Not a Card

I made these because a couple of my friends were participating in a swap hosted by artrageousafternoon. I did not participate in the swap but decided to give them a whirl.

I really need to make a light box. Believe it or not the background is a piece of white poster board. Looks blue to me!

I got a little carried away with the glitter on the second one but hey-it is an evening ensemble. These were fun to make-like playing paper dolls. I loved paper dolls as a kid. The summer I was 6 & 7 (my b-day is in July) my mom decided to go back to college so we went to stay with my grandmother. My grandmother lived near the college my mom had last attended. My cousin (who was about my age) and her mom lived there also. This was in the country and there were lots of mosquitoes outside so we mostly played inside. We decided to make our own paper dolls & clothes. We even made a "house" using photos from the Sears catalog and strips of paper to map out the rooms in our mansion.
I guess the theme here is to have fun creating
something like you did when you were a kid and had an afternoon to waste or a summer.

These Are a Few of my Favorite Things. . .

Look a card with all my favorite things!! Glitter, pink, Kiwi Kiss, rhinestones, kiwi kiss satin ribbon, and the new Raspberry Tart paper from SU! The only thing missing is chocolate! The stamp set is from the new SU catalog and is called Petal Pizazz.

I made this card for a new cool blog called CardPatterns. Every Saturday they post a new card sketch and you can enter a drawing to be the guest designer. Marie (From Combat Boots to Rubber Stamping) is on their design team. I don't know about you but I definitely find myself using the same layout over and over again. I am not always good at playing along with challenges because I can't remember all the rules (and besides that I like to make my own rules-I am a first born you know!!) or I don't have the equipment etc. But a sketch gives you a place to start and maybe a different approach. So here is my take on Sketch #2 at CardPatterns!

My 2nd Canvas Attempt

Look I have overcome my canvasphobia and have made another canvas! This one is only 6 x 6" so it was not so intimidating. I am not much of a collager (is that a word? Spell check is underlining it so I guess not!) but I can make cards and scrapbook pages. To over come my "fear" of making a canvas I decided to pretend this was a 6 x 6 card or scrapbook page and then it was easy as pie to make. These are basically the colors in my living room couch so I can actually hang this up in my living room. The corners are a new sizzlet die I got from the you-know-where online auction. The paper is from the SU retired Hostess print pack. The flower is also a sizzlet die cut layered on a piece of twill ribbon that I frayed. The butterfly is colored using SU watercolor crayons and the body of the butterfly is many, many layers of black EP. The antenae of the butterfly is some floral stamens that my friend Trisha gave me.

Now that I am over my fear and actually using my stash of canvases instead of hoarding them, I think I need to make 2 more of these to hang in a group on my wall. It also helps if you drink lots of coffee and eat lots of chocolate.

Rock Star!

The first thing I made on this card was the embossed star. I am trying to use what I own and not just collect stuff so I wanted to use some of the large collection of chipboard I have. The rock star stamp is from the level 2 hostess set A Little Somethin'. I embossed it with black EP, inked the edges with old olive craft and added some faux stitching with the wonderful white gel pen. Then I was stuck!!! I tried every color of paper and ugh!! Finally, I got out my really rust paper which I hardly every use and thought okay this is a start. The piece of black & old olive paper and the spool of silver elastic cord were just lying on my table so I didn't have to cut anything or get out of my chair (well I did cut the elastic cord but I didn't have to measure it). In retrospect I should have wrapped the silver cord 6 times to look like guitar strings but just pretend a couple of strings broke!

The bottom photo makes me want to stand on my head for some reason but if I flip the photo the words are upside down or sideways. Have to go now getting dizzy!!!

I am loving my Big Shot!! These flowers are made with the SU exclusive sizzlets Birds & Blooms. I even cut the leaves with the Big Shot!! The only stamping on this card is the sentiment which is from the Upsy Daisy stamp set.

This is the card I made for a SAB swap. The paper is from the DSP (Designer Series Paper) that is one of the choices in the SAB brochure that is FREE with a $50 purchase. The so saffron ribbon is part of the ribbon bundle that is also FREE with a $50 purchase. The ribbon bundle includes some certainly celery polytwill also. The flowers have dazzling diamonds glitter on them.

I like the colors in this paper pack. I must admit that because of this paper I purchased my first pack of sahara sand and while it is not as wonderful as river rock (retired) or kraft, I do like it as a neutral. It almost looks like a shade of gray.

If anyone asks me my favorite color I always say pink but I do love all shades of blue. This card uses bordering blue, night of navy and pacific point. This card was inspired by a card on Fat Cat Stamper. The stamp is from the Sale-A-Bration set Polka Dot Punches. I keep grabbing the same set over and over again. I could lie and say it was because I am trying to show how versatile SU stamp sets are but the truth is I am just too lazy to get up and walk over to my stash of stamp sets!!!

The hearts are embossed with silver EP with a flower brad in the middle. I paper pieced around the edges and used my zig painty pen to edge around the night of navy layer. The ribbon is SU white taffeta. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations.

My sizzlets I purchased in an auction from you-know-where just came in the mail today and I really want to go play with them. They were such a great deal that I couldn't resist. So off to play with my
Big Shot and then to the movies to see
Pink Panther 2

Yeah!! Looky the photo I wanted posted first is posted (insert drum roll sound effect here) FIRST!!! Now let's see if I can do it again tomorrow!!

Anyway, I made another Valentine. I have seen this color combo of riding hood red and kraft on several cards lately (sorry I can't always remember where-so if it was you feel free to say so in the comments). The heart stamp is from the SAB set Polka Dot Punches and the sentiment is from a retired hostess set. Both were embossed with gold EP and cut out. I colored the heart on the sentiment with a gold paint pen and edged the cardstock with it also. The ribbon is that fabulous riding hood red taffeta (I am on my second roll). I think I might actually give this one to my DH. And yes I can post it here because he never reads my blog, never has read my blog and probably never will read my blog! Now if I included football or bowling news he might just read it.

You would think that with all the time I spend on the computer and as long as I have been posting photos on the web that I could figure out how to make my photos post in the order I want!!!! GRRRRRR!!
I am telling you blogspot has a mind of its own!! I wanted the photo of the full card to post first-okay maybe I just keep forgetting to put them in the correct order when I upload them. Perhaps I should write myself a note for the next time. . .

This is a Valentine card made without pink or red! This card is made with stamps from two different stamp sets, a hostess set called A Little Somethin' and a Sale-A-Bration set called Polka Dot Punches. Both sets are great because the images coordinate with SU punches. The front of the card is vellum, the heart images are embossed with black embossing powder. The black scalloped border is hiding where I attached the vellum to the kiwi kiss card base using double stick tape. The kiwi kiss heart in the middle was embossed with black EP and mounted with dimensionals. The ribbon is that luscious kiwi kiss/very vanilla satin ribbon! I wish we had more colors!!

Now see the corner folded over on the right? Wanna know why that is there? Because I smeared one of the embossed hearts and had to cover it up!! Remember penicillin was an experiment gone wrong!!!