Sunday, July 24, 2011

Quick (Birthday Card) Post....

My middle child turns 18 tomorrow/today....hard to believe.   In fact, this was a banner year for birthdays in our house.  My oldest turned 21, my middle is now 18 and my youngest turned 16.  All birthdays that  have a lot of significance attached to them.  And my dear husband, well, he turned 50 a few months back.  Me you ask?  Well, I'll be turning, um, ah 30!  Yeah, that's right....30 near the end of summer!  Anyhoo-here is the card I made for Clarice.  I used a Northwoods stamp, watercolor pencils and then stamped the butterfly a second time on a piece of acetate and then popped it up, wings in flight, over the colored butterfly.  Think I like this...I will have to work with style more.

                                                                    
Take care and enjoy your day.  And, Thanks for stopping by!

Be well,
Sheila

Friday, July 22, 2011

Sally Sells Sea Shells....

I made a card that is a little out of the box (envelope?) for me.  I left my comfort zone of square cards and instead followed Card Pattern sketch 124.  I really liked the sketch, alot, but whoa...that card was long and definetely not square.



I also wanted to enter a card into the City Crafter Challenge 

                                              
for this week which was called "It's a Shore Thing".  The ladies there had the most wonderful image for their challenge...


...and I so was going to follow that image....use all those lovely colors (cuz I do love my colors) and I was all set to go except the directions for the challenge were to create a card based on our recollections of the beach, the shore etc....and my memories are not filled with colors that stray to much from blues, browns and blinding white.  I grew up in Racine, Wi which is on Lake Michigan.  And I spent alot of time there.  I also spent almost every summer of my life as a kid swimming at Rehoboth Beach, Deleware or at a cottage at Chesapeake Bay.  So, there were endless beaches, brown boardwalks, blue upon blue ocean all frosted with blinding white sun glare.  It was a lovely way to spend summers.  And the best part....I actually had all these little seashells and stuff from a project that I did a few years ago for my daughter!  Yeah!-Love it when the supplies get all used up....


After I made my card I felt like maybe some of my proportions were off...funny how I don't "see" that until I upload and look at the card as a "picture" but, next time I stray from my square card comfort zone I will have my dimensions down!

Thank you so much for stopping by and I really appreciate the time you spend visiting!

Be well,
Sheila
                                                                       
                                               
                                                                  

Thursday, July 21, 2011

A Bit O' the Green.....

Yesterday I went to Chicago and had a truly wonderful day...when I came home, after taking a seriously wrong turn out of Chi-Town, during rush hour traffic and returned home quite late this (instead of my children!) was what met me at the front door.



How absolutely charming and perfect to be greeted by a lovely green frog at the end of a really wonderful (driving direction skills aside) day.  It is super hot here in Wisconsin - we actually are in the middle of a heat wave and I think that this little guy hopped way up to my front door window to press himself against the cool glass.  Well, at least that is my theory...conceivable he could have climbed up there to peer through the glass and taunt my two dachsies who were barking furiously at him from inside and below!  Anyways, I thought that his color was so beautiful...it is hard to see the shades of green as well as the glisten and shine that his skin had.  So, this wonderfully unexpected guest became my inspiration for my next card.   

                                                                

I wanted to enter the Play Date Cafe's latest Challenge here of creating a card with a Color Splash.  I liked this challenge as it allowed me to use whatever color I wanted as the accent.
        

...and if this is Jello then I seriously want it with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Yum.  I also am entering this card into the Moxie Fab World Challenge of Fanatical Botanicals.  I have never entered anything there before but am loving the theme so....I might just have to enter a few....maybe.  Finally, I used favorite Hero Arts stamp as well as HA bling and a really lovely sentiment from Penny Black that I hold very dear to my heart after my husbands sudden illness and subsequent recovery.  Life should be celebrated!  Sometimes we expend all our energy into the "living" aspect of life and very little into the reveling, the utter celebration that each moment contains.  I am trying to be more cognizant of the small celebrations in my life....like being greeted at the door by a very green, diminutive, wannabe handsome prince.

Be well,
Sheila
                                        

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Just a quick shout out....

To Nancy who is doing a great job today guest blogging on Jill's Inspired by....blog.  If you follow her requirements she presents a GREAT chance to win some wonderful blog candy.....seen here!


Take a moment and stop by Nancy's Happy Heart Studio and check out both cards....they're great!

Be well,
Sheila
                                                                          

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sun! Sun! Mr. Golden Sun, Please Shine Down on Me.....

Ok....I'm into suns at the moment.....we are having a record heat spell this week.   I totally loved the challenge at City Crafter Challenge Blog and then I remembered that  I had this old-old-old sun stamp of mine along with an old sentiment in my hardly ever used bin.  Love it.  It's funky.  So, another card for that particular challenge!    

                                                                  Take it, it\ 







                    
I like this card and the overall design but think that if I were to do it again I would try to space the sentiments a little farther away from the stamped image....otherwise, to make this look "hot and sunny" I first colored with Distress Inks than accented those colors with similar but a shade darker markers. Then I added glitter pen or stickles to make it "sizzle"!  Finally, all sections of the card where cut out and layered on top of each other using pop dots. Thanks for stopping by again...I always appreciate it!  Really!

Be well, 

Sheila                                                                

Saturday, July 16, 2011

A Quiet Saturday....

Today was a quiet day all to myself.  That hardly ever happens!  My 17 year old went to spend the weekend with my 21 year old in Minn, my son was invited to a friend's cottage for the weekend and my husband went down to spend the day with his father.  And I stayed home and it was glorious!  I puttered, cleaned, crafted, read and went on my daily 2+ hour walk.  I loved every minute of today.  I hope you all loved the day that you had!  I crafted a card for a new challenge.....I have seen alot of people coming across my feed who are doing the challenge on the City Crafter Challenge Blog.    I had never heard of this blog/challenge before so I thought I would check it out.  And when I saw that the current challenge was to make a project that used the word "sun" or used an image of a sun a card, completely formed, popped into my head - really, that never happens.  I had made a flower a week ago for a HA scramble and while I was making it I thought to myself that the flower looked so sunny so today I decided to make another one in hot sun - type colors and use that as my sun image.
  
Take it, it\


I also was able to use the word "sun" in my sentiment so it all worked out perfectly....and I really like this card alot!  The stamped flower and leaves are Hero Art and the sentiment is Magenta.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you're also having a wonderful weekend!

Be well,
Sheila

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Summer Card Camp....(trying hard to be a good camper)

Hokey....trying very hard to be a good camper and work with the colors that are assigned to us this week.  Which, I actually like.  But, I just have all these other card ideas in my head at the moment and so it is always difficult to sit down and do my "assigned" work....ha!  So here are this week's colors....
And here is my card....I am actually going to put it in here twice so you can see the dimension that the "inchie'twinchie" squares give it. I also followed Card Patterns Sketch 123

                                               


                                                         
I really debated about adding a sentiment...the card  above the ribbon looks somewhat bare.  But, ultimately I decided against adding anything else as I just really like (love?) the way the the distressed card stock looks.....all mottled and shade-y-ish.  Thanks for stopping by and I sure appreciate the time you spend visiting!

Be well,
Sheila
                                                                

Shaped Card...

I am trying to use my Spellbinders Dies more often.  I had them packed in such a way that it was really difficult to go through them and find the one that I wanted.  Now that I have done some major reorganizing of my craft room I find that I am able to readily  get my hands on more of my supplies...I like that because I feel that I was getting into somewhat of a rut with my cards....to me they all began looking alike.  Don't get me wrong now...I still like what I created and I still got tremendous enjoyment out of the whole creative process but did feel that maybe stuff was getting a little bit stale.  So, I went "shopping" through my own stuff and found  supplies that were either little used or, horrors, never used!  Lots of times this tends to be the fate of my dies.  They always look so cool when everyone else in blogworld uses them but for me the use of dies tended to be somewhat of a pain.  They would have to be located, a space would have to be cleared away for me to haul out the machine and etc....now, that I have reaorganized mah' stuff I can reach everything more easily, have numerous work spaces to use and can then put my stuff away again easy peasy!  This is a card using the same Heartfelt Creations stamp that I blogged about here but this time I stamped it on some watercolor paper that Lisa from I{love}Mementos was so kind to put in my last order.  Wow!  What a difference between the two stamped images.....I like it though...the sentiment is one of my all time favs from Hero Arts


                                                              


Thank you so much for stopping by......I always appreciate your visits ;-D

Be well,
Sheila

LOVING THIS SKETCH!

Hi All!  For whatever reason, today seems to be a super good day.....maybe it's because the weather is beautiful, my husband and I went out last night with another couple or simply because my son picked me up a diet coke on his way home from work it and was super, icey cold.  Whatever the reason....(also, could it be because  I have some scrapping time to myself??) I am enjoying the day.  Now I'm going to declare straight out....I LOVE THIS CARD.  The colors, the sketch layout from Mojo Monday 199 and the stamps...one a new one from Heartfelt Creations (which I bought online at I {Love} Mementos) and an oldoldold one that I got a long time ago from Cornish Farms... which are out of biz I think.  Anyways, I did follow some of Jill Foster's tutorials for the coloring of the flowers....I used the Faber Castell Big Brush markers as well as their pastel pencils and I really like the effect.  I almost always turn to my Prismacolor pencils to color images so using markers was really a big change for me.  These went on really nice and smooth and blended so easily.....just like the tutorial said they would!  I am entering this card in Mojo Monday 199 as well as linking it up for my Summer Card Camp this week.  Seriously, I have been beyond delinquent for card camp..... just don't "play well with others" I guess! Heehee.  And finally, I believe I will add this to the Lily Pad July Card Chain.  I haven't participated in that since before my husband took ill and I'm glad to have a card to link up.....I always liked that  card chain.


                                                        




So I hope you are also having a good day....and thank you so much for stopping by today!

Be well,
Sheila

Monday, July 11, 2011

New Stamps in the mail......YEAH!

Hi Everyone!  I got a package in the mail and it has made me soooo happy!  I have been using the I {Love} Memento's blog/store lately and I am so thrilled with the service that I am getting from them.  I tend to watch Jill Foster's PB&J Monday's and then, being all filled with crafty inspiration, go to the Memento's webstore and purchase some item that Jill has used in her videos.....so, anyways, today I got a package and it contained this stamp which I basically LOVE and can see so many ways that I can color it!  Today I just used pinks, reds and neutrals to be able to use it in two challenges.  I wanted something to enter into the Shabby Tea Room Challenge Flower Power! which I have never entered before and also I am entering it into the CR84FN Challenge which just happens to use the same colors.  Nice right?  Love it when it works out that way. 

                                                    



I really had fun inking up this stamp.....I hope you enjoy it too!

Be well,
Sheila

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Scrambled.......

I love participating in the Hero Art's Scrambles.....really do....it is just the time limit that throws me every time! Today, once again, with the VERY BEST INTENTIONS I had planned on taking part in the 90 minute Scramble Challenge.  I always find them fun and a bit of a creative stretch for me.  So, I sat down and ready - set - go!  Two hours (not 90 minutes!) and 3 phone calls, two teenage "fashion consultations" and a very excited son coming home from a camping trip later....my card was still in the assembly stage!  Oh well, I am actually pretty happy with the card, really happy that I made the attempt to try another scramble and also happy that my favorite colors also happen to fall in line with this weeks summer card camp color scheme sooooo I can also upload to that site!  Yeah!  I am so rarely successful at "card multi-tasking" that I am super pleased with myself when it I pull it off!  So here is my card....I hope you likey ;-D





I also included a close up of how "popped up" the flower is.



Finally, here are some pix of my adorable dogs....on a day when we took them out boating/swimming.  They are mini dachsies and they love to swim!  We had to get life jackets for them because they just jump off the boat willy-nilly.  The final pic is of my youngest pooch catching a ride in on my youngest child!





Take care and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Be well,
Sheila
                                                          

So NOT a circle girl.....yet!

So over at the Penny Black Blog the challenge is "circle" cards.  Wow-seriously a challenge for me.  First of all, the cards came out so small!  I feel like my stamped images kind of overwhelm the size of the card.  I like the "sweetness" of the little card but TOTALLY need to work on finding how to finish a circle card without it looking so very crammed and crowded.  So, long and short of it is...Circle cards = big time challenge for me but one that I did enjoy and will absolutely try again.  These particular cards are going to  my oldest daughter and another lady along with some c.d's that I burned for a little mid - summer gift for each of them.  Nothing better on a hot day (or night :-p) then to put on a little bit of Al Jarreau, Anita Baker or Stevie Wonder. In fact I was jamming to Mr Jarreau ( I call him Al  heheh) the whole time I was card making today and it was wonderful ;-D  I was really happy to get some crafty time in as this week was impossible when it came time for myself and inks so, unfortunately, I have been pretty delinquent, or should I say "truant" to summer card camp.  I did do one card in this weeks colors and my second card kiiiinnnnda uses the colors from the additional color palette provided.  Not a great student this week. Oh well.....

                                                                


                                                                          

Both cards used Spellbinder dies,Penny Black Stamp#1 and  Penny Black stamp#2, Distress Inks and colored pencils.  And let me just say here and now....I think birds are very, VERY hard to color!

Bye now and thank you so much for stopping by!

Be well,
Sheila

                                                          

Friday, July 1, 2011

Two in one day???

Yep! You read my header correctly....I am actually making two posts in one day!-sometimes I even surprise myself.  This is another card for the Summer Card Camp Challenge as well as for the Penny Black blog/circle challenge of stamping inside a card.  I think I am almost caught up in camp.....yes, I know....I am that annoying camper that lags behind the rest of the group hehehe.

So, here be my card:






I am happy with how this card turned out but am getting tired of working with this particular color combo!  The flower is actually orange, deep pink and blue but it is not photographing that way....I think perhaps I over-distressed and my colors muddied up but I actually really like how the colors turned out.  Then I over outlined them in white....love that look.  The stamp is Penny Black, the sentiment is Hero Arts and I "punched" my paper a la' Jill Foster....have never really done this before but have always admired her details with it and so figured out it wouldn't be too hard for me to try.  Thanks for stopping by!  Again ;-D

Be well,
Sheila
                                                        

So Happy...

...because today my oldest comes home for the weekend and tomorrow we are throwing her a 21st birthday party.   Her birthday really was on Cinco de Mao (May 5!) but that was when my husband took so ill and was hospitalized for sooo long.  But, now things/life are getting back to normal and we are able to have a little celebration for her and about, hmmmm, 25 of her closest friends tomorrow!  I did not get to any "completed" card crafting during the last two days.  It was one of the times where I had lots of ideas, little time and so no actual real "finish".  I did, however, complete another Card Camp card but forgot that I had never uploaded it. It was buried under my mess of experiments...hehehe So, without fanfare, here it is.

Very simple but still using the color scheme!

                                                                  
                                                                 
This was actually super simple to make.  I "lined" a piece of cardstock with blue marker and a ruler, then measured the size I wanted and cut out.  I then added the pink line along the side and used an ek success punch on the top of the paper.  I love how much it looks like school paper only more "vibrant".  Then I stamped that sheet with  Penny Black Sentiments and then also used Penny Black for the flower and butterfly.  Then I adhered the lined sheet to a piece of cardstock that I distressed with concord Distress Ink.  Bling, bling..tie, button, bow and a little glitter pen and I'm done with the outside. For the inside, I followed the challenge over at the Penny Black blog/circle and decorated the inside.....decorated very simply.  Flower is in purple ink and the "thanks" is in pink...but I guess you can see that for yourself!  Simple but nice.

                                                                    

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I love to hear your comments and have a wonderful Friday!

Be well,
Sheila