Finally!

It has taken me a month to recover from my flu shot or whatever bug I picked up while I was at the clinic getting said shot. Thankfully, my creative muse has finally returned and hopefully won't run off again when reminded that I still haven't started my Christmas cards yet...

Here are my very late November inchies (Theme: Fashion and/or Bling) and my December inchies (Theme: Snowman and/or Winter).

2008 Birthday Card Design

I mailed the last of these cards out a couple of days ago, so will go ahead and post a picture now. The bird was made using designs that I cut out of the Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder.

I made a bunch of these cards up in all different color schemes, but I forgot to scan the other color combinations before I mailed them all off, LOL.

Bad Dog!

I actually remembered to make some Halloween cards this year! I also used this card design for my week #6 swap card, which had to use something 3D on it. I used foam dogs to pop up the dogs ears and tail as well as the moon and bats.

The stamp is my favorite dog image from Penny Black and is colored with Copics (of course!) The tombstones and moon were cut out of the Vintage (pre-sanded) papers by Coordinations.

Week #5 Swap Card

This week we had to make a card with two buttons on it.

October Inchies!

The theme is Halloween.

Swap Card Week #3

We had to use chalks for this card. I was brave and tried a Cuttlebug technique that a friend had told me about. I applied some blue chalk ink directly to the inside of the Cuttlebug folder before running it through my machine. The scary part was when I went to try and clean the ink off the folder, LOL.

I ran a Versamark pad over the embossed part of the image and then colored it with my Stampin Up! chalks.

Unfortunately this next step didn't show up in the scan... To seal it, I sprayed it with some leftover homemade glimmer spray consisting of Pearl colored Perfect Pearls mixed with unscented hairspray. You technically don't have to mix the Perfect Pearls with hairspray to make a glimmer spray- you could just use water... However, if you used water then your mist wouldn't work as a sealer for your chalks, LOL. Anyway, this card is VERY shimmery in real life!

Card Swap Week#1

The challenge for this week's card was to use both lime green and pink.

The gorgeous Spirelli card on the left is the one that Mom made for the swap. I made the card on the right. I used Copics to color the image and finished it off with lace ribbon and flowers from Prima.

September Inchies

The theme for September was Pink and/or Famous People.

I Love Copic Markers!

This was a fun card to make! It was also my very first attempt at using Copic markers. My friend Angel generously let me use her Copic markers to color the dog image. Needless to say, I was immediately hooked on Copics! I have had my very own Copics now for a couple of weeks and I LOVE them!

The last of the Paris Decos...

Here is the page that I did for Brigitte's Paris Deco:

Here is the page that I did for JoAnn W's Paris Deco:

I am really, really, REALLY behind in posting the cards I've made for the current swap I'm in!

To my dismay, I made a really hideous card for the "Colors You Don't Normally Use" theme week.... However, the little owl stamp I used was so darn cute so I cropped the card scan because I just had to show him!!!

(Not sure why both his eyes aren't the same color in the scan...)

Here is the card that I made my swap partner to make up for the original hideous "color" card:

For this card we had to use corners: (I found this idea on the Split Coast Stampers site)

This is a card that I made for the week we had to use buttons.

I know, I know - this particular scan does not show any buttons... The card I sent my swap partner actually had three little blue-green heart shaped buttons instead of the three little gemstones shown on this card.

The theme for this week is a favorite card to make. I really had so much fun making this little card for Jan in the last swap, that I wanted to try it again but in different colors. This card is so fun to make!!!

August Inchies

The theme for August was Cats and/or Purple. The purple owl in the beret is my favorite.

Windows Vista is the spawn of satan!!!

Please excuse the poor scans. The color and everything else looks 100 times better in person. My scanner is just not giving consistent quality scans now that it is hooked up to Windows Vista on my new computer. Sometimes the scans are perfect, and other times they are not even viewable. This is only a small example of the problems we are having with our new systems... I have been working on our computers for almost 6 weeks now... I HATE Vista!

These are my inchies and ATCs for a Stars/Stripes swap that I joined on Yahoo Groups. The scan doesn't show the tiny gold pearl in the center of the stars on top of the firecrackers on the inchies.

The back and front of the ATC.

July Inchies

The theme for July was "Red and/or Flight"

The ladybug has 3 D wings, but they don't show up in this pic as they got flattened in the scanner.

Circle Card and Inchies

This is the last week of the card swap I am in. The theme was a card with a circle on it. I decided to take it one step further and make the entire card a circle.

Here is an awful scan of my June inchies:

(The theme was seashore)

These are some inchies that I made for a friend who is having a birthday this month:

Sparkle Card

Here is my sparkle card for last week's swap. I totally cased this card idea from Faith on Split Coast Stampers: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/913661?perpage=48&si=penguin

I used the new solid color glitter papers from Die Cuts With a View for the wave and some glittered surfboard paper from the DCWV Summer Glitter Stack for the background. I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the wave and ran Ancient Page ink over it to show the detail. The penguin stamp is from one of the first Stampin Up! sets (Penguin Paradise) that we ever bought and is painted with Twinkling H2Os.

More Paris Decos

Here is the page I did in Marilyn's Paris deco:

Marilyn bound together a bunch of oversized vintage Paris postcards to make her deco. What a fantastic idea!!!!

Here is the front and back of my page in Debbie's Paris deco:

I used the transparent embossing paste and glitter through the fleur de lis brass stencil again, and it still doesn't show up well in the scan.

Debbie punched holes in the corners of some 4" coasters and added some wire to bind them together as a book. Another great idea!

The theme for this week's swap card was spring. I was sorting through some of my glitter card stock this week and found this adorable flower paper. I couldn't wait to make a card out of it!

For once, the scanner actually picked up most of the sparkle on the card. The die cut letters and the bird's beak and feet are also sparkly.

Flower Card

I am happy because I got to use my new Inkadinkado bird stamp on my flower card for swap last week!

May Bird Inchies and Eyelet card

Here are my inchies for May. I am not really happy with how they turned out... I'd intended to be a bit more creative, but this was the best I was able to do under the circumstances. I had thrown out my back and couldn't sit for more than a few minutes to work on them. If I took enough pain meds so I could actually sit, I'd be too shaky and "dull" to work.

In addition to "Don't drive or operate heavy machinery" some pills should also have the warning "Do not attempt to cut and assemble tiny pieces!" I am sure it was rather comical to watch me make inchies in this state, LOL.

Here is my eyelet card for last week's swap. As usual, the scan didn't pick up all the sparkle and glitz...

I mailed this card late because I wanted to wait until I was healed up enough to work on it properly. I wasn't under the influence of pain meds when I made this one, although I still must have had some pills left in my system because I did everything really, REALLY SLOWLY, LOL.

Captain Sparrow!

I was in a bit of a silly mood when I came up with this one...

For this week's swap, we had to make a card using two buttons. I had a bunch of Pirate buttons that just begged to be used... It was one of those cards that ended up being a lot more work than I originally intended, LOL. I used doll hair to make the wig and that was a real pain! It frizzes very, very, VERY easily...

Two projects that look better in person…

This is an ATC that I made for an Alphabetica swap. For the base, I used some inexpensive collage note cards that I found at Hobby Lobby. I added Tim Holtz crackle paint around the edges and swirled two colors of Making Memories paints together to paint the chipboard letter. What doesn’t show up in the scan is the big fleur de lis that I added using transparent embossing paste through a brass stencil. I also sprinkled clear glitter on top of the embossing paste while it was still wet.

For this week’s card swap, we had to make a card using punches. I adapted this card from an altered book cover that I saw in a recent issue of Somerset Studio. The scan doesn’t pick up a lot of the details and all the sparkle on the card.

Teddy Bears!

The theme for this month’s ATC swap was "toys". The ATCs also had to have a pocket on them. I used the "Bow Bear" set by Stampin’ Up! and colored it using water color pencils. The finished project was so cute that I couldn’t resist making up some matching ATCs using the "Button Bear" set (also by Stampin’ Up!) Sadly, both of these adorable stamp sets have long been retired.

My latest card

I was so pleased with how this card turned out that I made up several more. ;-)

For the background I used the fabulous Layered Dry Embossing Technique (as found on http://debbiesdiecuts.blogspot.com/)

Oodles of Inchies!

A couple of misc. inchies that I hadn't gotten around to scanning before now.

The theme for March was Paris.

I used the Tim Holtz crackle paints to edge the Arc de Triomphe inchie. I really love the effect it gave.

The April themes were Pirates and Spring.

I wanted to try doing Spirelli small enough for an inchie. I found a little sun punch that I thought would work. I think it turned out really well.

Greyhound Rescue Page

I was asked to make a page for a chunky book that will be auctioned off to support a greyhound rescue group. Here is a website if you are interested in reading more about this wonderful organization: http://www.greyhoundrescuerehab.org/

Back of page

More Paris Decos

My pages in Cathy's deco

My pages in Keri's deco

Magazine Inspiration

I confess, sometimes I really, REALLY have difficulty in coming up with original ideas! That's when I turn to stamping magazines for inspiration. I found this idea in one of the more recent Somerset publications. I made up a bunch of cards and some matching ATCs in two different color combinations. I hand stitched the cards but my sanity wouldn't allow me to do the same for the ATCs... ;-)

Birds!

I found the directions for making these cute birds out of half circles in a recent Paper Crafts magazine.

Here I have used them on a chunky book page:

I also used them to make a few Valentine cards and ATCs.

Speaking of birds, I just finished making a bunch of birthday cards using some cute little birds made with the paisley Cuttlebug embossing folder. However, I am not going to post a picture of the cards yet as I don't want to spoil the surprise for those who will be receiving them this year. :P

Inchies

January's theme was a challenge using a cool background stamped for us by a group member.

February's theme was pigs. I had my first ever stamping emergency while making the pig inchies. I really wanted to make a Charlotte's Web inchie and thought for sure that we had a spider stamp in our collection.... I prepped my backgrounds and glued on my images and only then discovered that we didn't own a spider stamp, sticker, rub on or any other 8-legged embellishment... OOPS! At this point I only had two days before the inchies had to be in the mail and I was panicking. I went shopping in search of anything small and spidery and I couldn't find anything with spiders on it at all! Finally, when I was about to give up hope, I miraculously found a small spider stamp (left over from Halloween). Luckily it also turned out to be the perfect size for my inchie when I used it on shrink plastic. Next time I will remember to double check whether or not I have a stamp/embellishment before I actually plan a project around it (at least I hope so!) LOL.

Paris Decos

I signed up for a Paris Deco round robin recently. Here is a blurry photo of my layout in Jo's deco:

I didn't do too much work in my own deco before sending it out into the world. I have lost a deco before and thought it might jinx this one if I did too much to it before mailing. Here is a picture of my sign in page (the tags) and another page that I haven't finished yet.

Better late than never...

I finally finished my Christmas cards! Tonight I have been busy trying to get them in envelopes and ready to mail. I've noticed that they don't actually mention Christmas specifically - just something about 'Tis the season to go shopping..." With luck everyone will think I am sending them a card to celebrate the January white sales and not an embarrassingly late Christmas card. ;-)

My 2008 Christmas card

card inside

My 2008 Christmas ATC