Addicted to Stamps #133 - Holiday

Today I was at a silent retreat. A group of us who have been doing a study called The Good and Beautiful Life got together at our church from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. We did some writing exercises, shared lunch together, watched 2 clips from documentaries and viewed a full documentary about monks who are silent all the time. It was amazing. You might think that watching the videos would defeat the purpose, but it somehow didn't. It truly added something. It was the MOST quiet room I've ever experienced watching something via a screen.

We had permission to do other things as we listened to the documentaries. That made it really interesting. I actually found it felt like more of it was sticking with me than if I had not had anything else to do. I can still hear the rhythmic chiming of the bells from the monastery.

I was planning to work on some cards, but I forgot something really, really important: adhesive. So, since I had my iPad with me, I used the time to catch up on a bunch of email. I follow a lot of crafty blogs and recipe blogs. I like to pin card ideas, scrapbook pages & recipes. I have pinned more than I can ever use and I don't care! One day I will benefit from having multiple versions of banana chocolate chip muffins. Yeah. That's the ticket. Yeah!

Ok, enough babbling. I finished off a set of cards from a workshop I took a while ago. I'm submitting the first one to the challenge because it's that I did the most work to complete.  It was actually the first time I used a water brush/aqua painter to watercolour. I'm much more comfortable with my Tombows. I can see some spots where my inky fingers created blotches & I have to figure out how to cover them up.

All the other cards are made from kit. I can't remember what company the kit comes from, but I think it's My Mind's Eye.

There is still time to play so check out Addicted to Stamps Challenge #133 - Holiday before it closes! 

I actually love this cared. I can see making a different version using some of my Christmas words/verses & my Stampin' Up snowflake framelits.

This one, too, could be easily recreated using patterned paper & either an image or a verse.

I love the verse on this card; I'm not sure how I feel about the triangles. Mostly, I am insecure as to whether I could ever cut paper well enough to recreate the effect. I do love the stars along the bottom and thanks to framelits & punches that would be easy to do. 

New Christmas Card Challenge Blog

Just a quick post today: I've found a new Christmas card challenge blog! Check out Completely Christmas - they are only on their second challenge. You can find that challenge here. The theme is Anything Goes. 

I love this card. It was made with the envelope punch board. My friend bought one of these for us to share. We're splitting the cost because while we know we'll use it, we may not use it enough on our own to justify the cost. We also tend to discuss stamp purchases and sometimes if one is getting it the other won't. The stamp set used here, for example, was one I liked, but I decided not to buy it because it was a little too similar to some other things I have.

It's a little on the clean side for me. I have this urge to fill up that white space with some patterned paper or use some cardstcock and stamp some snowflakes or something. I think though, what I really need to do next time is use a different colour for the base and maybe run it through an embossing folder first. Part of the problem I'm having with it is that I generally don't care for Whisper White as a base paper. It's thinner than the other colours.

Card Details
Cardstock: Whisper White, Gumball Green
Ink: Gumball Green
Stamps: Bright Hopes 
Other: Season of Style Washi Tape, Silver Glimmer paper, star punch

Christmas Challenge - March 1/10

And still in continues...

It is STILL snowing here. I was going to say it hasn't stopped since Saturday - and I've heard that from some people - but I thought it did at one point, for a brief period of time. Regardless, if it did stop at all, it was so brief I say it doesn't count for the purposes of this post. I had a wee bit of cabin fever today. Between that and the fact that I had a document I needed to print, and I went over to one of the admin buildings today. Took the camera with me, of course. Here's what I saw: 

The silver car int the bottom photo is mine. One of the lovely people here cleaned it off, which was very kind. The only sad thing is they did it before I could get a picture. ;) There's a graduated sidewalk there, but it was actually pretty covered. I decided it would be easier to get back in via long way. It isn't that they didn't clean the path; it's that it's been coming down so quickly that the path was covered again. 

In honour of the fact that this post is my 200th, I want to share a couple cards. The first one I did not make. It's from a card club night in 2013, during Sale A Bration. I couldn't make it that night so my demo made me the cards. 

I did make this Christmas card. I did it at the scrapbook store, when it was still in Parksville. You can see the original version here. If memory serves me correctly, I made this version on the last Make & Take Monday of the summer. That day, they just put out all the leftover bits from previous weeks and we can make ones we missed, or do them again, or, as in this case, tweak them.

Sadly, no card details today because I don't have the info. I can tell you the DSP in the first card is retired Sale A Bration paper from 2013. The paper in the star card is Echo Park, I think. But don't hold me to that. 

And that was my 200th blog post! See you soon! 

Hopefully, it won't still be snowing. 

A couple challenge cards..

Yes I am here! With the Olympics on, I've been a little distracted this week. In fact, I'm going to keep this post short so that I can get back to watching a few things.

Thanks to Frozen, I'm on a quest for a more 'Olaf-y' snowman. 

This set is for the following challenges:
Addicted To Stamps & More - Challenge #82, Make Your Mark
Shop Our Stash - Oh,Shiny
Late Night Stampers - Wet or Dry Embossing

For this challenge, you simply have to use markers. I saw Frozen on Monday, so I really wanted to make a snowman themed card.  I had these images stamped and ready, so I made some card bases, found some layers in my scraps, and there ya go. I actually pillaged these embellishments from other cards that were sent to me for Christmas. I've found that as much as I like to think I am going to scrapbook individual cards, it doesn't happen. I've decided in future I'll take a photo of my card display and scrapbook that photo. That way individual cards are noted for posterity, but without the bulk of scrapping cards. I will scrap photo cards, though. I usually do a layout of those. You will note these aren't Christmas cards. I decide I needed some winter birthday cards.

The snowflake card  is for two challenges

 CAS-ology - Week 82, Bold

Just Add Ink - Just Add Stripes

I originally planned to post the kite card for that challenge - and I still may link it up - but I think the Christmas card better fits the CAS aspect of the challenge. I think the kite card may not really fit the clean & simple aspect of the challenge, so I'm entering the snowflake card in case it gets deleted. I expect the image panel may be too cluttered to be considered 'clean'. It was quite a quick, easy card to make. I think I was done in 15 minutes. And it only took that long because I chose to cut out the kites. 

I love the snowflake card, actually. It uses the painter's tape technique. If you've never heard of this idea, there are lots of great tutorials on Youtube. It's really fun and easy to do. 

Card Details - All Products Stampin Up

It's Your Day

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Stamps: Snow Much Fun, Festive Flurry

Ink: Staz On Jet Black

Other: Snowflake Punch, embossing powder, rhinestones, markers, snowflake jewels

Christmas Blessings

Cardstock: Island Indigo, Whisper White
Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo

Other: Dazzling Details 

Celebrate You

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Whisper White

Stamps: Send Me Soaring

Ink: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Scalloped polka dot ribbon

February Christmas card challenge 1/10

100 in 100 Challenge 14/100

(Almost) Superbowl Sunday

I have the football game on as I type this post.. Seattle vs San Francisco. If the 'Hawks lose, I won't have much motivation to watch the Super Bowl - hence the post title. With the exception of NHL hockey, I generally don't enjoy watching sports on television. That said, it occurs to me that I do like Payton Manning, so I can cheer for the Broncos to beat the Niners if it comes to that. At least the Patriots are out. I hate the Patriots. I mean, irrational, fire-of-a-thousand-burning-suns hate. The cheating, the attitude, all of it. I just can't stand them. Thrilled they're out again. 

Anyway... two Christmas cards today, my last two for the month to meet my quota for the SCS Christmas challenge. Cardmakers, this is an ongoing challenge you can join at any time, so we'd love to see you take part! Each month there is an optional challenge to jumpstart our mojo. Ironically, this month's challenge is Peace. I have two cards that fit the challenge. 

This first card is one that I made from some pieces I recycled. The cracked glass image and the sentiment strip were pillaged from a card I received from someone a long time ago. There was something about the original design I didn't like, so I decided to mess around an make something a little more masculine. I'm still not super happy with the layout, but it'll have to do. 

The second card is one that I had in a kit. We had made 5 cards one night at my demo's house - this would have been Christmas 2012 (I looked up the stamp set to confirm what year it came out; it was a one-off from last year's holiday catalogue). I posted another example of the set here.  The only real differences are that I changed the orientation, used a different sentiment, and I used dimensionals to raise the image panel. I think, in retrospect, that I prefer the horizontal orientation. I also should have trimmed the sentiment tomake it a wee bit smaller. I'll likely fix that soon. My trimmer, however, is in the trunk of my car and I'm too lazy to go get it tonight.

I actually got a number of cards done on Friday when I was visiting with friends, so I'll have lots to post this week. I took a bag of scraps to my friend and I've already got another one the go for when I see her on the 31st. I was looking through the pile of card bits I saved and I realized it was just NOT inspiring me anymore, so out it goes!

Back tomorrow with a Monday Make & Take!
Card Details
Wishing You Peace
Cardstock: Browns, red (Bazzill); Vintage Violet (SU)
Ink: Real Red, Vintage Violet (SU)
Stamps: Wishing You (SU)

Peace On Earth
Cardstock: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Ink: Staz-on Black, Illuminate pad
Stamps: Frosty Friends, Snow Swirled, Four the Holidays
Other: Seam binding

Challenge Objectives
January Christmas card challenge 10/10
100 in 100 Challenge 9/100