Resist), Embossing Powder (A La Mode)

Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #1 & CPS 170

Long time no post, right? I kinda took a break from my craft desk for a better part of a week to focus on some computer programming, you know, that thing that I went to school to do. With the release of RunMonster to the App Store, things have gotten a little more exciting around here as we try to answer user feedback and start hyping the app to new customers. We had one big break last week that gave many hits to the website and we now have more than 3500 downloads! Cool, huh? Of course, all good apps need to keep updating so there's always more work to be done!

But today after successfully moving my craft desk to our spare bedroom I had a little time to play. First off was to make sure to get an entry in for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #1. Claire and her design team kicked off a new challenge blog Saturday with the first sketch. As a big fan of WMS and sketches, this is right up my alley!

Here's the sketch:


Here's my take:

I decided to use Faux Fun Circles and Fancy Phrases for my card today. I am also very much into using my distress inks and pulled out my new Worn Lipstick color for the first time. I love how the color just fills in the background of the stamps with this technique! This was my first time using the Fancy Phrases stamps too and I am liking that many of them fit in that fancy little circle space. :)

Challenges:
* WMSC 1 (sketch)


And once I got going, I couldn't just stop at one card. I needed a graduation card here soon too, so that inspired the theme of my next card.

I used CPS 170:





Here's my take:

Keeping this card simple was the name of the game here. For one, it's for DH's cousin so I didn't think he'd appreciate girly elements. I did make it fun by being sure to use the school colors (Oregon State) though since he's in the band. As a band geek myself, I know school pride runs pretty high. I did take liberty in flipping the sketch vertically. The main focal point is a graduation sticker from a set I've had in my stash forever. So nice to use my stash!

Challenges:
* CPS 170 (sketch)

So I know things got a little long here, but thanks for sticking with me. I hope to get in a few more projects along with my coding to keep up the blog with fresh posts. I do enjoy this little blog of mine. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
(card 1)
Paper - Black Polka Dot (DCWV) & Stash (don't you love it when scraps can be used?)
Stamps - Waltzingmouse Stamps (Fancy Phrases and Faux Fun Circles), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick), Embossing Powder (A La Mode)
Embellishments - Ribbon (Michaels), Button (Stash), Dry Embossing (Cuttlebug Folder - Swirls)

(card 2)
Paper - Patterned (Basic Grey), Solids (DCWV)
Image - Graduation Sticker (Sandy Lion)
Embellishments - Border Punch (Fiskers)