Loads of Thanks

I wasn't sure I would make it into my craft room tonight.  I'm fighting a bit of a sinus headache and I really just thought about crawling in bed, but it's Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs!  How could I sleep through that?  In fact, I have to thank those guys because in between periods (and overtime!) I played around in my craft room because I needed a thank you card.  I pulled out a Newton's Nook stamp set called Wagon of Wishes that I think is just adorable and stamped out the wagon with the apples.  I played with my copics trying to color the apples to match the apples that grow on the tree in our backyard.  It was kind of hard to get that green, yellow with a little red combo, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I was a little stumped for a layout for the card, but then I remembered that I loved the Mojo Monday layout and I haven't participated in that for a while so it seemed like the perfect time to try my hand at it.  I've also been playing around with trying the current Inky Paws challenge which was to use wood, metal or cork on a card.  So I started by breaking out the Hardwood stamp I bought during the Stampin' Up free shipping promotion a while back.  I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on some watercolor paper then used a damp brush to spread the color a little.  To be honest, I wasn't sure I liked it and I really wasn't sure I liked it with the image I had colored, but I kept plugging along.  I broke out my Lawn Fawn Circle Stackables and Scalloped Circle Stackables to set off the cute sentiment from the Newton's Nook set and then remembered how much I liked the tag stamp and die from the Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts that I used on a card a week or so ago.  So the last piece I wasn't sure about was the strip on the right.  I knew that a red strip would help tie it all together, but plain red wasn't working for me.  I pulled out a couple of embossing folders.  Wood grain didn't look quite right and I ended up debating between a dotted texture and this Quick Kutz Zig Zag folder.  Fortunately, I have a great resource when I can't decide:  my husband!  So then it was just some glue, a couple of chomps of the corners of some pieces and a few wood veneer hearts to balance what seemed to be a bit of a plain spot in the corner and it was done.  I actually walked back out to the family room and commented to my husband that I wasn't really sure about the pieces going together but I loved how it turned out in the end.   I'll be linking this up to both challenges, but come play with me because it's always more fun if everyone plays.  You have until Friday, June 6th for the Inky Paws challenge and until Sunday, June 8th for the Mojo Monday challenge.

Mojo Monday #251

I have several cards to make, but I couldn't really get into it tonight.  So I only finished one.  This one I'm sending to the Maddy and Melanie card drive that I read about on Creations with Christina and is hosted by Simon Says Stamp.   The card map comes from this week's Mojo Monday challenge.  I loved the color blocking and decided to swap out the circle for some cute butterflies cut in white with vellum overlays.  I just love this little butterfly from the Silhouette Design Studio store.  The whole card was made from scraps in my bin.  I know that the flowered paper was from Echo Park and the blue and yellow papers are scraps from DCWV.  I cannot remember the stack for the blue paper, but the yellow paper is from the Lemon Flower stack.  The stamp was from an Inkadinakado set, but I've long ago lost the name. 

I also wanted to show a box I received today from Studio Calico.  Even Zoey had to check out the box.

They ran a special on Plumdistrict.com a bit ago that I picked up for song.  I finally order the kits the other day and was so excited to see them arrive today.

Can you believe this is the first time I've owed washi tape????  I'm really excited to break out the kits and put them to good use, but I must finish my cards first. 

Another Mojo Monday card

I had a little free time tonight while listening to the Winterhawks win their playoff game tonight so I played along with the Mojo Monday sketch. I love this little paper magnolia from the Silhouette Design Studio. It's super easy to make, especially when I opt to omit the paper center since it can sometimes be a little tricky to make the three points line up the three portions of the stamen.

Mojo Monday - Birthday card

I found this cute little flower on the Silhouette Design Studio on Friday night, so when I saw this week's Mojo Monday sketch, I knew it was perfect. The card didn't quite come out like I had imagined, but I'm happy enough with at anyway.

Get well soon card

I found out that someone I've known through work for several years had a heart attack this weekend followed by a quadruple bypass. They say that he'll be fine, but I thought I would make up a quick get well soon card to send to him. Rather than spending hours trolling the blogs for inspiration (since I've already spent a good portion of the evening doing that already), I decided to simply grab a page that I printed from the Mojo Monday 2009 sketchbook the other day and make a card based upon the first sketch I saw. Turns out it was the sketch from September 7, 2009 (how weird is it that I should pick the date closest to today?) and it was perfect for a male card. I pulled out my trusty scraps from My Mind's Eye Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Boy (have I mentioned how much I love, love, love this pad of paper) and put together is card in a really short period of time. It would have been even shorter but instead of making the banner with my scissors, I had to draw it in SCAL and cut it.

Mojo Monday Sketch 200!

Last night I was trolling the blogs, catching up on my reading, when I ended up on You Tube to watch a video posted on Creations with Christina's blog. One of the video choices following that one was this "black magic" technique shown here, which then led me to here. The technique looked easy to do and I actually had all the supplies so I gave it a try, going for something simple with this flower stamp. I use one main color of yellow and a slightly darker color in a few places. I added a little bit of white at the tips and a little bit of brown at the base of each petal and drew in the dark lines that give each petal it's distinct shape.
When I was done, I had this yellow flower, which seemed perfect to use on Mojo Monday's sketch this week (it's the 200th sketch - whoo hoo!). All the paper came from my scraps container, so apparently spending all last weekend cleaning, sorting and organizing my craft room paid off because I can actually find my scraps. This time, I actually do know where the paper came from. The solid orangy-yellow is from DCWV. The orange dotted paper is from My Mind's Eye All Twinkle, Twinkle Little Boy stack, the white and black are Georgia Pacific card stock. I used cinnamon Stickles to give the center of the flower a little bling. I have no idea where the flower stamp came from but the word "cherish" is from Stampin' Up's Warm Words collection.

Well, that's it for today. The day just flew by and now I had better get everything put away, finish that last load of laundry and get ready for work tomorrow. It may be a short week for me but that just means I have to pack a normal week's worth of work into a short period of time and will have to work hard the following week to get caught back up. Maybe that's why I never use my vacation time and always am trying to figure out how to use it before I lose it. But it will all be worth it since I'll have a long weekend to crank out some cards. Believe it or not, my stash is already starting to dwindle.