Yippie, it's raining!

I'm cheering because it's raining outside! (No, I'm not sniffing paint fumes....) Rain = the porch cannot be painted and Lisa gets to rest her weary bones and stamp tonite!

So who would have thought I'd be having so much fun with these little Kewpies?!! Sorry guys, I'm back on the Kewpies. I'm using up scraps of paper tonite.

I was browsing blogs today and gasped when I saw Tami McBean's version of the birds from the birdnotes set! Check out her blog if you get a chance! AWESOME!

http://tmarie-creativechaos.blogspot.com/2007/04/new-birds.html

Images from the "Kewpie" stamp set by Clearart Stamps. Paper from the "Radiant" and "Earthy" paper pads, Crafty Secrets.

Armed & Dangerous

I've always been a girly-girl; that's why it's so surprising to me that I've taken a liking to the new CHAINSAW we got from Menards. Oh, the power my 4'11" self wields. The rest of the honeysuckle tree came down yesterday....I can knock a tree down in 6 hours flat. Ok, so I'm a little slow. But imagine how long it would have taken with out my leetle friend, the REMINGTON.

It's an ALL YARDWORK weekend here, it's beautiful, sunny, 80 degrees & not a cloud in the sky. Trees fear me.

I snuck in a little stamp time this morning...this is from SU's Polka dot & Petals stamp set. I paired it with Crate "Wheel Barrow" paper, and added a little glitter to make the flowers pop.

Does anyone need any trees removed? Happy Sunday! L.

Crate Striper

I'm a sucker for anything striped or polka-dotted. It just seems that those patterns are so easy for me to work with! On this card I used Crate "Striper" paper, from the Seaweed Collection, combined with a polka dot from another paper company. (It was a scrap of paper from my scrap bin.)

The stamp set is "Sassy Stems" by Stampin Up. I have a tip for the bloggers or people sending cards in for publication: when you cut your patterned paper up, don't cut the company logo strip off the paper that shows the pattern name... start cutting from the other end. This way you'll be able to refer back to the paper and know who made it.

(I believe I got that tip off the Papercrafts website or another
person's blog!) Anyway, it works really well. Well, MOST of
the time. Except for that little scrap of polka dot paper that
I don't know the name of. Happy Friday!

A meandering path

It's funny what a meandering path my cards usually take. I was inspired by the white swirl on the green paper I used (see top card). The paper is by MME, Bohemia, "Backyard "My Journey" brocade/brown. If you look at the top card, the swirl is actually in the paper pattern, but only covers some of the paper; the rest is plain green. I wanted that swirl on all the cards I was making, so I improvised and used my Autumn Leaves swirls v.2 stamp set to create my own.

The meandering path came in when I had to add the little flowers on the front card to cover an embossing emergency that came up. Oopsie! Most of my cards end up that way; me trying to disguise a boo-boo. DOH! This sentiment is by SU, it's called "That's Nice". I think I love this set so much because it reminds me of one of my all-time fav. word sets, Lexicon of Love.

mustard birds

In honor of Tami M., I'm going to post this birdnotes card. (Yay for you on the birdnotes set!) The papers I used were from "My Mind's Eye", and I believe they are 'Signature Suite and Wild Asparagus papers. If anyone is really needing the paper name, give a quick post and I'll dig thru my papers tomorrow and find the name for you! Birdnotes set by Clearartstamps/Crafty Secret.

The springtime greenery.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This is my motto for today. Because yesterday, in my great excitement to start yardwork, I chopped the hell out of the honeysuckle tree out front. Which was fine, until we loaded up 2 cars full of branches and discovered that the brush dump site was closed until Wednesday.

So I've been driving around with a car-load of freshly budded, GREEN tree branches. The people I passed on the highway today must have thought I was a little "bonzai", driving to work all dressed up with branches sticking out of the doors of my car and my windows rolled down so I don't absorb the fresh "spring" smell of rotting leaves.

Anyway, the card above was a quickie one tonite; I love this sweet bird image! Some day I'm going to attempt to try collage like Vicki Chrisman does. Check out the eye candy on her blog! Amazing! The bird stamp is from Clearartstamps - "Birdnotes", and the fab harlequin paper is from the Crafty Secret's "Radiant" paper pad. The paper is double-sided, so on the opposite side of the harlequin is the black polka dots.

More Mother's Day!

Have you ever had a card take a tragic turn for the worst, only
to be salvaged from the brink of destruction? This is one of those cards.
It was 2 seconds away from getting tossed in the CIRCULAR FILE.
I was having a bad SMEAR night...I've been using Stampin Up Ultrasmooth white cardstock, which I love. But I'm short on patience and rarely leave enough drying time. I markered in the sweet (GRRRR) little red flowers, and then proceded to smear the marker all over the edge of my image. Which resulted in me having to cut around all the edges of the image to salvage it.

This is an example of paper piecing; stamping your apron image once on the white cardstock, then again on the red gingham cardstock. Cut out the apron center and adhere to the card, to get the fabric-look.

The stamp images and the red gingham (Earthy Paper Pad)are all from from Crafty Secrets/Clearartstamps. The apron stamp is from the "Kitchen Classics" set, and the sentiment is from the "Card Sentiments" set. I re-arranged the sentiment; the real sentiment is " I couldn't forget, whatever I'd do, to remember this day that belongs to you. I just inked up some of the words to come up with my own saying...ahh the beauty of clear acrylics! Lining them up is a breeze because you can see where you're placing the words!

May Baskets!

Can you believe how fast April has flown by? It will be May in a little over a week! I decided it would be fun to make some May baskets with the vintage paper from the Crafty Secrets paper pads & their vintage 'cuts". You can get2 cones from one sheet of paper; just cut it in half! And because the paper is double sided, the inside of the cone is just as pretty as the outside.

I rolled them into a cone shape (just like you did when you were a kid) and then stapled the top part of the cone together. I then ripped a coordinating piece of paper and wrapped it around the middle to form a band, and added some sweet white silky ribbon.

The vintage cuts are so easy, all you do is cut them out and mat them with Stampin up cardstock! These 2 images are from the Heartwarming Vintage Cuts "Love and Romance" card. I love that these cuts are SO cheap! $1.75 for a whole sheet of them! On some of them you can get over 14 cards off of the sheet of images!

Anna Wight has them at her Ebay Store; click the link on the right to see the different themes of cuts she carries.

Mum's Day Gift Card Holder

Mum's day is coming up in May....have you shopped for her yet? Me either. Sorry Mom. But I did make this gift card holder from a Bazzill library pocket. So I have a head start anyway!

These holders are SO easy to make. All I did was use a pre-made pink Bazzill library pocket, and added crackled faux-wood paper from the Crafty Secrets "Radiant" paper pad. I added ribbon and a darker pink cardstock, and then used the seed packet image from the "Seasonal" booklet from Crafty Secrets. "Mom" is stamped with the "Artsy Alphabet" from Clearartstamps.

I also added some pink sparkle glitter to the edge of the image, to make it shimmer (the photo isn't great, but it's there!)


The gift card holder inside is just a piece of yellow cardstock. I used the Stampin Up slit punch to punch slits for the gift card part. May Arts ribbon is from Starlitstudio's store.

Just make sure to mount the seed packet image higher up on the front of the pocket, so that it hides the ugly gift card inside!

Oh and one more thing! The white flowers are colored in with a Sakura gelly roll clear glitter pen.

GOT PHOTO!

Yippee! Photos are back up and running!

Back to the Kewpies, as a request from Claudia from Germany!

(I love playing with them anyway, this is an EASY request for me!)

The paper is by Daisy D's, called "Beacon Hill Stripe". It's sort of a bright, in your face paper, but I wanted you to see that you don't HAVE to go vintage with the Kewpies. They're just fine with more modern, brighter colors. This time Kewpie is indeed, NEKKID. I ALWAYS use Stampin up Blush Blossom ink for flesh tones. Remember, start coloring from left to right, so the intense color starts at the edge of your image and lightens up as you go across. Add more intense color, blending as you go. Left dark, middle/medium, right, light. I learned more from my drawing teacher last night, but I only know enough to be dangerous, so I'll wait on the toot until I get more info. I outlined the net, the flutterby and the bald Kewpie head with a Sakura gelly roll glitter pen, to make it look like the sun is glinting off of them! There are flowers from the set stamped in white craft ink along the bottom of the card. Kewpie set is by Clearartstamps/Crafty Secrets. (www.craftysecrets.com)

I found a great source for the Crafty Secrets clear stamps: Anna Wight carries all of them in her ebay store. Here is the link if you're interested! Anna's store!

AAAACK! PHOTOS DOWN!

I'm a slacker blogger! I had my drawing class tonite and am just now trying to post! It seems that blogger's photo software is down for the moment, so its a yakkity yakky post tonite, no pics!
Dang and I had it all ready to go, just no photo uploaded! My timing is baaaaad!

Ok, so lets play tag then tonite. MISS THANG PARIS O'TREMBA tagged my sorry butt tonite!
She posted me on her blog as 'it'! http://inkyart.blogspot.com/ So this means I must pick 5 bloggers and tag them tonite, so you can go check out their stuff!

Here's my picks, I tried to avoid those that have already been tagged!

1. Chelemom - She's a sweetie-pie and has some great baby cards on her blog right now!
http://chelemom.blogspot.com/

2. Bethany Paul - She's left some very sweet comments in my SCS gallery. She's got some
faboo creations! http://bethanypaull.blogspot.com/

3. Mishie Wooderson. Nuff Said. Holy moly, girl can stamp!
http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/

4. Jenn Balcer - always GASP worthy creations!
http://jbalcer.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

5. Valerie Stangle~ THE LEGEND
http://valeriestangle.blogspot.com/

Can you hear me now?

I made this card tonite for Papercrafts Idol; THANK YOU Lisa Strahl for alerting us on your blog about it! If you want to check it out, here's the link to Papercrafts:

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http://www.papercraftsmag.com/gallery/content.ihtml?idx=195

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The "Hello Girlfriend" image is from Crafty Secrets, "Joys of Life" booklet. I cracked up when I saw this, I kept thinking of the cell phone commercial and that guy going CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? The paisley paper is from the Earthy paper pack.
(www.craftysecrets.com)

The inside of this card reads:

It's been ages since we talked. Let's catch up soon!

It's a little whacked, but it was a fun card to make! :)

Kewpie Pile!

I know kewpie dolls are supposed to be nekkid, but there's just something about them being on the internet in all their glory that makes me uneasy. Good thing these stamps are not anatomically correct, right?

These sweet little kewpies are from the "Kewpies" set by Clearartstamps/Crafty Secrets. www. craftysecrets.com

Since their little bodies have so many wrinkles on them, if you color them in with a color it looks like they have jammies on!

I watercolored them with my SU aquapainter and markers. (See watercoloring 101!)

Both papers are by Daisy D's. That paper is just MADE for vintage; Daisy D's and Clearartstamps are a good combo!

RED-RUM

My sister is MILDLY funny. She walked into my bedroom today and growled 'RED-RUM'. If you've ever seen the movie "The Shining", you will know why this is NOT funny.

I am feeling 42 right now; I can barely walk, my back hurts, and somewhere during the painting fiasco I started craving spaghetti because the walls started looking like the color of Papa Z's spaghetti sauce. Hmmm. Time to take a break. Once the Motrin kicks in, I think I'll be loving this color in my bedroom!

I did have a chance to stamp this morning, I have new Crafty Secrets rubber, so I started playing with the "Kewpie" set. Finally, some fun images to color in and play with! It's a simple card, nothing too fancy, but at least I stamped! The paper is by www.pebblesinc.com, called "Loverly Flower" and "Loverly Stripe". If you notice the kewpie, instead of making her bald, I colored in her head to give her 'blonde' hair! HOW SWEET IS THIS BUNNY!

Here's the link to the other Kewpie images. http://www.clearartstamps.com/ I HAVE to get some play time in so I can make more kewpies! Have a loverly evening everyone!

New red walls!

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I had good intentions and was going to stamp up a storm today, but I ended up painting my bedroom instead! Check out the wall behind the bees...I threw caution to the wind and painted them bright red! OMG! (I'll post pics when I'm done.)

I made these bees the other day but didn't love them so I wasn't going to post them. I want to change out the bright yellow matting to another color but haven't figured out what color yet. Any suggestions?

This paper seemed perfectly suited for bees, with the cute black and yellow stripes! The paper is by Sweetwater, item #BF6 (there was no pattern name). I'm hoping to get more stamping time in tomorrow, after I paint another wall or 2! Have a great evening everyone!

Shopping!

I ran to Archivers tonite and scored new paper by K & Co! I was on my way to Dick Blick to pick up my materials for a drawing class I'm going to be taking for the next 8 weeks, starting next Wednesday.

This paper is by K & Co & is called "K Bailey Pink & Blue Paisley. It's really hard to see in my photos but it has a gorgeous light blue background to it! I dug out my old "Touch of Nature" stamp set.... since the paper has so many earth tones to it, it seemed to be the right fit!

Look at the stamps to the left of the card. These are 2 stamps I CANNOT do without. They're by Hero Arts: square distressed background and aged background block. If you're like me & have problems with trying to 'fill' white background space on your stamped images, these are perfect for you. Stamp them in a super light color to match your card, and stamp your image over it. You can mask your image first, or just fill in bright color over the top of the image, lazy-girl style.

Tiers of Treats

I had to post this fun cupcake card...I was at a "girls night out" event tonite and they had bath fizzies shaped like cupcakes & chocolate candies! They looked so yummy it would be a shame to put them in your tub and watch them dissolve!

It was a fun event; they served melon cosmopolitans and there was shopping galore. Mostly hip, funky fashions and jewelry by local New York artists.

One booth had necklaces made from chandelier crystals! And of course there were the famous NY purses, but without the knock-off labels. If you want a peek, here's the link:
http://girlsnightout.sheckys.com/

More importantly, the treat stamp is by Stampendous from Eclectic Paperie...go check out all the new dessert stamps they have! I know I'll be getting that bundt cake! http://www.eclecticpaperie.com/swdebviit.html The floral paper is SEI.

Have a sweet night, everyone!

Feel Better, Papa Z!

It's a really QUICK post tonite and I'm OFF. I seriously THREW this together just tonite, this is a 5 minute card. My Dad just had knee surgery and we're running to go see him. I love that I can throw together a card in 5 minutes with the images from Crafty secrets, and the card looks just as good as if I putzed for hours with it. (www.craftysecrets.com)

This sick dog image is from the "Heartwarming vintage" Sticker collection, called "Feel Better". The awesome harlequin paper is Foofala "Capri" Harlequin. I used the Stampin Up "Canvas" background to create some texture on the ruby red cardstock.

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for my Dad, affectionately known as "PAPA Z".

Have a good night everyone!

Lisa

Bee thankful!

The bee's are back! This little guy is from the Bee Happy collection by Stampendous. http://www.eclecticpaperie.com/stampendous-woodstamp-beedaisy.html

The patterned paper is by www.pebblesinc.com - pattern name: Loverly Flower.

We're still waiting for spring here in MN, it's supposed to snow tonite! I'm frantically coloring in Bee images pretending it's spring in my stamp room.

FYI, it's not working. :)

Stampin Up Fairies

Made this card for a friend of Valerie Stangle's, who is going into hospice shortly.

Stampin Up Fairy Nice set, paired with Basic Grey Phoebe paper.

Have a fairy nice Monday, everyone!

Sugar high.

Is everyone on an excellent sugar high today? I went face first into piles of malted milk balls, jelly beans and chocolate. Yummy.

I threw these little boxes together on Saturday night to bring to our Easter gathering, because there's never enough food or sugar there. (SO KIDDING) OMG if I threw up right now it would be TECHNICOLOR.

The boxes are from dollar tree in the wedding section. I used the SU set "Polka dot posies" to stamp flowers all over them with Caribbean blue & certainly celery ink. The ghetto chipboard is from Outback Steakhouse (coasters stolen from my hood). I used the Sizzix "Large Daisys" die http://www.sizzix.com/shop.cfm?function=detail&ProductItemNumber=654631 for the cutout flower.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

MOM DON'T LOOK~!

This, my friends, is how a girl gets putzy looking for an Easter gift for Mom & Dad. I started out at Michaels the other day with a 50 percent off coupon, which I intended to use on adhesive. But I walked past these UNBELIEVABLY CUTE buckets at Michaels, and my eyes bugged out. What a perfect thing to store cards in! Or a perfect bucket for a plant to go in! So I decided I'd give the bucket to Mom & Dad for Easter with a plant in it. Fast forward, I ran to 4 places looking for a plant, to no avail. Even BACHMANS had nothing great. So for a last ditch effort, I ran to CUB FOODS, yes you heard me, the GROCERY store. They had these gorgeous Azalea trees there, freshly arrived and buds barely opened! SCORE! So I bring it home, and well, you know the vintage kick I've been on, right? Well I found this gorgeous paper out of the Crafty Secrets "Earthy" pack, and this great bird image in the wacky and wonderful booklet. And the rest is history. www.craftysecrets.com

Spring birdies!

Still stampin with the bird notes set! Its sort of a crime, I think that I should be coloring these WAY more than I do...the images don't need a lot of color to pop! You have to look at a closeup of this one, the swirl is all glitterfied. Love this paper, it's from the "classic" paper pad at Crafty secrets. Little bird feet come with the birdnotes set! I love those feet!

http://www.craftysecrets.com/popup/product%20pages/hvp01classic.htm

http://www.clearartstamps.com/

Easter Bunny, Shabby Style!

Here's my attempt at Easter cards... I promised I'd switch over from vintage to Easter! Although I didn't stray too far from vintage, did I.

The set I used was "Tender Toile" from Stampin up. It was a limited edition hostess set that I wanted in the worst way, but never could earn. I found it for $10.00 at a convention in St. Paul; a demo was selling some of her unused sets! My heart did a few flips when I saw it there for sale, and I snatched it up! I love when life hands you little surprises...well, good ones, anyway!

Paper by "My Mind's Eye", http://www.mymindseye.com/magnolia/dream.asp

Stampin Up Sets: Polka dots & Paisley, Tender Toile

Bonjour, mon ami, oui oui, je suis ici!

Bonjour, mon ami! Oui oui, je suis ici!

Hello my friends! Yes yes, I am here finally!

Ok, I don't really speak French. Theres a cool online translator program that helped me un peu.

Can you tell the french mail set is speaking to me lately? Are you ready to throw yourself off the Eiffel tower because you're sick of my Paris cards yet? I promise tomorrow I'll mix things up and go all "Easter" on you, OK?

I mixed that great Basic grey "Tea with Jane"paper with a great french floral patterned paper from the "Radiant" paper pad from Crafty Secrets. I gotta tell you, because I'm mainly a cardmaker, I shy away from papers with huge patterns on them. I'm glad that some of the paper companies are making smaller patterned paper packs for that very reason. I couldn't resist the colors on "Tea with Jane", so it ended up in my basket at Archivers.

Turned out ok, no? I've been making birthday thank you's like a crazy woman, so a little bit of Paris is on its way to those that made my birthday special.

Tea with Jane: http://www.eclecticpaperie.com/basicgrey-stellaruby-teawithjane.html

Radiant Pad: http://www.craftysecrets.com/popup/product%20pages/hvp04radiant.htm

French Mail Stamps: http://www.clearartstamps.com/

Mercy!

MERCY. I have to show you guys my new bed. It got delivered
yesterday and I had palpitations when they put it up on the bed
frame. Apparently I should have ordered the "low profile" box springs, because my bed is now exactly THREE, count 'em, THREE feet high. (Did I mention I'm 4'11"?) I have an antique brass bed, so it already stands pretty tall off the ground.

I have to use a stool to get up into it. QUIT LAUGHING! You have to see this beast. I feel like I'm the princess from "princess & the pea", sleeping on 15 mattresses. So Steve-O to the rescue, he's got a truck and will help me go get the new box springs this week. MERCY.

This is a layout sketch challenge that Katrina K. aka "Kookie"
posted this weekend for us to play with.

Banner, stamp set and paper by Crafty Secrets: "French Mail" set and "Radiant" paper pack. http://www.clearartstamps.com/

Check out the cat. Doesn't he look like he's thinking:

"How the heck am I gonna get down from here?"