Ah...A Weekend with No Plans

How absolutely perfect!  All the kids' weekend activities have ended for this school year.  We have no visitors.  No plans.  It is so nice to have a completely clean slate in which to just go with the flow.  It doesn't happen often; but when it does, it feels glorious.

I have just been puttering around.  Watching TV.  Doing the odd bit of housekeeping and of course, playing around with all my craft supplies.  Last night I dug out the new Spellbinder dies that I picked up the previous week at the ScrapBox.  They were the last of the preorder that I had placed from the Winter CHA release.  Due to a snafu with the wholesaler being shorted their order from Spellbinders, they were late in coming but were well worth the wait.

This card is made using the new Rose Creation, Foliage and Ribbon Banner dies.  I must admit I am loving both the Rose Creation and the Carnation Creation dies.  I can see lots of fabulous flowers.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey pattern paper, Spellbinder dies, Martha Stewart butterfly punches, Spellbinder Impressabilties, Kryon 18kt Gold Leafing Pen, Prima bling, pop dots, Tim Holtz Distress ink,  and Darice 1/4" black pom poms.

I love the bright yellow of the Basic Grey Lauderdale "Sun Glow" pattern paper.  I think it was my favourite sheet in this paper line.  I inked the cardstock of the flowers to match the pattern paper and to give the flowers more dimension.

The pattern on the red butterfly was made from an old block printing wood cut that I painted with yellow paint and stamped on the red cardstock.  It was a scrap that I had left over from ATC experiments that didn't quite work out the way I had hoped.

The center of the flowers are just black pom poms that I dug out of the kids craft supplies.  They are quite handy as flower centers.

If you want to see this card in real life, it is going to be at the ScrapBox as of this afternoon.

New Header and a Few New Layouts

It was time for a change.  With all the tulips in bloom across the city, I thought it would be appropriate to change my header to reflect some of the gorgeous red varieties that have captured my attention this year.  I love tulips.  I love their clean lines and vibrant colours.  I must admit that is one of the few things that I really look forward to in the Spring.  Anyone that knows me knows how much I hate springtime but tulips seem to be the exception.

My parents have left and I have my house back.  I still haven't dug out my supplies yet.  I have been getting caught up with all the season finales that I pvr'd when they were visiting.  I am hoping to dig in tomorrow.

I do have a couple of layouts to share that I completed at the National Scrapbooking Day Crop that I attended a couple of weeks ago.  I was quite pleased that I managed to get 2 layouts done.  I was fighting a bad cold that weekend and I wasn't really feeling the creativity.

I used one of the new Prima mask on this layout.  I am loving the new designs that they have come out with this past CHA.

When I saw this Cosmo Cricket Delovely paper, I knew that I was going to cut out the flowers and dry emboss them on a layout.  They were perfect for layering.  It was just a matter of find the right picture to go with the paper. 

This pic was taken last spring when we went home for my grandmother's funeral.  It is of my daughter in the tree in my aunt's backyard.  This is same tree that my son was hanging out in the Huck Finn layout that I completed in February.  When we head home this summer, both kiddos want to visit this tree again....not my aunt and uncle....just the tree.  Strange kids.

I am going to keep this short.  We actually have sun peaking through and the temperature is going to get up to 26C.  The rain is coming back tomorrow so we need to get out and enjoy this while we can.

Have a good Saturday.

Card Sketch # 31

Sorry, it has been a while.

May and June, traditionally, tend to be our family's busier months.  We often have out of town visitors, school field trips, dance recitals, birthdays, get-togethers and a number of end of school activities.  Since my parents are visiting this week, I spent most of last week trying to declutter my house so I wouldn't be horribly embarrassed to have them staying with us.  While this week, I have been playing chauffeur and visiting.  They are only here until tomorrow morning and then they will be heading off on the next leg of their trip.

So needless to say, I am late posting this.  Card Sketch #31 has been posted over at the LCOM Sketch Blog.  The sketch is a shaped card based on a scalloped circle.  It was a fun sketch to do since it gave me a chance to play with making cards with the new Motif dies from Spellbinders.  I took two Motif cut outs and scored one of the cut outs at the 3/4 of an inch mark.  I, then, adhered it to the other cut out (but only at the top 3/4 of an inch) to form the card base.

The centre section is stamped with Memento ink and then coloured in with Copic Markers.  The image is from the Stamp Barn (HSH 263M).

Materials used:  Echo Park pattern paper, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Copic markers, Krylon 18 kt. gold leafing pen, KaiserCraft pearls, and pop dots.

If you would like to see the sketch and what the rest of the Card Team has come up with, please head on over to the LCOM Sketch Blog.  There are some gorgeous cards showcased.  Oh...the sketch is another one of mine. ;-)

Have a good Wednesday.

Sketch #30 Is Up

Card Sketch #30 is up over at the LCOM Sketch Blog.  Once again, I am proud to say that it is one of mine.

Interestingly enough, I have found that I have more difficulty working with my own sketches than with someone else's.  Instead of being a source of inspiration, I find myself locked into a more literal interpretation.  I usually make the sketch first and then make the card -- not the other way around.  By the time I make the card, which will often be weeks later, I seem to have developed a mental block.

This week's sketch is a more streamlined sketch so I decided that I would make a card that was less complicated than I would normally produce.  I also wanted to limited the number of supplies that I was using for an extra challenge. I was hoping that it might shake me out of my mental block.  With that in mind, I picked out a sheet of kraft cardstock, a PaperTrey Ink stamp and one sheet of Basic Grey stickers.

The result.....

If  you would like to see the sketch and what the rest of the Card Team has produced, please check out the LCOM Sketch Blog.

Don't forget that this Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day.  I hope that everyone will get a chance to be creative.  I am going to celebrate by attending a NSD Mega Crop for the Cure.  I am so looking forward to it.

Mother's Day Card

I knew this upcoming weekend is Mother's Day but for some reason it didn't really sink in that I needed to make a few cards.  I haven't done much crafting in the last two weeks since I had decided to take a break to get a number of projects done around the house instead. 

One of those projects was to move all my scrapbooking supplies out of my dining room and back upstairs.  I don't have a craft room in my house.  I store all my supplies in a closet in the computer room on the second floor.  I bring down what I want to work on to the dining room. I am sure you can see where this is going.  Eventually, the dining room begins to fill up with more and more supplies.  This wouldn't be such a huge problem if it wasn't were we eat all of our meals as well.

Needless to say, I had just gotten most of my supplies upstairs and more or less sorted when I realized I needed to make the cards.  I figured that I would just grab a few bits and pieces, the basket of flower punches and make a quick card today. 

Wishful thinking....after playing and fidgeting for about five hours, I finally have a card I like and a whole stack of supplies that need to be return to the second floor. 

I used Lily Bee's Picket Fences 6x6 pack to make the card.  The main accent flower is also made from one of the papers from the pack.  I wanted it to match well with the other papers.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Lily Bee pattern paper, Diamond Dust, Prima flowers, KaiserCraft bling, Kryon Gold Leafing Pen, McGill and Punch Bunch punches, and Spellbinder Dies.

I had designed a sentiment to go on the front of the card but I couldn't seem to get it to work.  It made the card front too busy; so, I mounted it on the interior instead:

I just have one more card to figure out today but I think I will take a break and go snuggle my little girl for a bit.  She is home sick today with a head cold. 

Have a good Monday.