A Little Lenten Humor

Friday will be here very shortly, and as a Catholic, that means no meat during Lent.   So what to eat in place of meat?  A little sole comes to mind.  Luckily, these fish aren't on the menu (this week).  I'll probably make a veggie pizza for the family.

Meanwhile, I made this Z-Fold card for this week's Hambo Hoedown.  I hadn't made a Z-fold card in a while, and I like the way it unfolds to reveal, well, anything you want!
Here, my card is closed and the scene is of two cross-eyed lovers.  Even their air bubbles are shaped like hearts!  I used some patterned paper that I had snagged over the summer at a rummage sale.  The digi image, called Sole Mates from Hambo Stamps, came with four sentiments, and the fish originally are together with digi hearts between them.
I fussy cut the fish apart to place one on the front of my card, and one (with dimensional tape) on the inside of my card.  Except you can see part of the inside even when the card is closed!  And of course you see the word SoleMates.

When the card is opened, it not only will stand on its own, but opens up the scene and also delivers the card sentiment: "Happy Anniversary to a Couple of...Solemates".
I love how you can catch a glimpse of the whole whale with this folded card.

So now you need to put on your dancing shoes and hurry to the Hoedown to play in their challenge.  Its a TicTacToe challenge.  They offer nine different elements you can use for your card or project, but your choice must make three across to make TicTacToe.  There are several different combinations, so everyone's cards are sure to be different and inspiring.  Here's their TicTacToe Board:                                                                    

orange	ribbon	stripes
glossy accents	blue	dry embossing
dots	green	buttons

  Hmm, didn't come completely through, but you get the idea.  I went for TicTacToe down the middle column, using the boxes with RIBBON, BLUE and GREEN.  If you look at my card, the inside fold, on which the sentiment has been written, is decorated with ribbon and fiber, thus making my three across!
So what are you waiting for?  Happy Crafting at the Hoedown this week!

Going Green is the Challenge...

...not only on my personal blog, but at Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog as well!  So here is an easy project that fits right into the Spring of things (play on words there).  I had purchased a few colored bud vases from michael's last year, but hadn't done anything to them.  I think because of my Spring allergies I have a psychological block when it comes to flowers.
So I happened onto the bud vases and thought one would make a nice gift for my co-worker, who doesn't suffer from allergies like me and plans for gardens and flowers and vegetables thrill her to no end.

I chose the green bud vase, since it is nearing St. Patrick's Day and, well, let's face it, "going green" challenge???



I chose an image from the Popcorn the Bear "Thanks a Bunch" stamp set and colored it with my trusty Copics.  A little Stickles to glitz the centers of the flowers and I adhered him to my vase. But the flowers stuck out so!  After a little trim and a cut here and there, you can see from the front view that he is holding two large flowers, and when you turn the vase around...


I adhered one of the "cut-offs", as well as added a couple single flowers, also from the set.  Since mommy duck never lets her ducklings stray far from her, I also colored a larger Mommy duck and adhered her to one side of the vase.


So all the sides of my vase sport stamped images from the Thanks a Bunch stamp set.  I finished off the vase with some raffie and a bead or two and I have a lovely gift that I pulled together from leftovers in my own craft room. 


I could open up a craft store with the supplies and leftovers I have stashed in every space possible, but I am too greedy to give it up, I am!

Below are a photo of the vase showing the mommy duck, and the Copics I used to color my images. The browns are of course for Popcorn and the rest are for the flowers and the ducks.




Here's the closeup of Popcorn:

So now that I hope to have inspired you to "go green" and recycle, reuse and upcycle your crafts, why don't you try a project using a Crafter's Companion stamp and join in the challenge?  The prize this month is your choice of 3 sets of Spectrum Noir markers. 

Oh boy, would I love to get my hands on more of those.  I already have the Reds and Pinks and can't wait for payday to add to my collection.  They are great alcohol markers that blend so easily for dimensional coloring, and the price is very economical!

If you are interested, I have Blog Candy this month.  Check out the March 1 post for details!!

Going Green with the Chi

Chi digi images, that is from Squigglefly Designs!  Fawn Palmer has some awesome images using Chinese characters that you can find at the Squigglefly shop. 

Meanwhile, I am mastering the art of upcycling, cleverly disguised as "cleaning out my stash".  I flipped through my file folder of blue patterned paper leftovers, and found the smallest pieces from which to punch out some circles. 

I punched enough of the same pattern to line my folded card edge with them, folding over half the circles onto the back side.  Then I took some of the same and some coordinatinf circles and made a 3D "balloon" or "bubble" as an embellishment to my card. 
Finally, I printed out my Squigglefly image and cut it with rough edged scissors and gave the edges a bit of the same coordinating color from the circles.
Another CAS (Clean And Simple) card made for my "going Green" project.  Not a lot of the color green here, but wait, there are more days in the month to play...

For the details on the 3D embellishment, I punched the circles and folded them in half, with the pattern on the inside fold.  I took 5 of them and started adhering the folded circles to each other.  After it was "built", I placed it on my card.  I've used this 3D embellishment as flowers as well.

Did I mention I have Blog Candy I am giving away to one lucky person who follows my blog and comments on my posts?  Check out my March 1 posting for the details!

Hambo Hoedown Humor

Good Morning, crafters!  I finally had a chance to sit down and create this weekend!  Between taking care of family, work and presonal health, it has been quite a week!  But now to show off the few minutes I had on my own today.

I made a card for this week's Hambo Hoedown, using the digi-image I received FREE just for playing in the challenge!  The digi is called Monsterweights and comes with not one, not two, but three sentiments!!  I used the image with the sketch Hambo provided for their challenge, and made it into a Get Well card.  The center of my flower embellishment sports a button from a package of nurse-themed buttons I snagged when my local Michael's store closed for good (a sad day for all here).  The inside of the card uses the sentiment: "Thought you could use a lift."
Love the humorous sentiments and digi's that Hambo Stamps offers!!
Now how about a free digi?  Well, all you have to do is dance in this week's Hoedown, and they will send you one free!!  Everyone is a winner!
Got some short lengths of ribbon?  They are perfect for that extra strip of color on a card, like my orange bit of ribbon on my own.  Always going green and recycling!!

Squigglefly New Release!

Nothing says Spring like a new kitten.  And nothing says "It's time to add onto your digi image collection like a new release from Squigglefly!!  Here's Teacup Kitty digi image from artist Louise Gardner.  Isn't that kitty so sweet?  Don't you just want to take her up in your hands and put her up against your cheek and let all your worries just melt, along with your heart?!

At least, that's what would happen to me if I started with one little kitty!  Then it would turn into two, because of course she's lonely and needs company.  Then three, because a little competition never hurt anyone. Then four to get rid of that bothersome threesome, then...

Well, the inside of my easel card says it all!

So, it's no little kitties for me, which is okay for my family, as half of them are allergic to cats!  I have to feed my kitty craving by coloring Squigglefly kitties and making cards.

You can get Teacup Kitty and other new releases from Squigglefly Stamps.  Want to win a free digi image?  Try the Squigglefly Challenge Blog.  This week's challenge is to make a card using a Squigglefly image with a SPRING theme!

p.s. (Did you notice my kitty's favorite toy is teetering on the edge of the teacup? Be careful, little mousie, or you'll be my kitty's lunch).

CHOCOLATE BLOG HOP CANDY WINNER:
Random generator has chosen commenter number nine.  That's Holly!  Holly, email me your mail addy and I will send you the Housemouse Chipboard Album I made for the Hop, and Congrats!!!

Don't forget that I have BLOG CANDY for one random person.  Check out the March 1 blog post for details!!  My card is green, and not just because of the pretty green bow atop my kitty's head.  The card base was made from a legal-sized manila folder that the office couldn't use anymore.  The manila is nice and strudy, especially for irregularly folded cards, like this easel card.  Show me your "going green" project!!

Going Green with Queen Kat Designs

Another day, another use for paint chips!!  This time I glued two pieces of coordinating paint chips together, punched a hole in the center of the square, cut in from each corner to ALMOST the center (because of course if you cut all the way to the center you would have four triangles!) and then punched holes on the left corner of each "almost triangle" of my paint chip.  I attached each hole-punched corner with a brad, so that the corners, when brought to the center, formed a pinwheel.
I added a large jewel onto the brads end so it wouldn't show.

So what can you do with a handmade pinwheel made out of paint chips?  Practically anything, crafters, the sky's the limit.  Today I made a card using Queen Kat Design's "Unicorn" by artist Christina Lynn Myers.  Since the pinwheel was a combo of navy and teal colors, I stamped my image with Navy ink, then used coordinating teal colors for the image, adding a little Copic shading with RV00 for the lines of my mythical creature.

I'm having fun with my newest sets of Spellbinders Nestabilities.  This one is called FLeur de Lis Rectangles.  I inked an embossed card front for the background, added some teal webbing, popped my pinwheel onto the side, with the metal charm letters spelling out DREAM, and attached my image to the card to finish it off.  If you look close you can see a little printing on the paint chip; that identifies the color.  I kind of like the fact that it shows up!!

So three things to remember from this blog post:  Queen Kat Design has new releases, which includes this gorgeous Unicorn image; I am giving away Blog Candy to everyone who "goes green" and links a photo of their project in the comment section below; and there are a million uses for paint chips, as well as other items you may have thought of as trash.

Check out the QKD Facebook page for all the March releases in the next week.  Check out my March 1 post for details of my blog candy challenge.  Keep crafting!!

Going Green in Honor of St. Patrick with a Challenge and Blog Candy

From now until St. Pat's Day, I will be showcasing some GREEN projects, in more ways than one.  For instance, today I colored a Sweet Pea image from artist Terra Bidlespacher called "The Shore".  After I cut the image out with my Fleur de Lis Rectangles Die from Spellbinders, I chose a paint chip from my local Menards store for the background of the cardbase.  I've had several of these multi-color paint chips since forever (well, more than a year), without using them up, so I figured now was the time!  I set off my scene with a few tiny seashells salvaged from a broken bracelet, and a wisp of fiber in coordinating colors, and my card is complete. 
p.s. (The inside of the card uses the negative cut from the Spellbinders die. Totally green, inside AND out)

So I am giving a personal challenge to my followers, and whoever happens upon this blog post.  Show me how you reuse, recycle, or upcycle and on St. Pat's Day, and I will give away a Sweet Pea rubber stamp to a random winner.  You can use the color green on your project, or you can recycle something to make it a "green" card or project in economical terms.  One link to your gallery or blog post only, which you need to put into your comment when you leave me some love.  I'll announce the random winner on March 17th, so here's hoping the little leprechauns are working in your favor!!