Be Happy

I work at a gas station. I see lots of things and lots of people. Some things and/or people stick in your mind for a while, some you hope to forget as quickly as possible. But once in a while, you get inspired...someone or something leaves an impression. That happened to me today, and I really want to keep the memory and the message living for a little longer.

Today, a gentleman came into the store. We exchanged greetings and then he asked me if I was happy. Right out of the blue. I thought it was odd, but I really couldn't think of anything that I had to be unhappy about. So, I said "Yes". He perused the candy bar aisle a while, and then came to the counter with a candy bar and a York's Peppermint Patty. We talked about the price of candy bars and how crazy it's gotten. Then as he turned to leave he said, "this one's for you" and handed me the Peppermint Patty...and reminded me how important it is to be happy. He walked out the door, got in his pickup, and drove away.

It was small, this chance meeting. But a total stranger left me impressed, inspired and humbled. I stood there watching him drive away, wondering what his story was....how many others has he left with a candy bar and those words of wisdom to remember how important it is to be happy. I wondered if he had tons of money and just wanted to do a little something to share it, along with the "happy" message...or maybe he didn't have much money at all. Was he a preacher, a lawyer, a teacher or a plumber?

I don't know what his story was, probably never will...but what I do know is that he was right. It really is important to be happy. It's important to seek that happiness, and it's important to share it with others.

Thank you, whoever you are for sharing that moment with me. Thank you for giving me something visual to remind me of that message. I will most likely never see a York Peppermint Patty and not think of you or how important it is to be happy. Thank you for ending this year on such a "happy" note. :o)

A Touch of Color

For those of you that just want to know what I used to put this together, I will cut to the chase right away :o)

• Patterned Paper is from Die Cuts With a View
• Flourish is chipboard from Maya Road
• Butterfly cut with Cricut and Indie Art cartridge
• Black shape behind butterfly cut with Cricut and Wild Card cartridge
• Name cut with Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot program and Oklahoma font
• Happy Happy Birthday stamp from Stamp Oasis
• Flourish stamps-most likely Inkadinkadoo-but not really sure.

Other items: Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress Inks, red eyelets and Dew Drops on Butterfly body.

Now, if you are interested in the story behind the card, read on. :o)

I made this card for a good friend of mine for her birthday. This idea rolled through my head about 3:00 A.M. one morning. I think it was after a bunch of us girls got together for "card club"(the Hallmark Knock-Offs...we are all card makers and get together to make cards once a month) and one of the cards we made had a great butterfly image cut out and then attached to the card right over a stamped flourish. I loved the look of it! So, at 3:00 A.M. I'm thinking about all my flourish stamps, and I have a lot...but then thought about some pre-cut chipboard flourishes I had in a tin from Maya Road. My brains started rattling around and wondering what kinds of papers could I use?? What do I have?

UP and out of bed and down to The Room I went. LOL! I found these great black and white patterned papers from Die Cuts With A View and thought they would be perfect. I gathered my paper and my chipboard flourish up, checked through my Cricut cartridges to see which butterfly I wanted to use and got everything ready to go. Aahhh, I could go back to bed and fall asleep peacefully.

The next morning (like "normal" morning for most) I got up and put the card together and really liked how it turned out. I just love that splash of red with all of the black and white.

I used the Fired Brick Distress ink to give color to the chipboard flourish. I just used the Tim Holtz blending tool to smoosh it onto the chipboard. It worked great. I used glue dots to hold all the "elements" on...but the papers were adhered with double sided tape, the Glue Glider Pro to be exact.

I just want to shout out a Thank You to Lori from card club for the inspiration for this card!! If it weren't for her great butterfly card, this would have never kept me up at night! LOL! I love the inspiration I get from others, and our little group of gals are a great place to find it...thanks to all of you for always sharing such wonderful ideas...and great desserts. :o)

Cherry Pie Challenge

Remember the new Cherry Pie Art Stamps I got for my birthday from my friend Bibi? You can see the sheet/plate of rubber HERE. I also got a few more of the phrases that they made because I just love how artsy they look.

Bibi also had this set of stamps and she challenged me to make a card with them using a card sketch from the June issue of Page Maps. This is the sketch we decided on. (she made me choose, and she agreed :o)

This is the front of Bibi's card. I loved the colors she used. They aren't colors I ever think to use together. I know red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel and so are complimentary colors...but...when I go to use them, I always think Christmas.

This card doesn't look Christmasy to me at all. The colors are very comfy together and I love them! The red is more of a raspberry color and the green is an olive green. They really do compliment each other! She is such a genius.

Bibi went above and beyond and did an awesome job of making the inside just as fun as the outside. I love all the color and texture she used!

She even decorated the BACK! I have done insides a time or two...but never the back...how fun is that?!

I love her signature...and if you click on the photo, you can see the inky little fingertips on the hand. So creative! I love that it's 1/1 and she even has the date. Beebs didn't leave off one detail on this one.

Here is my challenge card. I thought it was interesting that our color choices were so similar. We hadn't discussed anything outside of the card sketch and the stamp set because we wanted to see each other's take on it. But we have a lot of crazy similarities like that, it's fun, and it's what makes us such great friends.

I used rust card stock and Pesto Adirondak ink on my card. Did a little smooshing as you can see. :o) I had some ribbon, even some ric rac I could have used above and below the sentiment...but that seemed a little dull...so I tore strips and sent them through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, and used brads to hold them on. I altered the image I used on the top of the tag by tearing a piece of paper and lining the edges of the tag with the torn parts and then stamped the woman's head upside down, in between the torn edges of the paper. So this isn't a full image. I just wanted that great pattern from her hair.

I think I may have done something on the inside of the card, but didn't think to take a picture of it before I sent the card off.

This challenge was fun, and we plan to do it again. We'll keep you posted!

Distressed Tags from SD class

I had the very good fortune to be in Rapid City, SD the very same weekend Altered Art & Scrap Playground was having this great class teaching how to make Christmas tags Tim Holtz style!

I had lots of fun and learned a lot. Thanks Cathy for having the class and thanks Ricky for being such a fun teacher! These tags were made with Ranger's Distress inks, Tim Holtz stamps, and Ranger's Inkssentials blending tool and some water.

This was my first experience using the blending tool. I have been smooshing my ink with Ranger's Cut 'n Dry felt pads. The blending tool (aka the smoosher) has a foam applicator and I really like the way it blends ink.

I also really love Tim Holtz's stamps. They are just awesome!

We did 4 tags in the class and then ran out of time...but we had 10 tags to play with. So when I had a chance at home, I played some more. LOOOVE making these tags!! I didn't want to get too carried away and have too many Christmas tags, so I pulled out my two latest stamp purchases...Birds Galore and Antique Floral (which I think is going to be an all time favorite). Both are The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby.

Here are the fronts. I did a lot of smooshing and spritzing on these. Lots of fun to make. I had a "happy accident" on the orange one. I wanted to make the "ghost" images we made in class using just a touch of embossing ink on our stamp and then spritzing with water. I didn't have such great luck with the embossing ink. I think I was a little heavy handed with the ink and it kept me from getting very good results. So, I tried it with just water, no embossing ink. It too much water and my leaf impression looked a little more like a puddle. I wanted more definition, so I inked it up with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, stamped off on a scrap and then lined it up with the white puddle on my tag and re-stamped it. (One of the reasons I ADORE clear stamps!) I loved the way it turned out. I actually loved the way they all turned out. You should be able to click on the photos and get a better view of them.

Here are the backs. Can you see the white stamped images on the one on the left? That is stamping with water. You really have to be careful not to get too much water, or you will end up with a puddle. What I found to work really well for me was to spritz water on my non-stick craft sheet (also from Ranger) and pretend it was an ink pad, tapping my stamp into the water droplets. I would stamp it off on a paper scrap before I would stamp it on my inked tag.

I really, really do love this look. The ghostly images along with tons of smooshing and aging the edges are just my style and so much fun to do!

If I were stranded on a deserted island.....

On a rubber stamping email list I am on, RST! (Rubber Stamping Together) we have discussed what 3 stamping things we would take or would have to have. While making these cards, I realized how very versatile and amazing 3 of my tools are. I realized with my Ranger Distress Inks, Cuttlebug and Cricut I could make tons of great stuff. I am pretty sure they would be the first things that go with me!

I really loved the colors from the star card in my last post, but I didn't have any more of that background paper. I decided to try and recreate it with my Distress Inks. I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Fired Brick..and I smooshed. :o) I actually started with a piece of colored card stock, it was a darker gold color. I smooshed the Mustard seed first...pretty random and using a Cut 'n Dry felt pad (Ranger). Then I added the Spiced Marmalade, also very random, then topped it off with the Fired Brick. Some people may get hung up on trying to make those colors look perfect, I know I used to. But the key is to just smoosh...don't worry about what it looks like right now...once you add stamps and/or embossing, they will blend those sharp edges and make the colors flow. I was amazed at how I was able to recreate that background so easily. That would be one reason why they are in my top 3. The other reasons are because they can be used with embossing powders, they blend amazingly, they do great and wondrous things when water is added to them (you will see in another post coming soon) and I love the way they can bring out the dry embossing from an embossing folder or age the edges of a piece so wonderfully.
Once I made the background, I used the Leafy Branch embossing folder to emboss. (I love leaves!) I grabbed my Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distressing inks to make the embossing pop and age the edges. I am still in love with my new Cherry Pie stamps so I used that for the phrase. I matted everything with black. Then I was stuck. I couldn't decide if I wanted to embellish it with the Dew Drops or with this great leaf from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge.

Since I had such a hard time deciding, I decided to do both!

I did the dew drops on the first one and then added the black leaf on the other. I had purchased a set of pretty bird stamps at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, and decided that would be a great match with the Leafy Branch for the second card. The stamp is from the Birds Galore set from The Paper Studio. Of course I had to age all the edges because I love that look.

I love all the space on the first one, but think that bird is a better fit with the Leafy Branch. I also think I would want to make that bird piece a little smaller and then see if I could fit the Dew Drops in somewhere just for a punch of fun.

I love creating with my Distress Inks, Cricut and Cuttlebug. The possibilities are just endless!

It started innocently enough...

...with a purchase from HSN (Home Shopping Network).

11 brand new embossing folders for my Cuttlebug. They looked so fun! I took them to The Room and started to crank each one out with a piece of solid blue card stock. Yes, they looked cool...but some seemed to beg for a little pizazz. My trusty box of backgrounds was nearby, so I pulled what I thought was a major wreck of a background (too much red and not very good blending of colors) and ran it through the star embossing folder.

I fell in love instantly!

But I wanted my stars to stand out a little more, so I grabbed for my Distress Inks. Walnut Stain is the one I decided on first. I used a felt Cut 'n Dray pad (I cut them in squares about 1.5 x 1.5 inches) to just skim the tops of the embossed stars. I added a little extra color around the edges. I wanted just a bit more definition, so I added some Black Soot Distress Ink just around the edges. I really loved how it turned out...I actually squealed when I finished with the background.

I loved the stars, and wanted to do something fun with the background. I added a fun star image from the Indie Art Cricut cartridge for embellishment. I used another piece of that same background paper to cut the star and then used the shadow feature to cut the black matted layer. I also had just received some great stamps for my birthday from my friend Bibi in Norway...from Cherry Pie Art Stamps (Thanks Bibi!!) and I just love how they do their words and phrases. The "believe" phrase seemed to fit perfectly.

I really love how the card turned out...those colors and the way it is aged around the edges are just yummy to me. It makes my muse say "aaahhhhh". :o)

Waiting for Spring

Yes, still waiting for spring. One of the signs I rely on to tell me it's really spring is the first sighting of the Goldfinch. I just love those little guys. They are so bright and cheery, and their happy little chirping puts a smile on my face every time.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING!!!!
Okay, I will calm down now....and try to patiently wait.

In my wait for spring, I decided to do an American Goldfinch card. I love the stamp, it's from Northwood's Rubber Stamps. I used another technique from my all time favorite TJN (Technique Junkies Newsletter). This technique is the Marker Wash from the October 2007 issue.
I did use watercolor paper as they state in the instructions, and have found that the results are much better when you do. The water is able to float around better and give you awesome results, I think, anyway.
I basically just scribbled brown marker around the edges of the card, then loosely colored the bird and the tree branch. I then spritz it with water and hit it with my heat gun to speed up the process and to keep the edges distinct where the water pooled.

I have been admiring a lot of the paper piecing I have been seeing online, and decided to give it a try on this card. So I stamped a couple more goldfinches, colored them and cut them out...definitely time consuming...but I feel it was worth it. Then I used pop dots to put space between each layer.
Here is a close up of the layers. It's a little fuzzy...but you get the idea of the dimension.
I was going to layer this on a lighter brown card base..to match the edges, but DH thought it got lost in all the brown..so he suggested the orange card base....YAY hubby! It definitely made the goldfinch stand out like I wanted.

Cricut fun

Here are some butterfly embellishments I made from a sheet of Basic Grey paper (Jade Pattern from the Motifica collection). I used the BUTTERFLIES font from dafont.com (uppercase "B") to cut the butterflies, using the Sure Cuts A Lot program with my Cricut. This butterfly has no body, just wings, so it is really versatile and you can use it with just about anything...and create your own body, too!
I have had this Basic Grey paper for so long...and that really was one of my least favorite sheets in that collection...until I made butterflies out of it, that is. I LOVE the way that paper looks when it is cut out. I used it for butterflies, a ric-rac type border and I cut my name out (letters welded together using the Sure Cuts A Lot program) then made a shadow for it in a dark teal color. So much fun to play that way!
I had to think of something to use for a body for these fun wings. I remembered making paper beads a long while ago, and thought they would be a great shape for a butterfly body. So, I cut out some extra long triangles of the same great paper, rolled them up...long end to short end. I stuck a bamboo skewer into the rolled up paper and rolled it over my Versamark Watermark pad a few times to get it full of ink. Then my plastic container of Clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)came out and I dipped the inked up roll into the powder and embossed it. I did that 2-3 times to get it nice and thick. I wanted it glossy and I wanted it sturdy. I let it cool, and there was my body. I found a few different colors of copper wire, and grabbed some plain cream colored beads from my stash for the heads and put them together with glue dots.
I really like the way they turned out, and am certain I will be starting to use my "oh so very horded patterned paper" a whole lot more now that I see what it looks like when it has been through the Cricut!

Here is a close up of the paper bead, you can see all the great colors from the paper showing through. I am happy with the way all the colors pull together for the body and the wings.

I don't know what I am going to do with these butterflies yet. Part of me wants to make a framed name for The Room (my stamp/scrap room) using the name I cut from the same paper. But I also found a half finished scrapbook page of my Senior pictures from high school...and it is in similar colors and I have fall leaves everywhere..which is perfect because I loooove leaves, and I looooove butterflies. I just can't decide yet. But, in the mean time, I do enjoy looking at the butterflies on my work table for now.

Snow Birds

The color combination on this card was actually inspired by a co-workers new Columbia jacket. It was a teal/aqua color and chocolate brown. I just loved the way the colors seemed to compliment each other. So, I set out to recreate it. I found card stock that was as close as possible...and although this looks more blue than tealish..it is a little different in real life...less blue than it looks here.

I have been playing with this border punch for a while and have come to really love the look of it. That was sitting out on the table, so I played with it..and punched the edges of the teal/blue/aqua card stock. I'm not sure how I came to pick the cute little snow birds. I have always loved that stamp but, to date had not done anything with it that I thought really showcased the stamp. I think the biggest reason I picked it was because it filled so much of the open space of the teal...and I didn't have to figure out what else to add to it to fill in that space. I stamped the birdies in Timber Brown StazOn ink. I then used my Heidi Swapp edge distresser (looks like a pink Pac Man) on the long edges of the chocolate brown card stock...layered it all..and my card was done. I really like this card....because it is simple...because the colors compliment each other so well, and because it really gives a lot of attention to a favorite stamp. Hope you like it, too. :o)

Zen meets Cricut

This card is a mix of all kinds of things. The "H" and "B" were stamped..a great set of alphabet stamps from Just Jhone. They are large alphabets that are an open line image. I am into Zentangles which is a form of doodling, so I filled in the letters with some zen-doodling. I had just got my Cricut and had to play with it. The "appy" and "irthday" are from the Opposites Attract cartridge. I was also on the Triple Play (technique from TJN) card kick when I made this. I had some trouble trying to fit the HB on the flap I would normally have on a triple play card...so I had to improvise. So I kept the dimensions for the size of the card...and then remembered a great idea that I learned from a stamping friend Denise Krueger. She makes the most amazing cards and uses a single sheet of card stock as the base, just a tad larger than the card, then adheres the folded card to the base. It's a really fun look, and it worked perfectly for this card....and it still fit into a business sized envelope.
Jhone (from Just Jhone...now unfortunately closed) was the recipient of this card. It was destined to be hers, since it was her alphabet stamp set I used and we are Zentangle buddies...and it was her Birthday last month!

My first Wall Art

I saw this saying and have wanted it up on my bedroom wall just above our bed for a long time now. Well, since I now have a Cricut, and downloaded the Sure Cuts A Lot program...I decided to take the project on myself.
I used Scriptina font for the word "together". I don't know what the font was that I used for the rest of the words, just picked something fairly plain. "IS A" is a smaller font size and non-bold. "WONDERFUL PLACE TO BE" was larger and in bold. The leaf accents are from a dingbat font called Florals 2 that I downloaded from dafont.com . I put this all together in Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL). I didn't have the 12 x 24 mat...so I put the letters together so I could fit everything on three 12 x 12 mats and cut them out. I also didn't have the special release paper to put the words up on the wall, so I improvised. I used blue painters tape. I put the tape on a piece of foam board, sticky side up...and lined my letters up along the bottom edge of the tape (letters were backing side up). It was a great way to line up the letters. I should have maybe stuck that painters tape on my shirt a time or two, because it was a bit stickier than I had expected. But it worked fairly well. I did have to remake the the "S" in IS and the "N" in WONDERFUL because my tape stuck a little too well....but the really cool thing is that I was able to go make them quick and finish the project. I have no idea what I would have done if I would have purchased the words and ruined them putting them up. I think having the Cricut is going to be lots of fun!

Here is a shot with part of the bed in it...it is centered above the headboard.

This was really fun to do...and pretty easy, too. I think I will be doing more of this!!

I have a Cricut!!

I am now the proud owner of the Cricut Expression. It was my Valentine's Day gift from my hubby. I have had a great time with it so far...and I just decorated it with some left-overs from my first try at wall art. These are the inside of the leaves that decorate the phrase I put up on our bedroom wall. I kinda liked the way the insides looked...and I love leaves...so I popped them onto the Cricut, I thought they looked cool on it...so they will stay. :o)

Oval Butterfly

I found this technique at the Stamper's Quest Magazine
It still makes me laugh when I look at it. (you can see the original inspiration card if you click the link for the e-zine above). I really loved the look of the technique and I just got the Inspired By Nature stamp set from Stampin' Up and I wanted to use the grass instead of flowers. The original plan was to mask the grass and stamp a lions face so it looked like it was peaking through the grass. I found a roll of Magic Mask that hadn't been used in a long time...cut out a rectangle the size of my card and then used my Creative Memories oval cutter to cut the oval out of the center. That was the mask for my oval. Well, I sponged my ink around the edges, stamped my grass... the lion face just didn't work like I had planned. It was a little too big for the oval and the grass...and it was looking off to one side. So, I spent the evening looking at the card...trying to figure out what would be the best thing to fill that space...words? a bird? a bug? Ahhhh....a butterfly! I stamped and colored the butterfly, then stamped it and colored it again to cut out for dimension. I was pretty satisfied with the card...proud of my choice to fill that space. It had been a while since I had seen the original card that had inspired me...I remembered the oval and flowers...but not the butterfly. I really thought that was my own genius to add the butterfly. Well...I was in for a surprise when I went back a while later and saw that butterfly on the original! LOL! I still like the card...even if it isn't as "original" as I thought it was. It's a great technique and really fun to do. I think I would like to try making a mask from some of my Nestabilities. I gotta make a list of things I want to do!!

You really should check out the Stamper's Quest Magazine....lots of inspiration there!

Fairy Dance - More Triple Play

Here is the last Triple Play I made using the chocolate brown 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. I used the same blue patterned paper as the last one and Timber Brown StazOn ink for all the stamping. The Fairy is from Enchanted Ink, Swirls are clear stamps from Inkadinkado, and the saying is actually the green rubber from Appalachian rubber stamps that I thought the saying came from on the last card. I was wrong. I don't know where that other saying is from. (the o wind, o mighty wind). If you happen to recognise it, let me know, I'd love to have the correct credit given for it.
And here is a close up of the fairy.

Wind...am I crazy??

I know, the subject matter does really does challenge my sanity...but I have had this phrase forever. It's green rubber from Appalachian Rubber Stamps...bought it well over 10 years ago..and this is the very first time I have ever used it.

This card started with the color combination. I really loved the tealish blue patterned paper that came from a big paper pack from Hobby Lobby. I loved the way it looked with the dark brown paper. I went through my verse/phrase stamps and found this one (believe me...I live in North Dakota...I am NOT a big fan of the wind...but the phrase somehow makes it seem romantic in a way....okay...okay...bring on the straight jacket)Anyway...I bought these great swirly leaves and trees clear stamps from Inkadinkadoo...and they seem to be perfect with that phrase and it all seems to go so well with the Triple Play technique...had to use up another of that brown from the Coffee card below...and Ta Da...this is what resulted.