Sympathy

Sympathy cards are the most difficult to make. At least that is how I feel. They can't be too bright and sunny, there is no celebration. It can't be too dark and dreary. Can't be too cute, can't be funny. I suppose it could be all of those things, but it doesn't seem appropriate all the time to everyone. So when I see one done that I like, I have to KopyKat, just gotta do it. lol.

I found this card on SCS. Loved it! I was so bummed to know the designer paper was retired from SU and that I would have to find an equal substitution. But guess what? As I was sorting through some hoarded paper, guess what I found? Yes! Urban Gardens! And lots of it. lol. It pays to go through my paper once in a while just to get the inventory back into my frontal lobes, lol.

dsp: urban gardens (sadly retired)

paper: night of navy, white

ink: baja breeze, kiwi kiss

stamps: Inspired by nature, Thoughts and Prayers

ribbon: seam binding, see previous post.

I see seam binding, it's everywhere

Have you seen this seam binding ribbon everywhere lately? Me too! I love it and instead of buying all kinds of colors, I decided to set out to make my own. With some help from my SCS friends and my local "go to guru", I was able to make my own wrinkle ribbon. Here is a picture of what I used.

One non-stick craft sheet, (compliments of my local guru.) "hug snug" seam binding, recommended by this wonderful gal who took the time to send me a personal message and let me know the brand and where to get it (ebay aka e-crack lol.) I used baja breeze reinker and yes, Aussie sprunch spray was on sale (there is cheaper liquid hairspray out there, but I like the smell) and one mini mister.

I simply put 5-6 drops of reinker in my mister, poured in the hair spray and shook it good. cut my seam binding ribbon, rinsed it with water, scrunched it up to ring it out and layed it on the craft sheet and sprayed away. I would add more drops for a darker color, less for lighter. And then I let it dry. I do lift up the ribbon and wipe away excess ink and if I move it around a bit while it's drying, I feel like it's drying faster, lol. Not all the binding is colored, some area's are still "off white." I imagine if I did not rinse it with water it would not wrinkle so much, lol. But where is the fun in that? I added a pic of my score tape because it loves this seam binding and that is what I used to adhere to my card. Works well!!!

I would love to hear more tips on how you make your own seam binding ribbon or wrinkle ribbon, please share!!!

Elements of style; pink and black

I made this over the weekend as well, this is from the SU elements of style. I had seen so many of these cards made, that I finally found the one I wanted to KopyKat and I lost the blog page.... grrrr. I think this is close enough, but now there were so many cards that inspired me I could not begin to link them all. lol. Suffice to say, I had a lot of help here. I'm still not crazy about this, I think I might take out the glue pen and add some glittery bling to it. lol.

Artistic Etchings and Love letter dsp

I made this card over the weekend for my mother. My husband says it's very "breakfast at Tiffany's." That sounds good to me. lol. I saw this card and changed it up a little. Different companies, same basic image and the dsp is close. I liked this one, and it was fun and easy to make. I picked up this ribbon at the local crafty store the other day and had no idea what I would do with it, but I knew I'd do something. lol.

newest member of the family

This is our new puppy, Kraken Up. He is a six weeks old cocker spaniel. My oldest son wanted "us" to have him. lol. He's coming over during the day to babysit. lol. He loves this little guy. He called me before they were born and asked me if I wanted one. Then he went to go see it all the time after it was born and bought it a collar and named it. lol. My youngest son is in love too! This is my old work bag with broken handles and all, just sitting in the corner waiting for me to unload it and throw it out. And now it has become the worlds largest chew toy for this little tiny puppy.

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Queen For The Day #24

Over on SCS, Anne Ryan has this challenge once a week (of course I am always late) called Queen For The Day (QFTD). Peggy-Sue is the Queen this week and while I had intended to make a card this weekend, I did not intend to stay up til midnight last night making it. lol. I couldn't help myself! This is Peggy-Sue's card I chose to honor. I absolutely love these pure innocence collection gals.

I changed my card just a wee bit. I added Kitties Kits master for some greenery (One of my all time favorite stamp sets). I used a different spellbinders nesties die ( for the cut out shape) and paper pierced the dress with sending love specialty dsp. I used copic markers for the skin and then watercolored and stamped the rest: chocolate chip, pretty in pink, real red, certainly celery. added some ribbon and a bow (used my bow easy), and a brad on top. Oh and I used tiny dots embossing folder on the background paper.

DISCUSSION:

The brad. I really did try to pry a hole in the ribbon to stick the brad in last night. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep driving away my common sense or if it was because this was my first time placing a brad on top of ribbon. lol. Has this ever happened to you? What is your method for adding a brad on top of the bow? Thank God common sense did finally kick in and I was like, "oh, duh!" So I grabbed my Tim Holtz red top scissors and cut the prongs off the brad, and used score tape (super sticky tape) to adhere it to the top.....right where I pried the hole. lol.

My Favorite Things Floral Fantacy Challenge Card

Oh the hour is late, lol, I had to stay up and make this card though, you know the priorities of a stamper. I came across a card on Splitcoaststampers (SCS) and read about the My Favorite things challenge this week. Floral Fantacy, just add flowers to any of their images. Well, the first thing I thought of were these chiffon flowers I just love making now. The tutorial can be seen on pricillasyles blog. They are super easy to make. I used the polyester cream colored chiffon and placed the pieces directly over the ink pad and sponged on top of that to color the chiffon. I left some of the cream color showing. I also added some diamonds glimmer mist for a bit of soft sparkle here and there. I do not use a lighter as this gets hot, especially with the small pieces, I just light a candle and work with it from there.

I just got this cute little gal last month when she was released, just could not wait to get my hands on her. She reminds me so much of my daughter when she was younger and so it's fun to be able to dress her up all over again. The set is called, "are we there yet."

I used my copic markers on her skin and glasses, I have a limited supply of these so I can't get too crazy with the coloring. I watercolored in the rest and paper pierced her little shirt. The designer paper is "love letter" from SU. LOVE this paper and am so glad I bought the whole package. And I am proud that I did not hoard this away, I actually just got it now long ago and opened it....whooo hooooo, getting better. Oh and I ran the ribbon through the ink pad to make it black and matchy.

Hope you like it and have a very crafty day.

Change

How do you feel about change? Change is going to happen, I know, but I resist it all the time. I am reminded again when I went to make this card. All the retired inkpads are still in there respective places and the new ones are stacked up at the bottom. I had to open the cellophane on two of these colors I used, and I've had them for a few weeks now. lol. And I really do like the new colors, but change comes slowly for me. Jeep had to write five sentences that would explain "him". One sentence was, "I keep an open mind." What a great kid huh? Jeep is open to change and excited about it. His mother, not so much. lol.

Do you hoard your designer paper away? Thinking you might use it later for a really super special project? And then you hate to break it out just to make one card? I do this all the time. Especially if it's going to retire or I know it's hard to come by. That is why I love, love, love Jamie's dsp shares. I get them in the mail cut in 6X6 pieces and since they are already cut, I tend to use them more often than the 12X12 packs I buy. Isn't that silly!

I saw this card on SCS and had to try out the new specialty papers that I got in one of Jamie's dsp shares. I sponged on pear pizzazz and baja breeze and loved the results. I used the Artistic Etchings from S.U. and a stampabilities Le London that was handy. I also used ribbon from one of Jamie's ribbon shares. Along with an EK success border punch. What I am most excited about is the chiffon flower I made. The tutorial is on pricillastyles.com under her August 17th 2009 blog post. I spray the chiffon with Glimmer mist - coffee shop and decided it was too light, so then I laid the peices on the inkpad of Early Espresso and used a sponge to bring in the dark color. YUMMY. This picture does not show all the pretty dementions of the flower, but IRL it's beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sewing Machine

The temporary picture is a card I made for my mom that is still sitting on my desk....YIKES!!! Joe bought me a mini sewing machine for mother's day and we finally took it out of the box in late July and found a "home" for it. He had it all threaded and ready to go for me. So when I sat down to make this card, my intentions were to use that sewing machine and start stitching on a lot of my cards. I used the practise material and it worked like a charm. Then I sewed up one side of paper and halfway down the other and it knotted up. So very carefully I pulled slowly, cut the knot, rethreaded the machine and it refused to work from that point on. It was like it knew I was inexperienced and just refused to go on. lol.

Luckily I have some "stitching image" stamps and was able to use those. lol. I found this card on splitcoaststampers here. I changed things up a little, but just loved this idea.

Ingredients:

stamps: Unity Stuck on You, Hemlines by Paper Salon

designer paper: October Afternoon, PTI poppy, SU kraft

I used brads, buttons, and twine.

This was a lot of fun, even though the machine broke. A friend of mine suggested I buy a used machine from a local guy who does sewing machine repairs. I called him and told him what happened and he laughed, he said his refurbished are guarenteed for 3 years. So when we get ready to go down and get one, that's where we plan to buy one. lol.

Queen for the Day 23 Challenge

Over on splitcoast stampers, Anne Russell has a Queen for the Day challenge in which we are to go through the selected queens gallery and chose a card to case. This is a friday challenge in which I extend all week til I have time to make the card....lol. This weeks Queen is Heather who has an amazing gallery, this is her card I chose HERE. Love these colors together!

The image is the same freebie from birdcards.com. I did not have the Rockability designer paper she used, but I did have some my minds eye and bella rose, so these were close. I used very vanilla cardstock because the MME is more of a cream than a white in the dots. I also used some spellbinders flower plates and my new Die-Namics trim from My favorite things. I watercolored the flowers with Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Old Olive - all SU colors. Added some making memories brads to the flowers and used my bow easy with some cream colored organdy ribbon that I got from Mikes (michaels). Oh and of course black cardstock.

Thanks for looking and I love reading replies......hint hint hint.....

Oh and I asked my Hottie to put a counter on my blog so I would know how many people are viewing, he added that yesterday....yipppeeee. This blogging is so exciting!

Soccer Season Begins, game one 9'ers vs. Sharks

Soccer season officially began on saturday and it was our first game. 9er's vs. Sharks. But what a surprise to see Jeep's best friend Luke on the opposing team! OMG!!! Jeep was just as happy to see him and when I asked him how he felt about having Luke on the other team, he said, "Oh, it's fine, just a little friendly competition." They do not keep score at this age, but let's just say, Lukes team won. lol. The part that Jeep sat out he was cheering very loudly and then added, "See what you can do when you put your mind to it?!" lol. Of course we had to have a little talk about that. lol.

He had fun and told us how happy he is that he is playing soccer this year. His coach is very familiar with the rules about soccer and he is a teacher for 6th graders. So he is really good with them and they have that "I want to please my coach" attitude already, so we are in for a good year.

Jeep's in red and that's Luke in the blue, they are both #7 this year.

Jeep Art

Jeep has been telling me for over a year now how much he wanted to go to color-me-mine. A place where kids can go paint ceramics. Lucky for him, this was one of his summer daycare's field trips this year and he made this beautiful plate. He walked in with his plate in hand and I was telling him how I would get a plate hanger and hang it on the wall. "No, I'm going to eat off this plate", was his reply. He is too funny. Of course he has been eating off this plate now for every meal. Gotta keep it all washed up and ready for the next meal. lol.

He painted an "earthbender" on his plate. He has always been unique and done his own thing. His first grade teacher, Mrs. Hager, told me a story in one of our parent teacher confrences. She said they studied spiders and when it came time to quiz them she asked the class, "black widow spiders are?" She said all the kids raised their hands and had the typical and usual answers and then she called on Jeep and he said, "blood thirsty." And she said he put a lot of thought into his answer and knew what he was going to say. She said Jeep would be one of her students to watch, he is so smart. And he is so darn smart, we do have our work cut out for us.

First Day of Second Grade

Oh I don't know if I'll ever get used to Jeep going to school. You would think by now I would be but it always feels like he is off on his own in the big world. Joe and I saw him into his class room today. Mrs. Pensinger came highly recommended and he is in her class.....as well as his best friend Luke. Oh my, there could be trouble!!! lol. So onward and forward to a new school year, a changing of the seasons (we hope soon) and more learn, learn, learn.

RRR6

This is my card submission to the really reasonable ribbon challenge 6. Aloha card using ribbon, lace or trim. I really hope the hemp twine counts as trim. lol.

This was also for Anne Russell's challenge QFTD22 in which we were to case Cindy. Cindy has so many wonderful cards in her gallery, she has this teapot theme and she makes her cards based on the cutest teapots. This (link) is the card I cased from Cindy's gallery. And I also used this (link) card for inspiration. The knot tutorial can be found here (link) . Whewww, sometimes it's a lot of work to be a KopyKat! lol.

Speaking of Ribbon.....

Speaking of ribbon, have you seen Jamie's Blog? She is offering a ribbon share with the new in color ribbon from Stampin Up, hop on over check it out. I love Jamie's "shares." She offers shares in designer series paper and ribbon, and this year's new catty is filled with so many yummy new things, she has divided the shares up over a few months so everyone can afford to buy the shares. I love getting a yard of each of the colors, if I want more, I would buy two shares. lol. Mostly, I use a lot of different types and colors of ribbon, but never get too attached to just one type or one color, so this is right up my alley.

Really Reasonable Ribbons

Do you see the badge for Really Reasonable Ribbons on the right? To go to their website blog all you have to do is click on it. Don't be too impressed, Joe did this for me too! lol.

So Here is the story of the beginning or birth of a new blog and I promise it will all tie in together. I had a G-mail account set up so I could send pictures in an email from Piccassa, our photo editing program. I have had that for a number of years. As I was drooling over cards on SCS, I notice some of the gals had their own blogs and I would click on them and see all kinds of wonderful things and wished I had a blog of my own.

One day on my vacation last month, I went to the really reasonable ribbon blog to check out the details on a card. They were having a ribbon blog hop and they would pick one winner who left comments along the way. So I went blog hopping. Mostly to see what others had made, but what the heck, I could leave comments and let them know how much I loved their ideas and really great cards.

A week later I was checking my emails (oh yeah, I so subscribe to these most excellent blogs) and noticed one from really reasonable ribbon that read, "congradulations to Holly, you are the winner of our blog hop" and asking me to respond within 48 hours. So off I went to respond. BUT, two Holly's step forward to claim this blog candy. So how to prove I am the Holly that responded.....hmmmmmm? Another email, "The real Holly has a blog that hasn't been set up yet, if they could open up a setting so I can see the email addy...." Okay, so more poking around G-mail and I found out, "hey I really do have a blog with this account!!!" So then I had to wait for Joe to come home and we went through it a bit, decided to name it and I emailed her back. Next email, "The real Holly has just named her blog, if she could email me the name, I would know who the winner is...." KopyKat Creations won me this most excellent ribbon. And thanks to these circumstances, I now have a blog. And I just love this. lol. So here is a picture of the ribbon I won and many thanks to Really Reasonable Ribbon for the blog candy, the growing lessons and experience.

Party This Way

And last but not least, we made this final card from the Party This Way set. Great bright colors and I loved Rhonda's great card design. One of my fellow stampers had to show me a trick to thread that ribbon in the button, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities. lol. I love going to Club night to learn new tricks, play with new stuff and chat about all the great things out there to create with.

One of my favorite fellow Case Managers was able to join us tonight. We don't work for the same company, but I love running into Delpha at work. She is always so happy and has the best stories to share. I was very excited to learn that she also loves scrapping. So it was kind of like a party last night.

SU Club Night

I loved this card we made last night as well, the stamp set is called, Charming, and the crisscross paper is from the Presto Patterns specialty paper - all you need to do is add ink and you have any color designer paper (dsp) you want. How great is that!? LOVE IT!!!

SU Club night

Last night was our SU Club night. We went over to Rhonda's and she had the best design ideas for us, great coffee, and lots and lots of great tips and advise. I had a great time. We used the new set, Morning Cup, for this cute little teabag holder, which I just loved making. The background embossing is with one of the folders called, Vintage Wallpaper. I've seen this used on a few cards and it really adds so much to the cards. Of course I had to order these both! lol.

card reciepe: Morning Cup, Elegant Soiree, crumbcake, baja breeze, scallop punch, modern label punch, watercoloring with baja breeze, soft suede, crumbcake, basic grey.

Famous Feline (yep, another one)

Famous Feline (yep, another one)
Just found this on Ellen's blog, I love the Cat in the Hat! Oh I feel another KopyKat coming on!

A Dozen

Okay, first posting to the new blog. Joe will be so happy I did this. lol. I made 12 of these cards for my SU club meeting tomarrow night. I am not sure why I got so ambitious, but it was fun. Lots of punches, lots of sponging, tons of glueing. Oh you know I used a glue stick. lol. Never got over the facination of a glue stick from when my older two were in Kindergarden. And of course this was a KopyKat from a couple cards I saw on SCS, but mostly this back of babe creation belongs to Ellen, here is her blog: http://blinkthinkink.blogspot.com/ I know, one of these days I'm going to learn how to hyperlink in a "word". lol. Oh the tricks I need to learn. Do you like this blog design Joe set up for me? I love it!!!

For back of babe punches used, please see Ellen's blog, in addition I used:
Stamps: Tropical Party and Cheers by Stampin' Up
DSP: Island Oasis
Ink: SU tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, so saffron, rose red and old olive

If you like this, please leave me some love.
Hope you have a crafty day

Jeep gets a green belt

His instructor is a little unconventional.

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