Anya Treats!!

Hi everyone!!  It has been a while since I played at Anyone for Anya!  Their new challenge is a photo inspiration.  Check it out HERE!  I love the photo of the rainbow colored cake!  So pretty!  So I had to use my new Anya Treats for this challenge.

I tried to use the colors of the cake as my inspiration and colored Anya similarly.  I think half way I didn't know if i wanted it to be a bright rainbow or more pastel-y rainbow.  But I guess pastel-y won.

If the card looks familiar, it was in TGF's August newsletter.  Are you signed up for TGF's newsletter?  If not, go and sign up!  There's even a coupon!  And also check out TGF's forum on Splitcoaststampers and join in cause there will be prizes!!

Thanks for reading!!

Happy 4th!

Hi!  Now that summer is here, seems like I have more time to craft.  Though I know that could change any minute.  I got a chance to make another card.  This one is inspired by TGF's Farm Fresh Friday 4th of July Fun challenge and by Anyone For Anya's sketch challenge.  It's my first time participating with Anyone For Anya even though I've visited their blog many times before.

My little card to celebrate the 4th of July.  I used TGF's Twirl Anya and paper pieced her top.  I thought the pinwheel looked fun.  I also thought about using Twirl Anya on a scrapbook page of my family watching the 4th of July fireworks from couple years back but it's kind of hassles to get the photos printed out.  Yeah, this summer I'm totally feeling lazy.  The stars stamped behind her are from Lawn Fawn and the ticket die and stamps from PTI.  I had to add some flowers to camouflage my grass rub-on.  Only a bit of it rubbed off and then when I put it back to do the rest it just didn't look very pretty.  Thank goodness for flowers.  Though maybe I should have glued some felt grass over it or something.

Thanks for reading!  I'm off to do some cleaning and organizing.

Cheeky Geeky and Some News!!!

Hi!  I have some exciting news to share today!  Cheryl and I are now Brand Ambassadors for Perfect Layers!  Click the link or the banner on the right or bottom of this blog to see what Perfect Layers are about if you are unfamiliar with them.  There is a video which can explain how these rulers work much better than I can.  I just tried out my new set of rulers last night to create mats/layers for today's card.  

Sorry if the pictures are a bit dark.  I really wanted to try the rulers out!  Each ruler creates different size mats.

I usually mat my papers one sixteenth of an inch all around.

I had cut some paper to size and glued it to the cardstock I wanted to use.

Then I placed my ruler so that my paper would catch in the lip of the ruler and I cut the excess cardstock off with my xacto knife.  

I did that for all the sides and came out with a nice mat for my paper.

This is how I had my papers positioned without any mats.  It's still pretty cute but I love how adding some layers really make the card/papers and images pop.  Layers can also create some cohesiveness too. 

This is my final card with all the mats I created using the Perfect Layers rulers.  I'm also so happy that I got The Greeting Farm's Cheeky Geeky!  I hope they come out with an Anya with glasses too.  Anyway, I colored her up in purple shades with Copics.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn and I thought I'd give this to one of my kids' teachers at the end of the school year.  I added some purple crocheted lace on the bottom to tie in the purple color a bit more since I couldn't really find purple paper.

I added some black pearls around the image and bling on her glasses.  Also added glossy accents on her glasses and ponytail holders.

Used the Deconstructed Sketch 51 for this card.  I love Jen's sketches!

Also entering this card into All That Scraps Challenge -- Anything Goes, 7 Kids College Fund Challenge #47 --  Color Me Purple! and Anyone For Anya? -- Something Lacy.

I know this was a bit of a long post but just wanted to share our new tools!  And if you're interested we do have a coupon code which is this&that5% that you can enter at checkout.  There is a facebook page you can check out too!

Thanks so much for reading!

all my heart

Hi!  Hmm, ever feel kind of uninspired?  Or maybe too overwhelmed to create?  Sometimes there are so many cute stamps I want to color up or so many fun challenges I want to participate in that I can't get myself to pick one and get started.  I knew I wanted to participate in Anyone for Anya's Girly Girl Challenge and to use the current TGF sketch 13 at SCS but I don't know if I absolutely love what I created.  Oh well.

I decided to use TGF's Daisy since I hadn't even trimmed her yet.  I know, I still have a few more to use that are still untrimmed.  I do love how bright-eyed she is.  Oh, and while I was coloring her, I thought her hair reminded me of Kate from Jon & Kate Plus 8.  You know, it's all flat in the front but really poofed up in the back.  I was really sad when they got a divorce.  I mean, poor babies!  Anyway, I slapped on some flowers and heart rhinestones I picked up from Walmart.  They had lots of different shaped/colored ones so I picked up a few.  It's too hard to decide which one NOT to buy so I buy at least one of every style.  Hehe.

Yeah, I like her, she's a cutie.  You know what other show I'm kind of addicted to?  Long Island Medium.  It's so fascinating.  I mean, wow, how does she know all that stuff and to communicate with the dead?  Kind of creepy but neat at the same time.  Plus she has a really likable personality, I think.

Anyway, I don't think I talked much about crafting in this post.  Haha.  But thanks for reading anyway!

Nymph Lucy

Hi!  I've been sick this whole week since I think I have the flu that my youngest had.  It literally kicked my butt and I had to sleep early every night like 8 or 9 and then sleep some more after dropping off the kids.  So even though I wanted to make this next card, it took me a while to put together.  This is for the following challenges:  iCopic Weekly Challenge #78 -- Spring Colors, Sweet Stampin' Pixies Challenge #2 -- Use Kraft,  All That Scraps -- Anything Goes, and Anyone For Anya -- Sketch.

I love the recent releases over at CC Designs, especially Nymph Lucy.  I don't know why but she's so darn cute.  If you've been a long time follower you would know that I had a hard time loving images that lacked a mouth.  It's because they could look spooky to some degree, couldn't they?  Like some scary horror story (Obake!).  So it even took me a while to use TGF's Miss Anya stamps.  Even my kids will notice that first, She doesn't have a mouth.  But I think I'm over that fear and I've overcome my urge to draw in some lips. 

In the sketch there were these little bar thingys on the bottom and right but decided to add a little swirly thing instead (from MFT).  I don't know if I'm quite lovin' that.  If this card doesn't quite add up, I blame it on the flu.  My head's still a little wobbly feeling.  Really, I even bumped into our wall in the driveway reversing the car.  So bad. 

I'm not sure if I'm quite lovin' her hair either.  I like the color just not the way I colored it.  Again, I blame it on the flu.  It was hard for me to focus.  I love this Doodlebug paper pad.  I should get another one before they are all gone.

I've been wanting to share this creation by my youngest who is in preschool.  He loves to draw and he saw that his big sister was drawing some cubes for homework.  She got tired of drawing them for him so she taught him how.  And this is what he learned!  He used a square stencil to draw the front and back squares and then connected the corners up.  I was pretty impressed and he knows trapezoids too!  I love that his preschool teachers teach him beyond the basics. 

My head is starting to hurt so I'm gonna stop here.  Thanks for reading!

Best Mates

Hi!  I decided to use yet another retired and neglected stamp set from The Greeting Farm called Best Mates to make more home decor.  I wasn't sure who I could give this to if I made it into a card so I thought I'd put it in my room next to the other one I made HERE.  Plus it was the perfect time to use this set since the challenge over at Anyone for Anya was to create a pirate themed card.  I used The Deconstructed Sketch #45 for help in the layout.

I like that quote.  And I think those are monkeys, right?  But what is that one on the right eating?  Cheese, pizza, or something else?  I made it into cheese.  

I added some swirly rhinestones and black pearls all around too.  The pirate ship is heat embossed with some glitter too.  I wanna add something heat embossed to everything I make now.  Hehe. 

I added some seam binding too.  I like using seam binding.  It's easier to tie a bow with and doesn't have to look perfect.

I also want to enter this in TGF's Retro Fresh Challenge -- Spring Cleaning.  But it would be my second entry.  Can I do that?  I don't know if there are rules to multiple entries in the same challenge.  I hope it's okay. 

Thanks for reading!

Birthday card

Hello, I actually have another card...it was actually a card I made without any occasion or person in mind, which is a little unusual for me since I'm usually cramming at the last minute to send things out!  It was nice to have some down time over spring break.  Anyhow, it also conveniently happens to be a Free for All challenge at Anyone for Anya this week.

So I jumped on the big Anya bandwagon.  Also jumped on the copic bandwagon, except for the hair which is black colored pencil.  I kind of like that the limbs were thin and the clothes were mostly hidden by the box.  It seemed like a good beginner thing to start with coloring a box.  Patterned paper is from Echo Park's Happy Days.  Cut the one border with the perfect layers ruler.  Border punch was Fiskars.  Hmm, not much else I can add about this card.  Maybe it could have used a sentiment somewhere near the bottom, but I didn't look too hard for a small birthday sentiment.  Have a good day!

Let's Hang

Hi!  It's been a pretty productive day so far.  Actually did some cleaning which I really don't like to do but I felt a little guilty ever since I read an article saying homemakers probably would get about $90,000 annually if they got paid.  And that is the low end estimate.  So I thought, geez, I don't think I do that much.  I do spend a lot of time just vegging out too when the kids are at school.  But today, I cleaned and swept and got all dusty.  Yucks!  Then afterwards, I got to finish my card.  Yay!

So I'm playing along with TGF's Friday Spy-Day #16 and Anyone for Anya's Bling it On. 

Yesterday, I got some new Copics from iCopic.  It was my first time ordering from them and I'm so happy with how fast my order came.  I ordered on Friday and it arrived on Monday!  So last night I wanted to try out some of my new colors so I stamped TGF's Abbey and colored her bright and fun.  I think I could still use some more Copics!  Hehe.

I added some stickles to her hair, bow, belt buckle, and shoes.  Then added rhinestones randomly around the card and on her bow. 

That's it for now.  Thanks for reading!

Love is all you need

Hi!  Finally, a crafty project to share with you.  I used the sketch from Anyone For Anya and used the theme from TGF's Retro-Fresh Challenge -- Spring Cleaning. 

 

It's actually a nonfunctional piece of home decor.  Hehe.  I felt like making something to hang around the house though maybe it will go in my bedroom instead.  I used Kaisercraft's thick boards that I got from a sale.  It came as a 4 pack to be used like a mini-album.  But I decided to use each page separately.  I bought a pack of 7Gypsies ATC sentiment cards a while back and thought this one fit the image nicely.  And yes, it totally reminds me of The Beatles' song All You Need is Love.  I'll have to You Tube it.

So this is from one of The Greeting Farm's older sets called Panda Friends.  I bought it after searching for TGF's older stamp sets through their list of retail stores that can be found on their store website.  Yes, I clicked on every link in the US and some in other countries to see what older sets I could find.  I've had it for a while and never inked up this image.  I like that she's with 3 little pandas like my 3 kids.  So not only do I buy stamps that have the same name as me, I also buy stamps that remind me of my kids.  Though one of my kids asked me where daddy is.  Umm, at work?  Hehe.  Oh, I added in the black center of her eyes cause they are just white and look kind of spooky like that.

Oh, here's the video!  I love this song!  I love The Beatles!  Random fact number 11.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

magnetic note board

Hi!  I've been working on a couple of projects that at times have been frustrating.  And I wonder why do I do what I do?  Can't I just make things simple?  So I kind of gave up on some things for this magnetic note board.  I wanted to create a Mizuhiki butterfly but just could not find a tutorial or figure it out by staring at the photo for hours at a time.  So finally I just had to call it quits.  Do I really need that butterfly?  YES!  But I'll have to let it go for my sanity.  Not to mention that the weather here has been horrible with rain, thunder, lightning and hail and now wind, and it makes me feel tired and cranky.  Driving in this kind of weather is awful too!  Today is not as bad but the wind has really picked up. 

Anyway, I made this board for the Asian inspired theme over at Anyone for Anya.  I also have gotten a little addicted to this new technique (for me, anyway) of 3D paper piecing.  The tutorial can be found HERE and it is a bit time consuming but the end product is really neat.   

Here is TGF's Geisha Anya that I've paper pieced using the 3D idea.  You can see that it doesn't lay flat.  You'll have to check out the tutorial to see how it gets that way. 

Here is another angle.  I've cut out many layers on her hair and even the tiniest flowers on her kimono.  I think it's neat that you can achieve the 3D look without using foam or dimensional tape.

This is the completed magnetic board.  I covered the metal sheet you can find at the local craft store or even at home improvement stores with Japanese washi paper.  I place it into a shadowbox frame since I had one at home just collecting dust. 

Because I didn't want to flatten her out, I used dimensionals to attach her onto the board.

I made little magnets too using Tim Holtz's fragments charms and this cute bunny washi paper that I had left over.  I added bows with glue dots.  I don't have magnets on them yet though!  I would've gone today to pick some up but the weather again made me stay home.

How the magnets look on the board.  Just pretend that they are actually stuck on.

I have another project using this 3D technique that has also been driving me a bit crazy.  Hopefully I'll get that done soon.

Thanks for reading!