A quick post.....

and a quick .....hmmmmm.....not really sure what type of card I made.  I guess it could be used for wedding, anniversary, or even engagement.  The colors are kinda "out there" but my daughter's who are younger like these type of pairings and say that they are fun and fresh.  So, I went a little untraditional for this type of card but, hey.....that's what I usually do I guess.  The background stamp is an old Cornish Farms stamp that I really love and totally do not ink up enough!  I believe it is a form of brocade and or damask and so am going to enter it into the Card Creation's Challenge Week for the Damask and Brocade Challenge.  The sentiment is Penny Black and really, isn't it so very, very true?  The rest is stuff I just had around.....I like to buy "leaves" when they go on sale.....the bigger the better!  And then I use a "leaf" punch and cut several leaves out of one leaf to add to a card.  I like when the leaves are basically the same type of material as the flowers....and if you punch along the "rib" of the leaf it creates a nice looking leaf in the size that is right for the card!  The leaves look a little "wet" at the moment....that is because the stickles applied to them are still wet....when they dry the leaves will just look a bit sparkly and not wet.  So for the Moxie Fab Damask and Brocade Challenge:

And, here is my card......I told you the colors were a bit unconventional but really, they are some colors that I am very, very into at the moment! :-D

The dies are all spellbinders.....and I am enjoying more die cutting lately too.  Must the cleaned and straightened craft room that is allowing me to enjoy more of my supplies! heh-heh!  Thank you so much for stopping by.....!  And finally, the papers.  The colored cardstock is Gina K. and she has the absolutely BEST cardstock I have ever used!  The 120# weight is fabfabFAB and it embosses beautifully!

Be well,
Sheila

Butterfly....and....

another challenge.  Please don't be getting sick of this butterfly yet.....as you can see I'm not!  actually, like I said before, I stamped this image up three times on copic paper and three times on "regular" paper so I have the image set aside to color with whatever medium whenever I want.  Usually when I stamp an image I stamp it multiple times on different papers so that I can have a ready stash of images to color or even take with me on a weekend trip to color.  I am hoping to have time this summer to color when I am "fishing" too!  Anyways, I find that doing this saves me alot of "prep" time when I just want to create but don't have a particular stamp in mind to use....I just go to my stash and make it work!  So, today it is one more time with the Hero Art's Artist's Butterfly image....and I am finding that this stamp is a really fun image to bling up!  It can be done in super girly-girly way as I did it today.  I also am going to enter this card into the   Moxie Fab Card Creations Challenge Week for The Doily and Lace Challenge.   And this challenge entry came about in a funny way.  I had card finished last night and was really happy with it.  The final cardstock "mount" was a gingham piece that I stamped "hugs" on and then affixed the butterfly.  Then last night, after coming home from an amazingly fun wedding, I happened to glance  at the card and thought, "hmmmmm, the placement of the sentiment seems too far to the left for my eye.  I will just change that."  Now.  With out my reading glasses on.  After being at an amazingly fun wedding reception for hours (read into that what you will ;-D ).  At 1:00 am......needless to say that when I looked it this morning my "fix", which was to add on the sentiment "& kisses" looked terrible, was crooked, smudged and just basically, a real lesson learned!  So this morning I had to dismantle said card, ripping and tearing the underlayment in the process.  Needing now a larger "mount" for my butterfly...... my eye spied a doily laying in my scrap pile from last week and VOILA!!!!!  Card was saved!  And, funny thing is...I actually like this version better!  And I know exactly who is getting this card!  So, entering into The Doily and Lace Challenge

And here is my card:

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope to have some crafting time later....it is supposed to storm but right now it is sunny and my bike is calling my name!

Be well,

Sheila

A few more....

challenges!  I did want to try the new challenge over at A Blog Named Hero.  It is to dust off an old Hero Art's stamp and ink it up for the challenge.  This was fun as I haven't been using my HA stamps as much lately and so it was nice to pull them out and look through my collection.  They sure do make nice stamps over at Hero Art's!  I decided to pick Artistic Butterfly and it was fun to color up.  I ended up coloring it in three different ways and therefore making three very different cards!  Two are ones that I will enter today into the A Blog Called Hero Dust Them Off Challenge.  For the first one I used a HA sentiment, background stamp and spellbinder embossing folder.  And bling.....lot's of bling-o today!

The second card I am entering into the Card Creations Challenge Week Damask and Brocade Challenge. I have entered another card into this challenge a few days ago and it was a more elegant card.  Today I wanted to go fun and playful with my damask and so used bright colors, bling and again, the playful Artist's Butterfly stamp from HA!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope your having a good one!

Be well,
Sheila

Wedding and A Challenge....

or two.  My daughter and her boyfriend are attending the first wedding of people that they went to high school with.  They and this couple have known each other all through high school and then continued to keep in touch all through college.  It has been fun to see as Bess and her friends all have attended different colleges all over the place yet they still have remained good friends....friends who work hard to keep up with each other.  Anyways, Bess and Tyler are both coming to town on Friday for the wedding and, of course, I was eager to make a wedding card!  I tried the Vera's View Challenge on Lily Pad Blog earlier today and the card I made gave me an idea for a wedding card.  I had hoped to make an all white card, using all white papers and roses but unfortunately I didn't have quite enough white roses left and didn't want to run out to the store to get more.  So, I made "do" and went with a different color scheme.  Actually, I was kinda grooving on the pinks that I had in my stash and basically, I had enough bits and pieces of paper, roses, etc...to create a card with supplies I have used over the last two weeks.  Win!  So, I am going to enter this in a few challenges too....first up is the City Crafter Challenge Blog Week #110 A Rose is A Rose.  Basically, somewhere on our card's we need to have a rose featured in some way.  Here is their lovely rose inspiration!  For me, what was inspiring was how the roses in this photo are "bunched" together....as though in a bouquet.

The next challenge that I am entering in is the Moxie Fab World's Card Creations Challenge Week.  This particular card is for The Doilies and Lace Challenge.  I wasn't too sure if it was just doilies or lace so I ended up adding both to my card.  This type of card is a huuuuuuuggggggeeee stretch for me.  But, ultimately I think I am liking it rather alot!  It's good to try something different and out of the box I am thinking!

And, here is my card!  Very lovey, dovey girly but just fine (I think) for a young wedding card!

All of my die are spellbinders and the doily and roses are stuff I got ages ago from Michael's when they were closing the store in my area.  I def will look at another Michael's when I am near one as I really like using these small and dainty flowers.  The sentiment is Hero Arts and I cannot find the name of the sentiment sheet.  Thanks for stopping back today!

Be well,

Sheila

Lily Pad Challenge!

Hi All!  When I saw this Vera's challenge over at the Lily Pad I had a card IMMEDIATELY pop into my mind.  And let me tell you....that NEVER happens!  But it did this time and and although the execution of said card is a bit "off" from my mind's eye it did end up really, pretty darn close to what I picture  How great is it when that happens right?d  So, for Vera's View Challenge over at The Lily Pad the posted inspirational photo was this:

I went pretty literal in my interpretation.   I was struck by the colors, the flower imagery on the cupcakes and the subtle wood grain background and so those elements are what I incorporated into my card.  I plan on it being either a birthday or wedding card.....I haven't put the sentiment inside yet.  I also plan to do a full out wedding card like this in all white flowers too.  I do have the flowers lightly brushed with stickles that looks so lovely in real life but doesn't show up so well in the photo.  Here is my card:

I hope you likey!  And again, thank you all for your "oh so very nice" comments that have been left on my blog lately!  I plan to be able to sit down tonight and blog hop and comment....and I am SO looking forward to being able to do that!

Be well,
Sheila

Damask...

part of the card creation's week of challenge's over at Moxie Fab. So, yep....I am slowly but surely working my way through the Moxie Fab Challenges.  This morning I worked on the Damask  and Brocade Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  In Cath's post about the challenge she uses the words "rich" and "elaborate" as part of the definition for damask and brocade.  And that was my starting point.  I wanted to create a card that was rich in color and elaborate in detail but also needed to keep the overall look "cleaner" and not too fussy.  I tried several times with various color schemes over the last few days and was never quite satisfied with any of them.  So, I decided to go basic....kraft, black, a rich creamy white and a pop of color!  I also think of damask and brocade as belonging to my Grandma Bessie's house.  So, with that in mind I wanted a somewhat tattered and vintage look.  Hence the flower which I hoped to make look like it has been stored in a musty old attic for many years.  Also, I added newsprint and distressing to increase the look of aged elegance.  This was a different type of card for me but I really had fun with this creation and enjoyed the process alot!  I seemed to have made waaaaay more of a mess than usual though!  So for the Card Creations week challenge:

I made this card.  The damask stamp is an old Cornish Farm's background stamp I had.  The flower is made from Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die.  I also like the larger "margins" of the kraft matting....a style I will use again!

Thank you so much for stopping by and also for the wonderful comments I have received lately.  Lastly, thank you so much for the sweet comments about my last post regarding my daughter....both the public posts and private emails sent to me.  I really, really appreciate your thoughts so much.

Be well,
Sheila

Today....

we head to Madison,Wi to pack up my middle daughter from her first year at college.  Wow!  I can't believe that this year has passed so quickly.  She is my child who has Type 1 Diabetes and we have been preparing her to leave home and manage her health on her own in college for about two years prior up to her leaving last year.  And I can't begin to tell you how unbelievably stressed out and fearful we were about her leaving us and being on her own.  Last August, well, the whole of last summer was rough!  But she has done well...super in fact in managing her health.  She even was hit with Mono while in college this year and refused to come home as she needed to prepare for midterms.  So, she had a really miserable and hard time but she came out of it knowing that she could take care of herself.  She is also on an insulin pump.  What this does is drip insulin into her every three minutes.  Pumps are designed to mimic the workings of our pancreas so when a Type 1 Diabetic has a pump it is connected to their body all the time except when they are showering or swimming.  Without it that person  risks coma and death.  I tell you this because this week was final exams for my daughter and this week was the week that her pump decided to malfunction and break.  She had been having erratic blood glucose readings for a bit but thought it was stress over upcoming exams.  So, again, she refused our help, and contacted the company on her own, arranged for a new pump to be overnighted to her and then in the intervening day and night she set her alarm and woke herself up every 2 to 3 hours to manually inject herself with insulin.  And, she had a big exam the next day.  And, while I know what she had to do to get to her exam, while I have been in the position of helping her in the past, I can never fully understand what she had to deal with and how she felt dealing with her disease and the curveballs it throws her and any other people who are dependent upon artificial means to stay alive.  I commend her.  I am proud of her.  And I love that she knows that she CAN take care of herself.
So, I have made her a card, for when she is back home.  I tried to think of all the different reasons why I was giving her this card.....for a successful school year, for learning how to take care of herself, for staying healthy, for coming back home etc......and all of my various reasons are contained in this simple word "because".  Because of pride, love, excitement, concern,....because of all the life "moments" we tried to prepare her for and because of all the ones she had to handle on her own.  And, because, we couldn't be happier, prouder or more in awe of our little Clarice.

It feels good, very good to be on the other side of this year.  It was a "first" that was inevitable but all the same, I am glad that it is over and for the summer....probably our last summer together so we can baby her again.

Be well,
Sheila

Play Date Cafe Splash.....

challenge.  I thought that I would try the Playdate Cafe Challenge today.  It is black and white with a splash of mustard yellow.  In out house we have both French's Yellow Mustard and Grey Poupon which is much more of a yellow-y brown.  I went French!  Check out their blog....It is PDCC#132 and the colors were very fun to work with.  Here is the color inspiration:

 What struck me besides the color what the "stalkiness" of the pencils in an uneven row. And the yellow pencil being so much higher. In fact, when I saw this photo I immeadiately thought of this Hero Arts Daisies stamp!

 And here is my card!  Small but sweet ;-D

Thank you for stopping by today and also thank you for the vey sweet and encouraging comments that were left on my blog yesterday.  It is nice, so very nice to know that I am not the only one who stresses and worries about being "good".  Thanks all!

Be well,

Sheila

WARNING!!! Long Introspective Post!

 I have been looking over the Moxie Fab challenges and honestly, until the other day, I am embarrassed to say that I have never entered these challenges.  They are always so inviting over at Moxie Fab world but I have never felt "good enough" of a crafter to enter.  I will look at the gallery and be utterly overwhelmed at the creativity of my fellow crafters.....overwhelmed so much so that I don't enter due to lack of confidence.  Which is absurd, really, if you think about it.  The challenges are there to encourage people like me, the amateur crafter with no art background, to stretch my wings and try something different!  How difficult that small little challenge can be as we get older.  In fact, instead of becoming more secure and confident in ourselves I find that many women I know "close in" on themselves as they age....they try less, they go out less....they explore less.  And, they experiment less.  And when you experiment less you also fail less and it has been reminded to me lately that when one stops "failing" one stops growing.  I believe this completely.  My daughter who graduated from college in December just "walked" this past weekend in Minn.  This was done with her class graduation program as there wasn't one when she really graduated in December.  I am so glad that she ended up choosing to walk and to have that amazing pride filled experience.  The commencement speaker talked about failure and how important it is to "fail" as one goes through life because failures mean that you are out there still trying, still experimenting and still learning.  So,  this past year I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone in many areas of my life.  And while some of these trips outside the zone are scary they all have been good for me, good for my personal growth.  But the one area that I don't stretch too much is in my crafting.  I mean I really worked on my coloring skills this past year but the idea of trying challenges is still sooooo hard for me.  So, upon reflection I have come to the conclusion that the reason I am so reluctant to enter challenges is for the same reason that I was so afraid to blog......some one "out there" might judge me!  Yikes!  Double triple YIKES!  But I plunged into blogging and wonder of wonders....I don't feel judged. So, might that be the same for entering challenges?  I believe it just might be....in fact, I believe it just enough to step outside the "zone" and enter.  Just that.  Just enter.  So, thank you for suffering through my loooong post.....maybe I have lost  a few of you along the way!  I decided to enter the Moxie Fab Postage Challenge.  In fact, before 6/4/2012 I plan to enter ALL the Moxie Fab challenges.  Fist pump for me! ;-D  So here is my card for the Card Creations Week: The Postal Challenge:

I decided to go with the idea of "sending all my love to you"....by putting the heart onto the postage stamp.  Also, I decided to do the card in United States Postal Colors.....which I think turned out pretty slick!

So, all Spellbinder dies except for the little Papertrey tag.  And the sentiment is  Lawn Fawn.  And, I love this "script" embossing folder....I think it is probs one of my most favs!

Be well,
Sheila

Another.....

quick post, another quick graduation card and another quick challenge!  In this spirit of Plymouth High School and the fact that I have been making grad cards for it's seniors for app 6 years now I can say that I am so thankful for Halloween paper!  I tend to buy up all the "neutral" Halloween paper that I can get my hands on for our school's colors of black, orange and white.  Here is the sketch for Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #241 that I followed:

And here is my card!  I used patterned paper along with a Northwoods Rubber Stamp Co image.  I also popped up the hat on dots for some added dimension.  I used various Spellbinder dies as well as their "edgeabilities" dies....which I am just loving!  I also added some bling to this card over the border as well as some twinkle pen to the image.  I like this sketch and think it worked really well for this type of card.  I am using all the different sketches that I can find to get me through another grad season!  I hope you don't get too sick of the various grad cards that I will have on my blog....I am always trying to find a new way to present an old (and for me) and tired theme.  I think I have never made as many similar cards as I have black and orange PHS grad cards!  Do you have any sort of card that you have been required to make over and over again?

Take care and enjoy your day!  It is just lovely in P-Town today!

Be well,

Sheila

Gettin'...

my gingham on!  Yesterday's card for the Moxie World gingham challenge and the Card Patterns Sketch were so enjoyable that I decided to use some more gingham papers that I hadn't put away yet and try to make a card that fit both challenges again..  I needed to make a card for my daughter's birthday and she loves bright, fun colors.....specifically, oranges paired with pinks, reds and yellows.  So, I thought coloring up some gingham might be just the way to go.  I also used the Card Patterns Sketch 164 again.  I used it as a jumping off point and turned it on it's side and dropped the border and center down.  I am not sure if that still counts but it truly was a the sketch that I started with!  I also plan on entering this card into the Hero Arts Monthly Contest....obvs for Birthdays!  So, away we go.....
For the Moxie Fab World Card Creations Week: The Gingham Challenge:

And for the Card Patterns Sketch 164

And then lastly, for the Hero Arts Challenge:

And last but NOT LEAST!!!!!!  Here is my card!  I stamped and embossed the HA flowersand leaves on gingham paper and the colored them a bit with Prismacolor pencils.  I used a Spellbinder embossibilities folder and voila!

I hope that you all are enjoying your day!  I hope to leave soon for a long walk and then later to my son's track meet.  And much later tonight my husband will be home from a somewhat longish trip to China....so today should be a pretty fabie day!

Be well,

Sheila

Second Post

in one day!  Whoop-dee-doo.  That never happens....I hardly make two posts in a week!  But today I was "cooking on all burners" so to speak and was able to find time to finish another card....for another challenge no less! This time I followed a sketch from the blog "retro sketches: where every sketch is a blast from our past".  I have seen this blog's challenge popping up here and there on some  different blogs that I follow and I had earmarked it as one I wanted to try.  So, with the season of Graduation Cards upon us I decided to try retro sketch #10 and create a graduation card.  Our high school's colors are black, orange and white so it is always a challenge to create a card that doesn't look like a Halloween card.  I like how this card turned out.  Here is the retro sketch:

and here is my interpretation:

The stamp is one that I purchased last year from Purple Onion Designs.  I got several of these stamps with different sayings on them and have used them again and again.  The hat is a sticker and the paper....well, at Halloween time I pick up as much orange and black patterned paper as possible for both grad cards as well as layouts for my kids scrapbooks....for their sport pics and newspaper write-ups.  I like this sketch quite a bit and if I have time tomorrow I hope to do two more college grad cards as well as a quick birthday card.  Thank you for stopping by, again, and I hope you are having a happy and productive day ;-D

Be well,
Sheila

Challenging.....

myself to participate in more challenges.  Really, actually, so very difficult for me to do. I tend to miss the deadlines, deviate too far from the sketch....or just feel too much pressure all together.  I know.  Pressure from a card maker challenge?  But yes.  It does happen and most definitely to me.  But today I sat down and and looked at a Moxie Fab challenge that I thought I could handle and then tried to pair it with a Card Patterns sketch challenge. It worked!  So here we go.  First the deets on the Moxie Challenge.  I love the fresh look of gingham and knew that I had some lovely paper in my stash so I decided to enter the Gingham Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  This is maybe the second time ever that I have entered the Moxie Challenges and I am pretty pumped about it!

 And then I decided to try the Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog's Challenge # 164.  Here is the sketch we are to follow.  I deviated some as per usual but I am super happy with how this card turned out and the sketch was a big jumping off point for me!  Here is the sketch:

and here is my card:

I am not sure what light I like it in better so here it is in  different light.  I feel that this one doesn't show off the pretty paper as well though.  Still working on my camera skills....

The stamp is a Northwoods Rubber Stamp Co. stamp.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Be well,

Sheila

Howdy!

And also Hello ;-D  It has been a wonderfully busy time and I am shocked (shocked I tell ya!)  that it has taken me a week to get back on the blog.  I have actually been coloring but just not "assembling" ...but that all changed today!  Today it was miserable out and so I got down to business.  I am really diggin' the larger card size.  For so long I felt like it was a struggle to fit what I wanted onto a traditional 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card size.  And, in line with that, I often churned out the same layout over and over again.  When it came to trying new things, new types of embellies or accents I generally held back as it seemed too "crowded" looking on my cards.  But, I have been playing around with 5 by 6 3/4 cards and it has been really refreshing to experiment with a larger canvas.  If you haven't ventured out of the traditional note card size I urge you to try it.  It really can wake up the creative spirit within you!  So, that all being said, today I have two cards.  They were FUN to make and I hope to improve on my basic layouts.  I am a terrible sketch person and so am challenging myself to learn more styles of card layouts.  I am always in awe of the various ladies who can create such diverse cards.  And so many of you out there have a really incredible "eye" for overall card design.

I also mixed up my stamps today and I feel that I am really at a point in my crafting supplies where I have a really nice selection of stamps from various companies that truly  work well with each other.  When I first started crafting I would only use stamps that were from the same company together...don't ask me why....I know it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  But now, I find that my crafting time is so much more enjoyable when I mix and match papers, stamps, textures etc...

So, on the hunch that you are perhaps sick of me droning on endlessly and are really visiting my blog for cards rather than personal opinion I will show you what I have worked on today! Both cards use both Northwoods Rubber Stamp Co images as well as Hero Arts stamps. And, both cards are colored with Copics, distressed a bit and stickled. I have used the HA "Friend Definition" background stamp for this first card popped up and curled the wings of the butterfly.

For the second card I used the large Newspaper Background woodblock.  I also used a HA sentiment that I have always liked.....just so cute with the change in fonts.  I am a bit displeased with how the sunflowers center has turned out but oh well.....once again HANDCRAFTED!  At least that is the excuse I give for all my mistakes! ;-D

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your lives have been as busy and enjoyable as my own has been!

Be well,
Sheila

Flowers....

are finally coming up in Wisconsin and it is a much needed sight!  We had an amazingly warm and spring like March only to see an April filled with snow showers, rain, temps in the low 30's.....ugh!  But today, the first of May is sunny and promises to have temps in the mid 60's.....a delight.  It will be soooo nice to go to one of my son's track meets and not have to wear mittens, a parka, hat and a scarf!  Today I am going to try a challenge which I will admit is not too much of a stretch for me.  It is the Cas-ual Fridays challenge of April Showers brings May Flowers and since I tend to love coloring floral images this challenge worked perfectly for me.  But I will say the 'clean and simple" aspect of the card always stymies me.  I think I ripped up the card base of this card no less than three times and finally gave up last night and read a book instead.  But this morning I tackled it anew and actually really like the card that turned out although it is a whole mile away from what I envisioned and planned! So, hop on over to Cas-ual Fridays and check out their challenge.....and the beautiful inspiration from their design team!

And here is my card.   This is a sweet little image from Northwoods Rubber Stamp Co.  I would love to have a bucket of fresh cut roses like this.....unfortunately no matter how much I love roses I have never been successful at growing them ;-(......

Thank you for stopping by today and I always appreciate your comments and suggestions!  

Be well,

Sheila