Moxie Fab World - Textured to Perfection

The Moxie Fab World - Textured to Perfection challenge will be closing in about an hour.  This is about as close as I've ever cut it in submitting to a challenge but I had a "painty, messy good time" last night that was just itching to be made into a card.

Gobs of texture on this baby - lots of layers of paint, sprays, oil pastels, gel medium with glass beads, scribbling, etc.

Made a big mess on my table too - please note the most important ingredient for successful crafting - Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

I covered an entire watercolor sheet and planned to cut it into pieces for using in several projects.

More texture and finishing touches are added with a muse|studio supplies - the Harlequin/Woodgrain Impression Plate and the sentiment (Marvelous Marigolds) is stamped on a panel cut with a Labels die and enhanced with a black twinkle sticker.  BTW - I also like the texture added on the black layer panel - you too can have that shreddy look when you completely kill your cutting blade by slicing through textured watercolor paper with glass beads on it - 'doh!!

"M" Monogram - A thing that I love!!

If you've been around this blog much you know that I love the letter "M"!!  My good friend Kim knows that too.  Look at what she gave me today - 3 new beauties to add to my burgeoning collection!!  She picked these up when she was on vacation recently to Portland and Seattle.  YUP - I'm jealous too!!  Kim and I hadn't had a chance to get together in forever - today we went to Glendale, KY and visited lots of antique stores including this one - now you can be jealous of me too!

OLW69, LIM38, PDCC104 - No chatter thanks

Alas, I have no time for chatter but I do have a card to share.  The One Layer Challenges for Less is More and One Layer Wednesday were Polka Dots and Stripes.  How perfect is the PTI Vintage background stamp that incorporates both?! (all stamps are from Papertrey Ink).

The colors are from the current Play Date Cafe Challenge - it is their 2 year anniversary.  LOVE that blog - so many inspiring creations every week.

The bits of blings are from a muse|studio.

CARDS Challenge - Chevron

This week's challenge on the CARDS blog was to use Chevron.  If you haven't already noticed, Chevron is one of the hottest trends around.  Why do we love chevron so much - could it have something to do with that stripe of chevron on Charlie Brown's shirt?

When our older son Connor was small he had a rather large, round, bald head and Corey wanted to take his picture in a Charlie Brown shirt and I wouldn't let him do it - I wish I had cause it would be funny to me now but at the time I was insulted that he was poking fun at our son.

This chevron is made with a muse|studio Washi Tape and Tim Holtz Tissue Tape using this tutorial from Julie Campbell.  The flower is PTI felt and dies.  The sentiment, cardstock and texture are from a muse|studio and are available in my online shop.

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Finesse the Dress

It has been a while since I've gotten to play a Tuesday Trigger Challenge.  My cards tend to be a too literal translation of the trigger and my first tendency was to heat emboss silver flourishes on turquoise cardstock which would be very pretty but very typical of what I tend to do -

In the trigger picture the silver flouishes are a subtle touch on the skirt's background.  I recreated that look by stamping a pale plaid (Mad for Plaid) in the background that really set off the botanical (Beautiful Botanicals 2) image.  A little scalloping at the bottom, some satin ribbon and a few pearls and my version of the trigger was done -

All supplies used are available in my online a muse|studio shop.

Handmade fabric OWLS!!

Did you  miss me?  I haven't posted in more than a week!  That's a long time in my world - we've had lots of family in visiting so things have been super busy.  One of the people in was my cousin Selena who has a great love of all things "owl-y".  While we were out and about on Friday we saw an owl bookend at Books a Million which prompted the following conversation. . .

Selena (excitedly) - "OOooohh - I love that owl bookend!"
Me (nonchalantly) - "Betcha I could make something like that with stuff I have at home."
Selena (daringly) - "Go ahead - I dare ya"
Me - (nervously) - "YIKES - you are actually taking me up on my big crafting talk. . ."

Well - I did it!!  Made my own pattern which is a big deal since I do not sew much at all!!  In fact, I have to dig out my book everytime I need to thread the bobbin.  Selena used to be a consultant for Zag Bags and had lots of fabric samples (even a few leather pieces) that she gave me about a year ago that I've been hanging onto for the perfect project!

The top owl is Selena's - made in her favorite colors complete with a leather beak!  For mass production, I fashioned a paper template for the owls - their dimensions were dictated by the size of my fabric samples.  Since I had no fray stopping stuff (no clue what that stuff is called since I have none of it), I stitched around the wings and beaks before attaching them to the owls.

The eyes were cut from felt with my Nestabilities dies.  The other owls are for my nieces/nephew in Washington state.  All the owls were made over two evenings while visiting with our company.  In fact, there was a fifth "prototype" owl made from the most hideous samples that I had.  After gifting it to the dog, she promptly tore off the beak - how rude!!
I'm linking this post to Artists in Blogland - a new site (to me) of amazing inspiration!

CAS139 - Brown Orchids? yup. . .

This week's CAS challenge at Splitcoast Stampers is to make a card based on the picture below.  YUMMY = big cup of coffee and a frosted apple treat (don't know what that thing is but I do know that I wouldn't hesitate to eat it were the opportunity to afford itself - better watch out frosted apple scone thingie!).

Finally used my Papertrey Ink Gracious Vases stamp set - for fun each of the flowers has a little bling courtesy of either a Sakura Gelly Roll Sparkle or Glaze pen.  

Maybe in your world Orchids are white or pink but in my world they are a lovely shade of shiny brown!!   My MIL is coming for a visit later this week and she likes to write cards so this was a good opportunity to dig out my Basic Grey Curio paper pad and make a bunch of cards for her with that gorgeous patterned paper!!

This is an easy way to make several cards quickly and yet have each one be different and unique!  Just in case you were wondering the patterned paper strips are .75", .5", and 1.25" x 4.25" (mostly I am putting these measurements down so that I don't have to figure it out again the next time I want to make cards with this layout - I'm lazy that way)  The sentiments and dotted lines are from the a muse|studio Friend to Friend and Polka Dot Patterns stamp sets.

CIC9, LIM36 - Love you with all my hearts. . .

Time for another Less is More One Layer Challenge - this week is all about hearts!  In my pursuit of something a little different from the norm these hearts are stamped with

colors from the current Paper Crafts Color Inspiration Challenge - 9.  The a muse|studio Hearts a'Plenty was an obvious choice of stamp set for this card but then using Mini Alphabet allowed me to write my own sentiment (this is something that I say to my boys/hubby all the time).

 All supplies are available in my online a muse|studio shop!

Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile.  If you came here from Ashley Newell’s blog, then you are in the right spot.  If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s blog and take your time.   You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes!

Read here to learn more about Julie's story!!  A donation button can be found in the right sidebar of my blog and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2,500!

I couldn't think of a more appropriate sentiment for Julie than "SMILE" - I know she is feeling so supported this weekend from her friends in the crafting community!  I used products from a muse|studio for my card.  Want to know how to make that stamped flourish??!!

LOOKIE!!  First ink up one of the stamps from Vintage Labels and then add a flourish at each end from Ornate Elements!!  So simple - don't even need to use a stamp positioner.  I was quite tickled when I stamped this the first time - ran around the house showing my husband and sons and they, sadly, were not as impressed as I had hoped for but what do you expect from males?

To add an interesting end to my stamped flourish I cut it with one of the Nestabilities Labels 1 dies.  Use the layout/sandwich pictured above and you can cut just the end of your stamped panel no matter how long it may be!

Texture was added to the Toffee cardstock with the Woodgrain/Harlequin Impression plate and then the card was finished with a paper doily (found in the baking section of most stores), French Roast Twill Ribbon and a Butterfly diecut from gingham paper adorned with Chocolate Pearls.  The selection of gorgeous rich colors was inspired by this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger - Treat Yourself! challenge.

Items used in this card are available in my a muse|studio online shop!

I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop!  The next stop is Laura Williams’s blog.  Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend!

Embellish Circles Trends Challenge

It is so nice to be back on the blog again.  I've had a super busy last two weeks with little/no time for crafting so when I got home from work this afternoon it was play time!  This card is for the current Embellish magazine challenge -

CIRCLES.  Watercolor markers made the background using the technique seen here.  The circle was cut with a Nestabilities die and popped up on white cardstock that had the same size circle cut out.  TIP - have the circle/cardstock nested together when you stamp your image - then you'll only have to stamp one time and you are guaranteed to have your images line up!!

Buttons threaded with skinny strips of paper add additional circles and the "weed" (a muse|studio Beautiful Botanicals 2) has stylized circles too.

All supplies used on this card are available in my online shop - 

LIM35 - The Colour of Your Eyes

Did you know that today is World Card Making Day??!!  WHOO HOO!  A day devoted to cardmaking makes my heart go pitter patter.  This card is for the Less is More challenge to make a CAS card featuring the color of your eyes.  Mine are blue but they look different shades when I wear different clothes so a card featuring several pigments of blue works for me.  The stamps, paper, washi tape and embellishment are all from amuse|studio.  Have fun looking at all of today's creations out in blogland - I know I am!!