Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Thank you, Dawn McVey & Card Creations 7!

How have you been, lovely friends in blog-land! It's been far too long since I've sat down to talk to y'all! I hope your summer is not too hot, but lush and lovely and full of fun crafts and cool lemonade! I was inspired to get a card on my blog today to thank the lovely and talented, Dawn McVey, for picking me {randomly, but no less LUCKY!} as the winner of her Card Creations 7 magazine give away! It made my day for a whole host of reasons. In this day and age, good luck can really make the sun shine much more brightly! I loved basking in such lovely rays, so... {what does any red-blooded card maker gal do....?} I MADE DAWN A THANK YOU CARD!


I'm still enjoying my western style stamps from TJ Designs, but this was a "whatever goes" card so there are a few other stamps as well.... {anything to tell MY story!}



This little cowgirl is from the "Rodeo Sweethearts" collection and she's really a girl (I don't "KNOW" Dawn in real life.... but is it my imagination, or does this little gal look a little bit like you could picture Dawn as a little one?)! The cow-BOYS in the background are from the "Wild West" collection that is more "boy" oriented... I MASKED the main image with a good ol' POST IT note: goodness gracious, it worked just how I wanted it to! I stamped on both sides and lined up the image on my Stampin' Up! grid sheet! I was just pleased a punch with the "scene" that was created!

Since, I do consider myself "crafty", I decided to link this effort into a NEW TO ME challenge from "Cardpatterns!" They are featuring a sketch challenge this week and I had planned to give it a try after the recommendation from a dear friend, so "tumble my tumbleweeds..." I'm in! Here's the sketch!


It's a beauty, all right! Very fun and inspirational: take a gander at their site if you get a chance!



Meanwhile, I just wanted to show off this COOL {I can't believe I WON! Lottery tickets tonight, friends! I'll be buying 'em for shor'!} magazine! I soooooooooooo love a new "in real life" idea book that you can hold and love and take EVERYWHERE! I was SO ready to buy it as soon as I saw it, so I'm just amazed at my fabulous good fortune! I can't wait to oogle at every delicious and delightfully crafty creation! What a happy, happy day!

In the meantime, I might as well warn you to make way for a whole bunch more "westerny" out-put in the next few posts, as I am sooooo honored and excited to share with you that my stinky, stubborn but strangely wonderful 4.5 year old gelding, Wildcard, has been "started" by my most AMAZING, handy and magical horse trainer, Mr. Shannon Crawford! I KNOW that most of you don't know him, but if I have anything to do with it: you will! I plan to post some pictures from the event and continue to breathe in the inspiration from my "horsey" world into my crafty world! Stay tuned for that!

Thank you, again, dear Dawn! I know you give stuff away all the time, but I'm JUST super thrilled and I had to share! Can't wait to see what that crafty goddess does next! Yipee!



Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - TJ Designs; All Night Media; S/U!
Ink - Versafine (Black); Staz-On (Brown)
Watercolor Wonder Crayons (foreground & highlights)
Metal Heart-shaped paperclip and Ribbon - M/M
Thread - Gutermann
Word Window and Scallop Border Punch - S/u!

So, "th, the, tha, THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"
On behalf of all the fine folks
{and yep, that includes horses!}
at Rancho Durenberger..............
Have a fabulous day and THANK YOU,
as always, for stopping by!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

This AIN'T my first rodeo!

Well, it "ain't!" Tee Hee I'm no "spring chicken" myself! With that said, you might have noticed that I'm a sucker for a little bit of "country!" And I'm at it again! Armed with my new stamps from TJ Designs, Rodeo Sweethearts, I decided to tackle Dawn McVey's latest color challenge and tie it in with this week's CPS #121 sketch challenge... I always look at challenges based on "how WESTERN can I make that combo/composition look?" For your consideration, I'm at it again:

Behold ~ Dawn's delicious color combo!

Aren't these Rodeo Girl's just delightful! I'm SOOOO in love with these images! The western, the vintage, the possibility!!! I wasn't sure I could BEND these ideas to match Dawn's challenge, but then I peeked at what my mega crafty friend, Dana did for the challenge... I was good to go! Giddy up!


Here's the CPS sketch, but I tweeked it a bit by working my card from a horizontal perspective!








So, that's my card, Rodeo Sweethearts of Blogland! I hope you like AND if you do, YOU KNOW that I always love to hear a little somethin' about it! I ALWAYS appreciate your feedback and readership {if we can call it that!}.. Have a great day!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - TJ Designs; Stampin' Up! (Paisley background!)
Ink - Stampin' Up!
Chalks - Stampin' Up! (cowgirl's cheeks)
Paper ribbon - K & Co.
Small and Large Star Punches - Marvy

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day, Spring Chicken!

This is one of those years my husband hits the jackpot for Father's Day, because it also lands on his birthday! Whoopee, for him... but challenging for me: he's tough to buy for and entertain on his b-day to begin with, which is rather funny! You see, he is about two months younger than I am, so between mid April and mid-June, my life if filled with remarks about me AGING and CRADLE ROBBING, etc... So I just have to wait it out until his big day: TODAY! THIS year, I had A LOT of fun making him a little card:

THAT'S RIGHT, just a sprinkling of sarcasm, 'cause he AIN'T one, any more! I've been pushing stamps and papers around for a few days, working on Father's Day and Birthday and even baby cards, but these hot colors, furnished by Kristina Werner and this weeks color challenge #55 got me REALLY digging in deep to the creative vault! I was determined to play with my NEW STAMPS that I recently purchased online from a yummy company called TweetyJill or TJ Designs! Most of you know that I'm a sucker for anything COUNTRY... & WESTERN... Yee HAW! So, when I attended a local crop recently, I couldn't wipe the drool off my stamp-lovin' chin when the "host" of the crop showed me HER recent discovery of this "Rodeo Sweethearts" stamp collection... Next stop: their website! I found MORE westerny stamps in the form of "Wild West" and "Poultry Party!" I've just been a stampin' fool, trying them all out and I was determined to include at least SOME of the images in my card for Kristina's most recent color challenge.... (Stay tuned for MORE work with these amazing stamps!)



I DID allow myself to graze on A LOT of different stamps as I got deep into this process... Sometimes I like to limit myself to a single set of stamps, but I also LOVE to dig down into the abyss of my stamp collection to allow the "story" to be properly explained by various stamps, regardless of who made them, how old or rare they are, etc. This was one of those cards. Note the chicken wire background stamp (hubba hubba!) which is long retired (DON'T ask me WHY!?! I'm just happy I got it before it went!)! The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is a groovy font that I ADORE... also long retired.. *sob* ANYWHOO, one of the reasons I "collect" to begin with, is so that when the time comes, I'll be ready! Tee Hee Once I got all inky... I just grabbed whatever stamp I needed and you know what: that ROCKS! I love letting my "inventory" get up and DANCE! This card was a ton of fun for that reason, and because I enjoyed twisting a birthday card and ignoring my usual impulse to throw in a cupcake, birthday candle, etc., I thought this would make an excellent offering for the Moxie Fab World "Gallery Idol 2009" contest that features birthday cards for this round! So, I'm off to link up with those crazy/fun gals as well! Wish me luck!




In the meantime, hope you had a fabulous weekend and a Happy Father's Day (my husband's BIRTHDAY! hee hee)! Enjoy!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up!; TweetyJill (Rooster, barbwire, shopping list); Provo Craft ("SPRING"); All Night Media (Woodgrain)

Scallop Edge Punch - Stampin' Up!
Star and "CHICKEN" die cuts - Sizzix/Stampin' Up!
Thread - Gutermann
Stamp n' Write Markers - Stampin' Up!

Friday, June 19, 2009

It's FRIDAY, all right!

Hi, friends of the blog-world! Happy Friday to you and yours! It's for REAL summer now, folks, as we are FINALLY getting some warm up, here in Northern California! The kids are out of school, we've finished our "fine art" portion of fair entries and WAHOO! Plus, E-stir finally got a chance to crank out a card for the CPS 120 sketch! Yee Haw! I hope you like! I am REALLY celebrating my good fortune with Stampin' Up! this round, where I survived "elimination" via the "retirement list" without too many scrapes and bruises! Most of the stamps where I've begged good mojo and faith from my favorite blog readers MADE THE CUT! So, thank you! Whether it was conscious or not, just by you visiting and in some WONDERFUL cases, following me....! (And boy do I love to see your happy little icons!) You helped me keep the faith! I'm very spiritual about my stamps: they all need to be loved!!!! Tee Hee So this card is a celebration of a rather breath-taking set and coordinating Stampin' Around Wheel, "Friends 24/7 "& "Friendly Words"...This gorgeous set made the cut, stayed in the game and I need to remember to let it out to RUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN every now and then! Isn't that why we're all here: to love our arts and crafts! The finished and the to-do list and let's never, ever forget THE RAW MATERIALS! We love it alllllll! Anywoo, here's the card of the day!

Cute, little, supportive blue bird... Card design inspired by this great sketch:

Here's a close-up of this sweet, little bird, perched on his little twig! Ahhhhhhh! I stamped the bird onto a piece of Hambly, Clearly Heavy, with brown Staz On... Then, I used the "Friendly Words" wheel with "Stone Grey" Staz-On, direct to pad and then onto another, identical sized piece of Clearly Heavy to LAYER! Since the branch from the drawing wasn't as long as the rectangle I wanted to cover, I simply inked the edges of the branch image and butted them up to either side to extend the branch (or twig!) to the edge of the transparency. This was EASY, especially stamping on CLEAR MATERIAL, because I could see exactly where I was stamping! Plus, the artwork lent itself to the "blend" very well! I added some caramel colored acrylic paint to the little twig on the back side of the transparency, knowing that I'd made the perfect place to hide glue! Then I re-stamped the bird onto Very Vanilla C/S with Ballet Blue Classic Ink, pausing for a moment to use a Basic Brown pen to add extra ink to cover the beak, eye and talons... Blew on the ink and then stamped! Yipee! I added some black and a spot of highlight with a Uniball Opaque pen to give the eye a little more life, and then cut the whole thing out. I glued it right on top of the original bird, knowing that some would hang over the edge, as the bird image was bigger than my piece of Clearly Heavy! "I meant to do that, dude!" Just to give it some more visual excitement and more places to "hide glue!

After choosing and stamping paper to run lengthwise on the card and gluing them down, I then cut my rectangle and approximately 1/4" smaller so that a window would be created! I loved the idea of the two "stacked" rectangles from Tami's sketch, and I wanted to create extra special emphasis on the top rectangle! I found a previously embossed panel of Chocolate Chip C/S for my next rectangle and used it to frame a smaller rectangle of Very Vanilla C/S that was also stamped with "Friendly Words" but this time in Ballet Blue (ALSO DIRECT TO PAD!) and then stamped again with Chocolate Chip Classic Ink with the Damask stamp from the "Friends 24/7" set. After lightly adhering it to my C/S base, I re-cut the rectangle to preserve my "window". I added some organza, bow-tied ribbon to the left side of the vanilla panel and then glued everything down. In order to glue my two pieces of Hambly together I added VERY SMALL dots of adhesive along the painted underside and behind the C/S bird... Once that was dry, I glued the whole piece of transparency to the front of the card, again, by adding glue only where it won't show...


The sentiment was stamped in the upper left corner of the card and the bird was HOME! I have a friend who's been having a tough year: I'll be sending her this little guy to bring her some love! I'll send some love YOUR way, too: that's something we can NEVER have too much of in our CRAFTING inventory! Have a great start to your weekend, friends!

Supplies:

C/S & D/P - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up! & Staz On
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Scallop Edge Punch - Stampin' Up!
Embossing Plate - Stampin' Up! & Sizzix
Acrylic Paint - Liquitex
Clearly Heavy Transparency - Hambly

Monday, June 15, 2009

Wahooo! 2 in 1, Baby!

This "going for two" is big for me! I recently saw a gal's work and she did FIVE challenges with one card! Now that's some SERIOUSLY crafty craftiness! I'm pretty excited when I can do ONE challenge at a time, so TWO is, seriously, thrilling for me! First there's the Moxie Fab GO GREEN! FIND THE VALUE IN VINTAGE challenge thing that's been somersaulting around in my brain for a while.... THEN, that crafty little minx, Dawn McVey tosses out one of the MOST challenging color schemes I've seen (unless you're making MONEY, aka: lettuce, bills, cabbage...)... So, this is wild:

Wait until you see the cute color graphic Dawn made! Here are my colors in natural light, although it's sunset, so there's a pinkness to my photos that isn't there in "professional" light. This next shot I used an "enhance" feature on my i-photo, nothing special, but it's neat to compare...








Here's a detail shot of my metal stamping! Thank goodness I still have those babies!


CHECK OUT THE GRAPHIC HERE! Moxie's challenge called for a FOR REAL hunk of vintage "something!" I racked my brains and searched and searched for just the right bit of treasure! FINALLY, I found this: wrapped up in some old business cards and memorabilia from my dear, sweet dad. My mom has been curating over small pieces of Dad's old things slowly handing them over to me in the years since my dad passed away. Sometimes I look and other times I squirrel them away in a drawer.... A drawer of treasures that one day I'll weave into some sort of family keepsake... There's the nostalgic and sad part of that, and then there is something like this guy: the WARD's MOTOR RECORD BOOK "man!" My dad ALWAYS kept a record of his millage and car care. How funny that mom should find this ANCIENT piece and save it for me! There is copyright from 1930, 1937, 1949 and 1959! I KNEW when I saw this ridiculously funny face that a vintage card would be born from this!


Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up! (Craft and Classic Dye) & Staz On (Black, used on metal tag)
Embossing Powder - Stampin' Up!
Background Stamp - Stampin' Up!
Vintage Car Stamp - Tim Holtz
Metal Circle - MM
Metal Letter Stamps - Lee Valley Tools
Elastic Cord - Stretch Rite
Black and White Striped Ribbon - MM
C/S vellum - Stampin' Up!
Metal Key Charm - MM
Chipboard Letters - Heidi Swapp

So, WOW! THAT WAS REALLY FUN!!! I hope you enjoyed this post: it was a good share and a fun time for ME! Hopefully, {oh goodness...} it was good/FUN for you, too! Tee Hee

Bye now!

- Elise

Sunday, June 14, 2009

ENJOY your Sunday!

Just a quickie to throw my hat, er, CARD in with Kristina Werner's Color Challenge #54! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that you, and you know who you are...: are gettin' your CRAFT on! Yee HAW!





I LOVE THESE COLORS, but when it came time to throw together a card {and I literally mean THROW!} I was SO overwhelmed with ideas! BELIEVE IT OR NOT! But I am up to my eyeballs helping my wee-girl get her fair entries together today before she goes out of town with dear friends of ours to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! DOH! So we've been crafting together for days, me being her personal assistant, art teacher, mommy and homicidal maniac... Please take that with love..... but if you've ever done a few days like this in a row, with an 8 year old who already thinks she knows EVERYTHING, you know what I mean and can have a good chuckle at my expense! Please! Anywhoo, I thought these colors were pretty hot, but no, sadly, I couldn't see a way to weave them into a Western theme.... So, I was thinking of graduation and birthday cards I need to get to and: THIS is what happened! I'm getting to enjoy cranking out these "fat free" cupcakes with my Martha Stewart glitter for super sugary, sparkle delight AND some teeny tiny paper snips to keep the color theme alive! I sure isn't my customary style of card, but that's what I love about challenges!

Hope your weekend is challenging and FUN in a good way, too!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
D/P - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Screen Printed Transparency - Hambly
Punches - Stampin' UP!
Die Cut - Sizzix & Stampin' Up!

Thanks for visiting, lovely crafters and friends!

xo-

E.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

There's a NEW sheriff...!

Well, if it looks like I've been in a creative rut, you can pretty much count on the fact that I'm going to cough up something... a little.... country AND western! YEEEE HAW! And shor' as shootin', I did!




How's about a little old kitty cowgirl, gettin' her "sheriff-on!" Chasin' some hoodlums out of town with a BANG! That was today's inspiration for my contribution to this week's CPS 119 sketch!




Miss Kitty is about as shor' and sassy a "cowgirl" kitty/sheriff as you're gonna get! I got her from The Cat's Pajamas! They are the grooviest stamp company I've seen, right outta the good old Golden Gate of San Francisco, not far from where I call home! I was the proud and FORTUNATE beneficiary of this great stamp set that I got to choose after I became the lucky winner from CPS a few months back! I was brand spankin' new to "challenges" at the time, and I was DEE-lighted to get my hands on this baby! Believe it or not, I'd been playing around with some ideas to use this very set for this week's CPS challenge when I heard from the lovely and amazing Alma de la Rosa, the owner and purveyor of all things crafty, unique and fun at The Cat's Pajamas! She was SO kind and dear, after I sent her a sample of my work that I made for the CPS challenge immediately following the speedy shipment of my stamps...! She surprised me, in a wonderful way, by posting my card today and that just fired me up further, to do something with more of her stamps!


SO SORRY about the blur factor! I wanted you to see the detail shot of how I colored and paper pieced the back side of "Miss Kitty" but apparently my camera thought that the bottle of paint was far more interesting: at least you get the idea and hopefully not a headache! Doh!

I'm still carrying a strong torch for Basic Grey's "sugared" collection. Sometimes I use bits from the sample/cover art, where they feature small squares and rectangles of the patterns scaled down to show color and patterns.... These are awesome to make embellishments and use on cards! Again, sorry for the crappy photography. I was so excited I forgot to check the quality of the images... Remember, I'm an ARTIST not a photographer! :o)


Oh, goodness: Is that the most low-down and foreboding looking crew of P E N G U I N S....you ever saw? {Don't answer that! Just oogle at the cuteness of the images!} These guys are fun! Look at how the gesture of the drawings imply movement! I LOVE that! I can almost hear cartoon background music...! Don't worry, I won't input any lyrics... today.

And: the artsy shot. Makes me feel like I know what I'm doing.... if you can just forgive the blurry "action" shots! But hey, we had fun! Right? I sure hope so! Don't forget how much it rocks my world to hear from you! And if you think of it, go by Almas's blog, dancing in pajamas and say "howdy!" I'd be doubly honored if ya tell 'em I sent ya! Thanks, ya'll!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up! (except for mirrored - Bazzil)
P/D - Basic Grey
Stamps - THE CAT'S PAJAMAS!
Ink - Versa Fine, Staz-On and Stampin' Up!
Clearly Heavy Transparency - Hambly
Photo Corners - Canson
Twine - ?
Star Punch - McGill

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

This MAGIC {Matter} Moment...

Brought to you by the super talented, blog goddess, Kristina Werner! I'm all full of "yee-haw!" and "Yipee!" "Chia, yai, yeah" and all of that on this fine morning! Last night, the "for real" Kristina Werner announced the top picks from her last color challenge and "bust my buttons" if I was not included in that fine "round up" of A M A Z I N G card makers! OMG! I am so full of "aw shucks" and delight I can barely sit still! Thank you, Kristina! And thank you EVERYONE for the kind, wonderful and sometimes down right hilarious comments and support! I shore' am a humble pup today: with a wildly wagging tail! YEEEE HAW!

Just for fun, I'm attaching a picture of a little "dinosaur" that helped me get the job done:



A couple of you nice gals had asked just what the heck this thing was, that I went on and on about in my original post with my "Robot Card" for this challenge. Shoot, now, I think I even composed a silly song about it! Anywhoo, THIS is the "Magic Matter" that was all the rage about seven years ago when I was first getting really into scrapbooking as an adult... It was a time when EVERYTHING, including the title of your layout had to be matted a million times! Sooooo funny!

Anyway, dear friends o-the blog-o-sphere! Thanks AGAIN for your kindness!

xoxo-

Elise

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

SWEET little baby!

Hi there, sweet friends from the blog world! Just a quick offering to jump into Lauren Meaders's sketch challenge for this week! I was inspired by some table top "casserole" {Dana's great term for leftover SCRAPS and embellishment candy from previous projects!}... ANOTHER surprisingly simple card from lil' old me, but when the materials "talk", I listen! Thanks for the inspiring sketch, Lauren, and and ALSO, to your amazingly talented designers who keep always deliver fabulous samples to get creative engines revved up!



Here is the fun sketch I got to work with for this challenge:


Of course, there was a wee bit of tweakage to make this card sing the song of "welcome" and lullaby that I was hearing (and I think I was smelling some yummy baby powder as well!!!) ... Fun to be prepared, in case there's a sweet little baby in the forecast!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

C/S and D/P- Stampin' Up!
Printed Transparency - Hambly
Stamps and Ink - Stampin' Up!
Half Pearls - Stampin' Up!
Scallop Border, Circle and Word Window Stamp- Stampin' Up!
Smallish Flower Punch - EK Success

Saturday, June 6, 2009

"Believe" in "Precious" friends...!

Hello, precious friends! I'm really getting sassy this weekend and mixin' it up! First of all, yesterday I posted my MOST concise entry, to date. Which is saying something... TODAY, I'm ALSO going to attempt to be less superfluous than usual, as I post TWO cards for TWO different challenges IN-ONE-POST! Oh, my! Fasten your seat belts and "BELIEVE!" in the impossible:

Challenge #1 - 2 Sketches 4 you:




This card is for a {new to me} challenge for 2 sketches 4 you! It features lots of Teresa Collins' fabulous paper, a Tim Holtz Fragment and chunck-0-ideology, some transparency material from Stampin' Up, then run though the Sizzix Big Shot/ Stampin' Up! addition, sandwiched inside the argyle CuttleBug embossing folder and a whole lot of scrappy, card-making joy: yummy AND good for my tummy! (That whole "sandwich" recipe system for the Big Shot ALWAYS makes me hungry!)

Supplies:
C/S - Stampin' Up!
D/P - Teresa Collins
Fragment and Ideology Clock Spinner - Tim Holtz
Medium Weight Transparency Material - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up! and Staz On
Top Note Die and Sizzix Machine - S/U! and Sizzix
Argyle Embossing folder - CuttleBug

Wahoo! What a cute and fun sketch and challenge that was! What will those girls come up with next!?!

Challenge #2 - Dawn McVey Color Challenge



Fun colors to play with, got me thinking about things that are precious.... I was playing with JUST ONE OF MANY of my precious Stampin' Up! sets that DID NOT get discontinued {WAHOOOO!} recently, and THIS CARD happened!

Oh my goodness and smallness! Look at this dainty, precious little pup!

And here's another one: it's OATMEAL! My real life precious pup! (No pinky bling on this boy, however... He's a RANCH DOG!)


Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Grungeboard letters - Tim Holtz
Stickles - Tim Holtz
Acrylic Paint - Liquitex
Stamps - (Dogs and accessories) Stampin' Up!; (woodgrain) All Night Media
Chipboard Star - Stampin' Up!
Corner Rounder - Stampin' Up!
Scallop Circle - Stampin' Up! & Sizzix

So, friends! Thanks for stopping in! I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend! I have to share one more shot of me with two of the craftiest craftin' buddies a gal could ever have: Claire ( me) and Dana! Have a great rest of your weekend all of you dear crafty ones! Bye now!








Friday, June 5, 2009

Wishing you a SWEET weekend!

Hi crafty friends! Here's some "sugar" for ya! I'm off to scrap with friends and feeling fine! Hope you get YOUR craft-on, this weekend! Thanks for stopping by!



xo-

Elise

Thursday, June 4, 2009

WANTED... two challenges in one!

How-DEE! Happy ALMOST summer! The wee-ones are getting giddy and my schedule is getting sticky... and so goes the season! Hope you all are making the transition nicely. Around here, in Northern California, it's unseasonably cold and gray, but it makes for great outdoor photography! Today I'm tossing out one card for TWO challenges! And to get me revved up, I went all WESTERN: my default creative mojo style! I walked my cute cowboy around the ranch for some fun photos.... Hope you've got your spurs on!



This little hunk-o-cowboy card features SO many wonderful materials I can't even stand it! If you read my blog often (and THANK YOU, if you do...!!!) you know that I am especially challenged by simplicity... With the exception of my previous post, it's practically IMPOSSIBLE for me. In fact, the more diverse the materials, the better I like my card AND THE MORE FUN I HAVE! And let's face it: making cards is a blast!

My inspiration started with ANOTHER fabulous sketch from CPS! Here's the "map":

If for some reason you're a non card maker (Hi, Mom!) and you're following my blog, you might wonder WHY this sketch sends me soaring into inspiration.... (Card MAKERS, stifle your snickers and snorts... )....!?! It's the POSSIBILITY! It's the imposition of a ROAD MAP towards unforeseen treasure: it may squeeze us into a unique direction that we might not ordinarily choose, but what emerges can be SO much more exhilarating than just a standard card! This is the case for me, anyway! I looked at this and saw: ENVELOPE! Envelope-o-possibility and goodness! Envelope full of TREASURE!

Here's some of the fun stuff I was working with:


Seeeeeeee the pretty vellum! That's card stock vellum if you're not "joined-up" up with that... Well, you simply CANNOT know what you're missing! I've never seen it (and I'm not saying this BECAUSE I'm a Stampin' Up! demo!!!!) anywhere, but through S/U!, and it's breathtaking stuff! So much so, that for this week, Lauren Meader has a challenge featuring use of CARD STOCK VELLUM! Check her out, and check out my AWARD winning friend who designs for her: DANA! {Did you know CUPCAKES could be THAT DELICIOUS and fat free!?!} Anywoo, I had those two challenges in my brain and SHOOK! If you can stand it: I'll share the details of my "journey!"




Lauren talked about stamping and embossing and some of the gals worked from the front or the back, both, you name it! It's such fun and versatile material: of course I had to do both! I love that it's transparent and that you can REALLY add to the depth of beauty by popping images BEHIND it! You can shape it, cut peek-a-boo-windows! Man, WHAT A GREAT TIME!

A fantastic compliment to card stock vellum and not too distant cousin, is "Clearly Heavy" by Hambly! Stampin' Up! now sells something similar and while I can argue where and when to use BOTH, I will admit that Hambly is the heaviest I've used and, consequently, I hoard it whenever I have the chance. I used it to add some strength to my flap and that way I could emboss on the smaller piece of card stock and not worry about the warping so much. I used adhesive metal tape (ala TIM HOLTZ!!!) to secure the vellum to the plastic without worry of adhesive "exposure"! (ohhhhh, the shame of glue showing where we don't want it!) This worked so well, that I got excited to do it again and thus emerged this star:




Yummy! (DON'T LOOK AT "Ranch Girl" hands!) Look at those stars! HAMBLY + Big Shot Machine and Sizzix dies = YEE HAW! I used the star in place of the "bow" element in the CPS#118 sketch and of course, tweaked things a bit.... But that's "legal!"


I used the horizontal stripe from the CPS#118 sketch and made it a closure element, secured with some Basic Grey magnets! Watch how it opens up to expose the "treasure" within!








It's a card, it's an envelope with memorabilia or journaling inside and it's INTERACTIVE! Oh, hey, check out my photography assistants!

Recognize "the spot!" wink*wink THAT'S my BEAUTIOUS paint mare, Shasta!




One last "ARTSY" photo to say "MAN, I love this sport!" I hope you do to! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VISITING! I just can't share how much joy I feel when I receive your delightful comments! Thanks for making my day!

Supplies:

Card Stock - Stampin' Up!
Designer Paper - Moxie
Card Stock Vellum - Stampin' Up!
Heavy Transparency - Hambly
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ink and Embossing Powder - Stampin' Up!
Magnet Closure - Basic Grey
Metal Stars and Rivets - Joanne's Essentials
Metal Adhesive Tape - Ranger