Thursday, July 30, 2009

Circle Baby

Still doing some shameless SPICE'ing of Sarah Small's work in Paper Creations Summer '09.

This time I used the solid blue from the DCWV mat pack behind the printed circles. The baby from Baby First's (SU) was colored with Tombow 451. Not a perfect match, but close enough! The scalloped circle has little dots done with the Signo white gel pen.

I also did the same embossing along the edges- which you still can't see in photos, lol. I added a ribbon just for fun, but like Sarah did, these cards can definitely stand alone!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A Train of Animals!


AARRGGGHHHH! More babies than I can count born over the past 4 days, and I ran out of cards!! Today I have a meeting, and will take 2 grandchildren to the free movie (Star Wars) this morning, but hopefully the DH will take charge of them after that and give me some card time.
This card uses the Baby Safari paper from Beverly at Precious Scraps. She, like everyone else in the world except for me is at CHA, so she can't fill any orders at the moment but email her and tell her what you want her to buy!
The stamp is Great Impressions, and matches many of the animal prints out there right now. It's a breeze to color, I used Prisma markers. I love the baby ribbons at Micheal's, but since they are single sided, you have to get clever with the ribbon, lol! The base cs is Pink Pirouette, and the satin ribbon and button are Papertrey Sweet blush.
Hope it's nice and cool where you are~ it isn't here, but since I thought winter was ready to start last week, this is ok!!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

July Papertrey Blog Hop!



I think you'll perhaps need to enlarge the photo to see the background text and the embossing on the right edge.



The text paper is from the Chocolate Mix, of course. Spring Rain cs was put through the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. The embossing along the right edge of the Chocolate paper was done with the new little Scor-Pal thingy- that's the first time I played with it!

Butterflies in the Chocolate paper were colored with a B21 Copic, and one was cut out for the sentiment layer. Spring Rain Twill ribbon finishes it off!

So, when I see my own cards, and knowing that I have to conserve $ and layers and embellies, my cards have much more of a flat look to them than others- what's up with that?? Eye of the beholder? Not enough color variation? It's true when I sit down I can't afford time wise to spend too much time per card, so maybe that's it? Maybe the photographs just make them look much more one dimensional than they really are!

Friday, July 24, 2009

A Blue Train

I used SU's new baby set, Train & Teddy- or was that Teddy and Train??- for this pretty clean and simple card. You probably can't see it, but there is an embossed line under the train, grounding it. The train is colored with SU markers. Now that I see it, next time I will color a gray line around it to help 'set' it on the paper. The sentiment is my fav, savvy stamps 'just arrived'. It is sponged with SU's Bashful blue, which matches papertrey's Spring Rain Dotted Swiss ribbon perfectly!

The girl babies have caught up with the boy babies finally at work, so now I can start making just as many girl cards as boy, lol! Phew!! I do think I will make the train into a girl card next, though!




Thursday, July 23, 2009

New Thread!

ETA: The racks that the individual baby stamps are sitting and leaning back on are spice racks. They are three levels, I think you are supposed to put them in a cabinet and stand spice bottles on them so they are stepped up and you can see the back row. I got these in Marshall's for about $6.00 each, but they are a pretty standaard item in a kitchen store, I think. The red metal long bins hold individual baby sentiments, I got those at Target in the kitchen section. Hope that helps!

Over on Papertrey, I mean! There is a new thread to put links of photos of your 'space'~ and I just love photos of creative 'space'! So I thought today I would show just a bit of my favorite spot- The top picture is behind my chair. I'm in the attic, with unfinished walls, but at least I have 2 windows! Still, it's in the trees, and pretty dark. I think the space is about 8 x 10, so not as big as some. All of the paper is reachable when I turn my chair around.

The PTI paper, and some of SU's Soft Subtles, are in the Fellowes literature cubes turned on their sides. Can you see the little papers on the cube at the end of the cart? Those are PTI, Basic Gray and Memory Box 6 x 6 papers. There are cubes to my left when I sit at the table, where the SU 12 x 12 colors and designer papers are housed. Sitting on top are the PTI, 8 x 8's. So, all the paper I can need is at my elbows!




The Cropper Hopper cart holds the rest of SU's paper, all 8 1/2 x 11.

Alex asked about a comparison between Papertrey's Enchanted Evening and SU's Night of Navy~ here you go! Very different! The NON is bluer and darker than the Enchanted Evening, EE has a bit of Teal in it. Of course, all this is dependant on your monitor, the light of the day, and the day of the week, of course!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Free and Easy Baby Card

Ok, true confession coming. Some times it gets hard to crank out baby cards. Shh...don't tell anyone! I have to make 10 baby cards per week, which means 2 per day on the days I don't sleep. In addition, I am late getting this fall's sweater done, and yesterday I spent a guilt-ridden afternoon playing games on line.

So when the opportunity comes to get a 'free' baby card, I take it! A friend was cleaning out her stamp things, and gave away a collection of ATC's she got in a SCS swap. In that set of ATC's was the top layer of this card- I just had to replicate the ATC a bit, and Voila! Done! Sweet!

The ATC was made by Jennifer Collins, or colton95 on SCS. It was done with So Saffron and Certainly Celery. I think it was embossed with one of SU's brass Embossing plates, but my back layer was done with a Sizzix embossing folder. I can't tell you where the big foot came from, but I assume a SU set from a few years back- The printed paper is Certainly Celery DP, of course!

If you are Jennifer, thanks so much!!


Sunday, July 19, 2009

Enchanted Evening




By golly, don't you just love Papertrey packages in the mail? I do! Ok, I love any packages in the mail that have paper and buttons and ribbons, lol! I love matchy, matchy! There is a range of blue colors in the buttons, and I have lots of papers that they will match. The saddle stitched ribbon is a perfect match, the others are a wee bit more teal, but will look beautiful!

When I got up yesterday afternoon, there was the July release in the mail- but I couldn't play until I got up this afternoon. Now I have 4 nights off in a row, so I have plenty of time to get some things made with it!


I know, the colors aren't just right, but I thought I'd show a comparison with some of the SU blues. Left to right: Brilliant Blue, Taken With Teal, Ballet Blue, and PTI's Enchanted Evening. Enchanted Evening will be great as a dark blue for baby boy cards, but I can't wait to start Christmas cards with silver and gold!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Little Baby Big Love!

1 am here, and headed out to work. 0130 is such an odd time to start a shift!

Paper is SU's Pretty in Pink, the punched (Fiskars Apron Lace) border is done in Pixie Pink. the satamp is a Hopper, of course, and I'll edit later to give you the maker of the sentiment. Image was watercolored with SU's crayons.

Hmm, seen in the photo is looks a little 'unfinished', but in hand it is just perfect!

In the past 5 days I have taken 18 cards to the hospital, most of them unphotographed, sigh... so much for time management! I hope I can remember them to do again and show you, lol!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

July Papertrey Guest Star Stamper

For Papertrey's July GSS entry, I decided to use Vintage Picnic. I think I should have used it in a more original way, but I dew a bit of a blank at thinking of 3-D or home decor items. So, I did a pretty traditional basket, but filled it with Savvy Stamps flowers- they are the cutest things, and come in 2 sizes; this size and a bit smaller. The sentiment is from Vintage Picnic Sentiments. Paper colors are Scarlet Jewel and Spring Moss- I just can't wait until Christmas card time, lol!


Here's a close up of the flowers~



Hope you enjoy the evening of release fun and midnight ordering!




Monday, July 13, 2009

Baby Bug


Sometimes I even stun myself with cuteness!
This one has been waiting to happen since I got the Heidi Grace paper. It's one of the flocked series (they did blue and pink), but I cut off the actual name of the paper, sorry! I got mine in AC Moore, and they still have it last time I went.
The little baby bug is from a CTMH set, D1248, Flower Child. I think I recall seeing a hostess set in the new SU catalog that has baby bugs as well. Gee whiz, as I might even recall that hostess set is on it's way to me right now- tee hee! Glad I have a big piece of this paper left! Anyway, I water colored the baby bug using SU's Earth Elements Watercolor crayons. The pinks in that set match the paper the best!
I hand cut the leaf from a piece of Baby Safari girl from Beverly at Precious Scraps, then colored over it with green Prisma markers. The ribbons were left overs from my pail, I can only tell you they are not SU or PTI. I tied the little knots separately, then put them on with glue dots. The sentiment is my fav from Savvy Stamps, of course, and cut with a Spellbinders die. Brads are the ink ones from the SU Soft Subtles set.
Well, that's all from me today! It's a beautiful day out there, and we are going to the beach for the first time this summer! Woo Hoo!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

CHA and Washday

So, the DH takes the car and heads off to Colorado- with me staying home to work. He got 24 + hours into the trip, west of St. Louis, and the 'head' blew up. Now, I don't know much about car engines, but he was given three options- rebuild just the head and hope everything else is ok (like the pistons), buy a used engine, or buy a new car. The latter was my pick, but I lost. He went for the cheapest, get the head rebuilt. Sadly, that's a 10 day process. so he sits in St. Louis, dropped out of the Hardrock 100 uktramarathon, is watching Lance on the Tour on TV, and emailing home when he can get computer time.

I think we just spent the CHA money on the car... and I was going to drive it to New Jersey to get my mom and get on the train down there... I think I won't feel like I can trust the car... and I know that on midnight of the 14th I'll end up buying all of the July releases from Papertrey anyway... sigh. The girl has no restraint.

Ok, onto today's baby card!




I'm still trying to reorganize a little bit in the stamp room, and came across a stash of SU's Washday wheel images I have never colored. My 3 yo grandson was at the table snipping up little pieces of paper, so I grabbed one of the images and colored quickly. Didn't turn out too bad for the lack of attention, lol, so it became a card!

That's a dark green Bazzil paper, with the fold on the left side. A dp from SU's Tea Party is layered, and pieced on the sentiment box from SU's Cute & Cuddly. 2 different Bashful Blue ribbons form a layer under the image, and 3 Kiwi Kiss corduroy buttons with the brad part snapped off are glued on with glue dots.


I punched out the sentiment with the SU scallop square, which left a little white area around the box- so rather than cut it close with scissors and mounting it on a layer, I just took the Bashful Blue SU marker and colored in the white edge! It's mounted to the Washday image with adhesive, but has a dimensional under the bottom edge to keep it level.

So enjoy yourselves in Orlando, and post lots of pictures to your blogs!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Happy New Baby


I used a layout from the Spring-Summer 09 SU catalog. Stamps are from Bitty Baby Blessings (of course, you knew that!), color is Ocean Tides (you knew that, too!). The little ring is from a set from Joann's, I think, but I've had it a while so I'm not really sure. The hood of the carriage is paper pieced with a SU paper.
You will ask if I don't tell you enough, right?

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Pink and Brown


Pink and brown are always so good together! The Papertrey Dark Chocolate is bit dark for baby cards, but when paired with colors of the same depth, I think it looks good!
The stamp is from Outlines, and is meant to be layered, of course. I used Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery from SU. The base of Dark Chocolate is stamped with White Craft using Papertrey's Polka Dot Basics. Colored with SU markers, and with just a few dots of Gelly Roll silver to make it glitter a little.
The Certainly Celery layer is punched with Fiskars threading Water punch, and there is a strip of Pretty In Pink 1/4 inch grosgrain on top. Over the ribbon are some Page Pebbles in dark pink.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

New (Blue) Baby!


I love it when I can make a cute baby card with no stamping! this one uses a new Sizzix set with 4 embossing folders, one full sized and the other 3 smaller. I have yet to make a card with multiple layers of dry embossing, but that's next!

This one also used the technique of running a Gelly Roll glitter pen along the embossing, I tried to get you a cloe up but didn't do so well...

The sentiment is also a Sizzix die. Lol, it was not so easy to get those little pieces to stick down on embossing! I'll rethink doing that again! I used a Quick glue pen, so it made it as easy as it could be.

Ribbons are two from Michael's and Joann's, the blue dot happened to match the Spring Rain cs perfectly!



Sunday, July 5, 2009

Bear, with buttons

In my never ending spring cleanup this year, I came across these cards, I think they came with a flower fairies set many years ago. They are still unfaded-it's amazing how much paper I sent to the kids because it was faded! A little bear with some butterflies...



... and there you are!

Papertrey buttons, a MS butterfly punch from Lemon Tart and edged with Plum Pudding. Melon Berry matched the flowers on the card...

Ok, I confess, I am getting a wee bit bored with my baby stamps. I really, really need someone to come out with a big new set- no pacifiers, no bottles, and maybe even no diaper pins- what young girl knows what a diaper pin was for?!? And hey, not many babies go in those big giant baby carriages anymore- how about umbrella strollers? Balls and blocks are always good, and while I like little stuffed animals, you know they are not to be placed in baby cribs, right? Rattles don't look anything like the rattles they put on stamps (I'll show you the Outlines rattle tomorrow), so where are the big rounded edge keys that most new babies get today? And can someone please let me know what makes elephants and giraffes 'baby' images? SU did some good ones a few years back, but the new ones just don't feel like 'baby' images.

Sorry for the rant- just had to say it in case there is anyone out there really reading.


Friday, July 3, 2009

Core'dinations Stork

Used the brown and pink Core'dinations paper with a brass stencil again; this one came out not as nicely, but I've had mixed feelings about the stencil before.

The embossed paper is from Nana's Nursery girl, mixed with a green print from the Baby Girl Safari paper Beverly from Precious Scraps sent. SU's Pretty in Pink is the base and layer; the sentiment is from Rubber Soul. I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Sepia, it was a great match with the Core'dinations brown paper. Ribbon is SU's Whisper White Taffeta.


It is 1030 pm here, and I just received a call from the DH. He is on his way to Colorado to run and hike in the mountains- I often go with him but work would not allow it this year. So he is done the first leg of the journey, and is in St. Louis. I am reminded that this time last year I spent a lovely day with 3 other Papertrey lovers, shopping in every stamp store there is around St. Louis! I have to say I wish I was there again this year- shopping in St. Louis with new found friends, but also spending time one on one with Mother Nature in the mountains!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Pile of Leftovers...

...continues to grow. The more cards I make, the more snippets and almosts I have. What do you do with them? I hate to toss them. Last Sunday I decided to pull out some of the baby ones, and try and gt some baby girl cards done this week. So here is the first one!



The strawberries are left from last weeks copy of Nichole Heady's baby card- I used the wrong color ink, lol! The Lemon Tart bunny is from last Easter, but the Leaf Green circle I punched for this card- from a snippet of playing with the Spots and Dots set when it came out. Background paper is from Nana's Kids- I haven't used any of it in quite a while, so was happy to see it matched the berries.

All in all, pretty easy for a snippets and leftovers card!


Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Elmo says...

How's this for a bit of cuteness today? All products are SU, except for the premade balloons which are Sandylion Essentials. The paper colors for Elmo are Real Red, Only Orange, whisper White and Basic black. The cuttlebug'd numbers embossing folder layer was done in YoYo Yellow. since the recipient will be three, I covered the 3's in orange Stickles. The dotted layer is from Summer Picnic, a 2007 paper.
I am due to deliver this card on Saturday night, so between now and then I have to cut out her name from Base Camp with the Cricut- and put it on the bottom right. I still might also cut out 'I Love You' and put it on the left~


Such fun!!