Have You Missed Me?

I hope you believed me when I told you this month was going to be an intense one for me.  My father had surgery which was bookended by my mother having cataract surgery on her eyes.  They split that up where you only have one eye done at a time.  However, after she had the first eye done poor mom broke her foot.  Needless to say we’ve been having lots of fun up here on cripple hill.  I won’t even go into all the fun and overtime I’ve had to put in at work lately.  The important thing is…

I’ve been able to get back into my craft room!!!

It a sanctuary, a release, a place to unwind.  I know you all know what I’m talking about.

I was especially inspired when we got a new sponsor for Whimsical Wednesday and I have been drooling over their stamps for quite a while.  Let me just tell you, you can’t help but be inspired especially when I tell you that you will also get a chance to win some of these beauties!!  You will have until May 11th, 8 PM CST to get your project posted on the Diedrich Dare blog using the sketch to be entered for a chance at a $20 Gift Certificate.

We also have some guest sketchers for this month (yep that’s right I’m not telling you just yet who our sponsor is yet).  Each week we will have a different guest.  This week is Andrea’s little sweetie Kaitlyn.

Our sponsor, you ask?  The wonderfully generous Lynn over at SweetPea Stamps.

 

Now as for what I did with one of the beauties I received, well…

I used so much glitter on this project.  I used 5 different colors/types on it and had fun every minute of it!!

Stamps: SPS – Rising Flame
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: MFT Perfect Panels, SEI Addison
Extras: Primas, Crystal Elements Pearl, Corner Rounder Punch, Copics, Lots & Lots of Glitter, Sakura Glitter Pen

Now off you go to the Whimsical Dare blog to get started and get all the information you need.  PLUS make sure you see all of the other Dare Devils and what they made.

Getting Earthy

Today’s Friday Fun Challenge we are getting ready for Earth Day.  And with it we are using Trees and Flowers and whatever in nature inspires us.  I’m a nature girl at heart, too bad I’m allergic to more than half of it.  I’m thinking I’m going to have to come back and do something else for this one.  In the meantime I hope I can amuse you with the barrette project I made.

It uses pretty flowery paper & vine/flower stamp.

I really can’t wait to see what my other sassy girls have made.  You know why?  Because KIM is back!!!  I’m so happy about that, I’ve missed her so much.

Now off we go, let’s go see what the other girls have made.

Christi
Jimmi
Kim
Kimme
Sherry
 

Supplies -
Stamps: April KoM – Fresh Beginnings
Ink: Memento – Angel Pink
Paper: Girl’s Paperie – Newsprint Stripe
Extras: Spicas – Pink & Clear, BG93 Copic

If you would like a tutorial on how this is done, it is up on the All Things Unity blog now.

Eureka Moment!!

As some of you may know I’ve been using iron ons quite a bit lately and playing with them.  I’ve had some fun but while having fun, there’s been a burning question in the back of my mind.  See I’ve been coloring with copics after I’ve ironed my image on.  Which is great but sometimes I’ve had problems where the ink would run over the line.  Well with fabric, it’s not that easy to colorless blender it back in place.  Case & point…see picture to your right. (All pictures are clickable so that you can see more detail).  Although you can get some of the color to go away, you can’t get it all to go away.  Which brings me to the burning question, could I color the iron on before I ironed?

So I did a patch test and found out I could.  My reaction?  YAHOO!!  The size of my patch test?  1/4” square this will become relevant in about 10 seconds.

Off I went to color my bigger image with my newfound information.  I was so happy.  My results (sorry in advance for my picture, I took after I took the others & didn’t feel like setting things up all over again so it’s a little blown out)…

Don’t know if you can tell but there’s a HUGE problem.  It started to clump up on the paper and the black of the ink started to run.  I was started to worry.  This isn't going to work like I wanted.  Back to the drawing board I went.  Then an epiphany hit me.   I had it.  Don’t color in circles like you do on normal paper!!  Don’t worry about shading, unless you really have to!!  So I started coloring in dots.  I laid on in dots, this is where a brush tip is really nice.  What are the results like?

Very clean lines!! Crisp!! I think it came out AWESOME!!  Want a side by side comparison…

Plus if you read Sherrie’s blog, she was saying it was good to heat set when you’ve colored with copics on fabric.  Now you’ve done it in one step.  COOL, right?

Stamps used The Greeting Farm & Pink Cat Studio.

 

Going Whimsically Psychedelic

Welcome to another Wednesday with us Whimsical Dare Devils!! We’re still working with the wonderful The Greeting Farm images… yeah because that really involves twisting my arm. To me they just scream whimsical all by themselves. I decided to combine it with the Oh Alice challenge this week because I’ve been wanting to play along with that challenge since it started. Plus I went a little outside my box with this one by using A LOT of patterned paper but also LOUD patterned paper so to me it kinda looks psychedelic. Let me know what you think it looks like.

Jack drew our sketch this week.

OK, ready for my psychedelic card? Ok…

I decided to use roses in the corner instead of brads because it made me think of the painting of the roses.

Now you can see what what the other Jack (Jacquie) our host for this week has for you on the Whimsical Dare blog before checking out the other Dare Chicks.

Andrea
Cassie
Heather
Jacquie
Jessica
Kim
Kris
Krista
Randi
Rebecca

Supplies -

Stamps: TGF – Wonderland (digi)
Paper: American Crafts – A La Carte, PTI – Kraft
Extras: Copics, Prima Flowers, Sakura Glitter Pen, Smooch – Siren & Poole, Nestabilities

Happy Everything FFC

It’s a BEE-YOO-TI-FUL!!! Friday!! It’s gorgeous day outside and going to hopefully be a glorious weekend. Now if only I get and keep myself motivated all weekend.

I’m getting Spring Fever at work like crazy. Anyone else?

How about some fun stuff? April means fun doesn’t it? Christi our fearless host for this month thought so because she used it as our challenge for this week. A little something like this.

A – Animal
P – Polka Dots
R – Ruffles
I – Inked Edges
L – Label or journaling block that looks like a label

I think it was a really cool sounding challenge.

Stamps: All Lizzie Anne Designs – It’s Good to Be Queen (Monthly Mix)
Ink: Memento – Tuxedo Black, Rick Cocoa, Bahama Blue, Sweet Plum
Paper: Basic Grey – Urban Prairie, SU Certainly Celery
Extras: Hero Arts Pearls, MS Grass Punch, Lace Ribbon, B00 Copic

Now, I’m off to see what the other sassy girls made today for A-P-R-I-L, want to join me?

Christi
Jimmi
Sherry
Kimme

Whimsical Greetings from the Farm!!

It’s such a great day!!  It’s been such a nice week.  My nephew has been visiting and we’ve been having such a nice visit.  I have a webcam (yes, I know I’m a little behind) that I finally got setup.  I had a fun weekend and got to reunite with some “old” friends.  And now to top it off I get to use some stamps from a company that I really like and have for a long time.

THE GREETING FARM although when I first started using them they were Pink Poison (I liked that name too).  Marie has been so sweet as to sponsor us this month so make sure to play along if you want to win some of their awesome stamps!!

This week we have an inspiration challenge, which I think plays well along with my post from earlier this week.  Mainly because I needed to make more stuff, hehe.

Doesn’t it just scream girlie!! I thought it would work perfectly for a friend of mine that is having a baby girl and especially for using Toby Cub image.  I have to tell you for me when it comes to making altered especially for clothing digi images to be the best.

All I used was a onsie, Kodak Iron-Ons and Copics.  Super Simple!!  And SUPER DUPER CUTE!!  I think I’m going to make a few more in a couple of more colors (kind of a care bear look). 

Now if you didn’t start off with our host Heather at the Whimsical Dare blog you may want to start there and then go check out the other Dare Devils and see how they were inspired.

Andrea
Cassie
Heather
Jacquie
Jessica
Kim
Kris
Krista
Randi
Rebecca

Tea Time!!

When I saw not that long ago about this new stamp company called Spesch (which if you asked me is short for Special).  They have digital stamps and they are entirely too cute!!  IF you want to go check out her etsy store, you know you want to be enabled.  I just had to bust them out and to creating. Wanna see?

I covered a Tazo tea package with Basic Grey paper and made a card to match.  I just love this stamp!!

Stamp:  Mad Hatter
Paper: Basic Grey - Urban Prairie, Misc White
Extras: Copics, Nestabilities, Primas, Hero Art Jewels, Zva Jewels, DeNami Ribbon, Fiskars Punch

Babies, Babies Everywhere

It seems like all my friends are having babies.  I went to Stan & Jael baby shower this weekend and it was super awesome!!  Everyone was wonderful and the best part was I got to run into friends that I haven’t seen in 14 years.  While I was at their shower another one of my friends was having their shower in Montgomery… see what I’m saying… their everywhere.  I made up a care package to send to her because unfortunately I can’t be in more than one place at the same time (I’m working on it though).  She’s the only one I know that’s having a girl right now.

This is the card I made.

Stamps: Unity Stamp Little Sprout
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Bud, Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Forest Moss
Paper: MFT Fossil Card, MME Penny Lane
Extras: Safety Pin (MFT Kit), MS Grass Punch, WM Brown Twine, Copic

Cherry On Top

What’s the cherry on top? IT’S FRIDAY!!! Yes, I think I will be announcing it every Friday. Now if only I could have today off too. I’ve been in kind of a funk, which I have to say really doesn’t help you creatively. I won’t bore you with details because I always feel like I’m whining about crap like this.

It has been extremely gorgeous around here lately!! The weather is just beautiful. If only I could get a job where I could sit outside and work in the sunshine (notice I said sunshine ;) )

I know enough babbling…

The terrifically talented Christi is our host for the month and our Back to Basic challenge to start off the month is to do … wait for it … NO STAMPING! I personally thought this was a great challenge and couldn’t wait to do it. When I went to Joann’s the other week I found these stickers/decals that are for flip flops. I almost squealed when I saw them because they were so cute and grabbed a few. Wanna see?

I even used Jimmi’s awesome sketch, too bad I didn’t get to use any stamps for it. I still think it came out too cute!!

Now let’s go see what the other girls did…

Christi
Jimmi
Kimme
Sherry

Stamps: NONE
Paper: PTI Kraft, MME Penny Lane
Extras: Wright Pom Pom Ribbon, Copic, Cherry Decal

Day Late & Dollar Short

I’m late, I’m late for a very important date. And I’m not even using Alice images. I've been having some major computer issues this week, not only with my home computer but even with my computer at work. I’m even thinking about defecting to a MAC… GASP!! I’ve been a PC girl since I was in the 3rd grade. I even played with one yesterday when I went by the Apple store to get my iPhone checked on. They are pretty but so are most new computers.

Now as to what I’m really late for, my Dare. I hate missing my challenges. I know you guys probably won’t believe me but it really bothers me and it does for like days after if I haven’t done one.

This was the last of the March for using The Character Cafe images and they were so generous, with such adorable images. Here’s my late card…

Our Dare Challenge girl this week is Andrea. I love this girl, she’s sooooo AWESOME!!! Her stuff is on the Dare blog well yesterday.

Here’s the sketch from Jack that we used this week too.

You should also go check out what our awesome Daredevils did… ya know it rocked!!

Andrea
Cassie
Heather
Jacquie
Jessica
Kim
Kris
Krista
Randi
Rebecca

Stamps: TCC digi stamp
Paper: PTI Kraft, MME – Penny Lane
Extras: Ivory Flower Soft, Pool Smooch, American Crafts Ribbon, SU Punch, Copic

ETA: I want to add I HUGE!! welcome to our newest Daredevil...

Krista Vantol

Welcome!! girlie!!