Looking for My Mojo

I just don't get it.  I have the whole day to myself because hubby has catering to do today.  I've been looking forward all week to a whole day to play in my craft room without feeling guilty about taking away from time we could spend together.  Now that it's here, apparently my mojo took the day off just when I had planned to make a handful of cards to have ready to encourage my friend as she goes through her upcoming surgery and chemo and reconstruction.  I could be in my craft room, but I've been folding clothes, changing sheets on the bed, trying to fix a slow drain...  When cleaning the house appeals more than playing with paper, something is wrong.  Does this ever happen to you?  If so, what do you do about it? 

I've got my usual tricks:  reading blogs, watching YouTube videos, surfing Pinterest and remaking something someone else has done.  But I think my favorite is shopping.  I just love shopping for new supplies (as evidenced by my craft room), but there's a pretty limited selection here in town so I'm forced to look online for a lot of my supplies. So today, when I couldn't really find my mojo, I noticed that Simon Says Stamp was running a 20% off sale on their branded products (use code "Twenty" through 11:59 EST on 6/8). I found some things I like and have wanted for a while, put them in my cart, got all the way to the checkout and stopped.  I still don't know why.  I know that each of things I picked out are things I will love to play with and am excited to play with, but I just stopped.  So weird.

But, maybe just the act of shopping did the trick.  I started playing with my Art Impression watercolor stamps and Distress Markers.  Just as I finished a panel, I heard the buzz of the dryer.  So I set the panel aside and headed off to fold some more laundry. When I got back, I discovered that I must have set the panel on a slight angle because some of the water ran and pooled, ruining part of the design.  Grrrrrr.....  After thinking about tossing the whole thing, I decided I would try to save it by covering the puddled ink with a banner with a sentiment stamped from the Inkadinkado All Occasions set on some watercolor paper.  I then matted it with a pop of red and then used a pre-made card base in a swirl pattern.  I'm not sure it's totally successful, but maybe it will grow on me and hopefully my mojo will return.

Inspired by Kristina Werner to Play with Distress Inks

I was perusing blogs for inspiration when I watched a video Kristina Werner made showing a fun watercolor technique with Distress Inks.  If you haven't subscribed to Kristina's You Tube channel, you are missing out.  So hop right over to her channel for some fabulous inspiration.

I just had to try my hand at her "spritz and flick" method using my new Distress Ink markers and some heat embossing using a fun stamp set from Technique Tuesday called All Occasions.  Watch out though, it's a bit addictive.  I ended up making something like 12 cards!

 

I even loved how my craft table looked with all inks pooled in a rainbow effect.  So pretty!

Happy Birthday Card as Seen on Papercrafts

I was browsing through the blogs when I stumbled upon this adorable card using my favorite Stampin' Up stamp, Swallowtail, on the Papercrafts and Scrapbooking blog here.  So while I watched the Seattle/49ers game yesterday, I made my own version.  I stamped the butterfly in Versafine ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder.  I then colored in one with my Spectrum Noir markers and left the other black and white for the base.  I then cut the black and white one down to fit a standard A2 card with a black mat and the colored version smaller.  I then matted both of them on plain black card stock and layered them together.  I stamped the sentiment from my Hero Arts All Occasions set in the Versafine on some vellum and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder to match.  I ran the sentiment through my Xyron and adhered it across the bottom of the panel.  Then all I had to was adhere the panel to my card base and I was done.

Looking back on it now, I kind of wish that I had made the colored panel a touch smaller.  Well, maybe next time...

Congrats ... You did it!

This post is courtesy of my sister-in-law who was kind enough to send me a picture of the card because, silly me, I gave it to her before I took a picture of it. 

I was browsing our local Craft Warehouse where I found the cutest graduation paper from Doodlebug.  So I snapped up a piece of their Diploma Day paper from the Cap and Gown collection.  So cute!  Then I trolled for inspiration and found it in this card by Flowerbug's Inkspot.  It was also a good opportunity to breakout a stamp set I bought a while back knowing that this day was coming:  TPC Studio's Graduation set.  I also used a sentiment on the inside from the All Occasions set from Inkadinkado. I can't believe how often I find myself pulling that set out.  It really is quite versatile.  I also took this opportunity to use a card base from the DCWV Shimmer box of cards.  I always seem to forget that I have these, but I noticed them on the shelf when I was hunting out the DCWV shimmer paper I used for the red around the circle.  It seemed like a match made in heaven. 

A Graduation Card Inspired by Doodlebug Design

I was trolling Craft Warehouse for supplies and found this great graduation paper from Doodlebug Design.  Knowing that I was going to need a few graduation cards this year, I bought a sheet of the paper called Cap and Gown.  I then started surfing my Pinterest board with card inspiration ideas and found that I had actually pinned some ideas from Doodlebug Design's blog.  Once I saw this cute money holder card, I knew what I was going to be trying my hand at.  I found a card I had in my Silhouette designs (3 scallops edge card - although I could not find in the store today when I was looking for the design number).  I thought it was the perfect base.  I then cut out the card base out of black card stock and cut the Doodlebug paper for the top of the card.  I stamped the cap out of my TPC Studio Graduation set and embossed it in black and then the tassel in yellow.  I colored the cap in with some Spectrum Noir pens to finish it off.  The sentiment was stamp with my new Momento Brilliance ink on a sentiment from the All Occasions set from the Inkadinkado and finished it off perfectly.

Thinking of You card

I found a little time in my craft room to scraplift this delightful card I found on the I Create blog.  I loved the simple style and I could not believe how quickly this card came together.  I made the flower out of some leftover scraps from the mat stack Mango Frost by DCWV.  I ran it through my Big Kick using the Provo Craft Asterisks dies.  I finished it off with a sentiment from the All Occasions set by Inkadinkado.  Then it was just a little pen work, an Eye Candy gem and some little gems from Darice to finish it off.  Quick, easy and cute!

Hmm...

I've heard about other people losing posts before but it's never happened to me until now. Earlier this week, I lost one I had written and now I just lost another one. It's frustrating, but, oh well. So here's the card I made based upon Freshly Made Sketches sketch #17. While the sketch was very inspiring and I had all these wild ideas, I realized the card was for a man, so I had to keep it simple. So I did and kept it to just a stamp from Inkadinkado's All Occasions stamps, some random paper from my scrap bin and some crochet thread because I didn't have the right color of baker's twine...

But while I was looking for the picture of the card, I saw this great one of Chewie from our walk during our last camping trip that I just had to share.

Another card

I so love the Cameo! I just can't stop playing with it. I really should be going to bed early and getting lots of rest. But I find myself drawn into my craft room to play instead. I just love this card I made the other night. It's probably already in the hands of the recipient - my "aunt" Sharon. I hope she loves it as much as I loved making it. All the paper is Sierra Paper Crafts, the button is a random one from Scrapbuck.com (love them!), and the stamp is again from the Inkadinkado's All Occasions stamp set that I picked up for a song on Scrapbuck.com.