Congratulations Austin!

Just a quick post to show a card that I made for my nephew, Austin.  He recently earned the rank Eagle Scout and I attended his Eagle Scout Court of Honor this past Friday night.  I used Karen Burniston's Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts dies.  These dies allow you to produce a pop-up card in a matter of minutes!!!

It's a pretty basic card, I know, but I don't make very many cards for boys so I wasn't sure what else to do with it!!  The card base and pop-up insert were cut using the Horizontal A2 Card with the Circle Label Pop-up.  The sentiment I ended up using for the inside required a larger stamping area so I used the Frame & Label Bigz die and attached it to the circle label.  On the front of the card I used the Fancy Frame die.  The stamps used are from The Stamps of Life birthday2celebrate and flowers2share sets and Hampton Arts Ditto.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good News!!!

I tried to post this earlier today but blogger wasn't cooperating.  So by now many of you have already heard the news.  I'm so excited to say that I've been asked to be on the design team for Frilly and Funkie!!  Thank you so much to everyone who already left comments congratulating me!  I really appreciate everyone's good wishes.

I'm going to be working alongside some very creative people--Sue, Rebecca, Terry, Buttons, Trace and, of course, Linda.  I feel very lucky indeed!  So thank you to Linda, of the Funkie Junkie Boutique, for this opportunity!

Make sure you visit the Frilly and Funkie blog regularly and join in the fun!

CC2C Grande Finale!

Happy New Year!  Over at Studio L3, Linda is hosting the finale for the Compendium of Curiosities Vol II Challenges and what a finale it is!  We all get the opportunity to wish Happy Birthday to Tim Holtz whose birthday is January 7th.  The challenge is to create a birthday wish for Tim using any technique from Volume I or Volume II of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities books.

I made a pop-up birthday card using the Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts system created by  Karen Burniston.  The techniques included are basic Distress Ink blending, Distress Markers on page 50 of Volume II and Perfect Pearls Mist on page 54 of Volume II.

I want to wish Tim a birthday full of memories that include family, friends, love and laughter--all things that everyone should enjoy on their special day!

For the base card, I used Karen's Sizzix Bigz XL Pop 'N Cuts Horizontal A2 w/Circle Label die.  Other dies used were Karen's Sizzix Sizzlits Love die set, Flagpole w/ Lantern & Sign Decorative Strip, and her Sizzlits Celebrate die set.  The paper is taken from Tim's Lost and Found paper stash.  The stamp sets used were Tim's Good Thoughts, Words for Thought and Winged Things II.  Also used was Ranger black archival ink, Tim's distress markers, distress inks in Aged Mahogany and Brushed Corduroy, Perfect Pearls Mist in Sunflower Sparkle, Idea-ology Chit Chat stickers and a journal ticket.  The birthday hat is from Artchix Studio.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog!  I appreciate it.  Have a great day!

12 Tags of 2012-December Tag #2

I'm back again with my second tag for December.  I am still in the holiday spirit and loved making both of the December tags!  I took the easy route and followed Tim's instructions.  I didn't have the snowflake embellishment so I used the Alterations Movers & Shapers snowflake die to cut one from grungeboard and then colored it with the Brushed Pewter distress stain.  I also used the blue tinsel trim instead of the silver.

I really love the effect that the metallic stains give.  I'll have to remember to use them more often!

I'm also entering this at Inspiration Emporium where the monthly challenge is Joyful Creations.

Thanks for stopping by!  I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year!!

12 Tags of 2012-December Tag #1

I'm bringing up the rear again with my December tag for the 12 Tags of 2012.  I really loved the original 12 Tags of December format and was so excited to see a new tag every day beginning December 1st.  But I was never able to keep up with Tim and make a tag each day.  The change to the tag-a-month format is much more my pace!!

This month I made a little change to the first tag.  My neighbor has a beautiful holiday wreath on her door with purple poinsettias and a big purple and gold ribbon.  I love that wreath!  So I decided to make my poinsettia tag using Distress stain in Seedless Preserves and Brushed Pewter instead of Fired Brick and Tarnished Brass.  I love the way it turned out!

I'm also entering this at Inspiration Emporium where the monthly challenge theme is Joyful Creations.

I'll be back soon with my second tag for December.  Thanks for stopping by!  Now go make something!

A Merry Little Christmas Card to Everyone

I've neglected my blog, my blog followers and the blogs I follow over the past few weeks.  I was diligently making my Christmas cards.  I try to do this every year since I'm not very good at making cards for birthdays, etc., during the year. This year I waited too late to start and took on a design that was too detailed given the amount of time I had to make them.  But once I realized how long they would take I had already invested too much to turn back.  So here is a holiday card to all of you!  Thank you so much for all of your support and your kind comments.  I hope that the holiday finds you happy, healthy and surrounded by friends and family!!

The sentiment at the top right corner says "Wishing you a sparkling holiday!".

12 Tags of 2012-November

Happy Friday Everyone!  I hope you are all looking forward to the weekend like I am.  Today I have my November tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2012.  I didn't follow the November-Thankful theme.  I tried, really I did. My first attempt at Tim's tag resulted in the tag sticking to the iron, instead of just the embossing material-FAIL :( -so that one went into the trash.  On the second attempt I used too much stain or water, or both, and the stain/water leeched under the embossed area so when I finally got the ironing technique to work you couldn't really tell what the image was supposed to be-FAIL AGAIN.  Ugh.  This was at about 8:45pm last night, too.  My punishment for waiting until the last minute to do something!!

So after ruining two tags I decided to move on to a different technique and theme.  I switched gears and used the Paint Dabber Resist technique from the Compendium of Curiosities, Volume 1.  I also decided to make a Wintry tag instead of a Thankful tag since I'm in Christmas mode now.  Don't be fooled though...my tree is up and has lights on it (because it's a pre-lit one, LOL!) but no ornaments.  The boxes with my decorations have been sitting in my dining room since last weekend.  I just keep stepping over them.  And I haven't even begun making my Christmas cards for this year yet.  Meh...it will all get done eventually.  I hope.  :)

Well, enough of that, here's my tag...

 

I started off by stamping the trees from the Reindeer Flight set with the Ranger Snow Cap paint dabber.  I applied heat to dry it and then inked the tag with Distress Inks in Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood.  Then I lightly rubbed the trees with a damp paper towel to remove the ink.  I distressed the edges of the tag and then inked them with Walnut Stain DI.  Then did the Spritz and Flick technique.  Once the tag was dry I stamped the sentiment from the Seasons Silhouettes stamp set using the masking tape technique that Tim demonstrated. Great technique!  I added Picket Fence stickles to the trees to give them the icy-snowy look and then randomly stamped the small snowflake from the Winter Sketchbook stamp set using the Snow Cap paint dabber.

 

The die cuts are Core'dinations paper cut with the TH Alterations Festive Greenery strip and they were sanded and distressed as well.  The ribbon was dyed using Distress Stain in Faded Jeans, Iced Spruce (new!) and Brushed Pewter.  I added the decorative corners (Michael's Recollections) as an afterthought. Maybe I should have stamped my sentiment a little higher I guess.  Lastly, I added the Idea-ology Trinket Pin and Muse Token.

 

Well, that's about it!  All-in-all I'm happy with how this turned out.  I wish it had come out a little brighter.  Since it didn't I've decided that it's a wintry nighttime scene!  Yeah, that works!

 

In addition to entering this at Tim's 12 Tags of 2012 , I'm also entering it at Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog where the theme is Anything Goes.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go make something!