My 250th post!

I swear, when I started blogging, I didn't really think that I'd make it to my 250th post. But 4 or 5 years later, here I am.

In some ways, it's taken me a lot longer reach this milestone than I'd expected or hoped. Life sometimes just gets busy. Other times, my motivation to craft is just not there. I have found that the times, like now, when I'm in an active blog group are ones when I'm most active. It helps knowing that there is a group of people who will pop over to your blog and comment on  your cards. I mention that because I hope that not only will you comment on my cards, but you'll also take a look at the blogs listed on my sidebar and give my cyber friends some love!

There really isn't much going on right now, so nothing else to share. I'm in a book/study group at church, looking at a book called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and I'm really enjoying it. We're gearing up for budget season on the school board. And I'm managing to keep up with my hockey pools this year. So life is good.

Here are my cards:

I've been spending a lot of my card making time working on my stash of card kits and this one has been there for a long time. I love the way the different label dies look together. And the 'Wish Big' stamp is actually punched out of the old SU ornament punch. The big dot embossing folder has really grown on me, too. 

CCEE1604 - Chocolate Cake Day

The toughest thing about this challenge was choosing which card to post for it. I make a lot of birthday cards that involve cake images. Why? Because I love cake. Birthdays are all about the cake and the presents, when you think about it. LOL. 

Make My Monday - Newest/Favorite Stamp

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes 

Love these darn birds! What more can I say? 

Card Details:

Wish Big - All Products Stampin Up

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Pool Party, Very Vanilla

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Stamp: I can't remember - it's retired.. will try to find the set name

Other: Embossing folder, framelits

Happy Birthday - All Products Stampin Up

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes

Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Unsure... 

Other: Cupcake Builder punch, oval punch, scallop oval punch, border punch, dots embossing folder

Bird Card

Stamps: Bird Crazy, Dyane Reavley verse

Cardstock: Bazzill White

Ink: Stazon Black, Memento Black

Other: Tombow markers, Sizzix dies 

Those Crazy Birds!

Well, it happened. A while ago, I fell in love with the Bird Crazy stamps from Tim Holtz. I finally got to play with them recently. I did a little class at our local stamp store, and, as usual, I tried to put my own spin on the cards.

I'm entering the following challenges:

Casology - Clear

I wanted to be different here, and so I used the rain/water/puddles as something that's clear. Even though puddles can be murky, that's not from the water... that's the dirt on the ground. The water itself is clear!

CCEE - Hats

I just love this guy. His nose is perfect. I'm really loving the Crazy Things add on stamp set; they really give the birds extra personality. I also did a second hat card, but I'm having trouble uploading it, so I'll post it on its own, tomorrow.

Addicted To Stamps & More - Make Your Mark
Seize The Birthday - Clean and Simple
Stamp Ink Paper - Birthday

This one was so much fun to colour!

 All the colouring on these cards were done with my Tombos & a water brush.

SIP Challenge #5 - Day 14

There is a new challenge blog on the internet, and I really like it. It's called the Stamp Ink Paper challenge, and today I'm taking part in Challenge #5 . Conveniently enough, the theme happens to be Christmas in July.
Here's the Inspiration image:

And here is my card:

The image is from a kit; I had the card in my stash of 'Things I Need To Finish' and this challenge gave me the kick I needed to do it. I was trying to get the colour of the bird to match the ornaments completely, and I struck out there. He's too pink. But with the markers I have in my collection, that was the best I could do.

I want to say the the image and verse are from Penny Black, but if I'm honest, I do NOT remember.

Day 12

Editor's note: This card actually would have been live last night had I hit 'Publish' rather than 'Save'. Aaargh. 

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Today is a bittersweet day. My Boo is gone; mom, dad & Boo start their Alaska cruise today. Then, after the cruise they're heading home via the US. So no more seeing my girl until we Skype again in a few weeks. 

Despite that melancholy, I had a relatively good day. My allergies seemed to be back with a vengeance in the morning. I ended up sleeping in and getting to church late, and thus couldn't get a wheelchair-safe parking spot. So home I came to do some proof-reading for a friend. Then I continued the never-ending task of attempting to finally catch up on my email. 

Went to a lovely book launch at a friend's house in the late afternoon. It was good to see some old friends  and meet some new people. And the hosts cooked us a fantastic meal. I got home around 8:00 and I was surprisingly tired.

Today's card is one I made at the former Scrapbookin' Adventures store. They always did great card classes. Luckily, Bianca, who taught the card classes, is teaching at a new store. She and a friend opened up an online venture a few months after SA closed its doors here. SA is also doing online sales, too, but their focus is on kits. 

But I digress. Here is the card. The reason I didn't post it when I made it in 2014 is that I hadn't yet decided if i was going to colour the image. I had originally thought I'd leave it uncolored, to go more with a 'vintage sketch' notion, but the more I looked at the hat, the more I determined I needed to colour it. And then I decided if I was going to colour the hat, I had to colour the scarf and his arms. So I found my Tombows (after spending 15 minutes going through all the drawers, I discovered they were right in front of my nose, on the shelf. Yay me. Aargh.) and gave Frosty a bit of colour. 

I may yet add some Wink of Stella or some other form of glitter on the snowman.. I can't decide if that would be too much. Note that the stamped image is all one stamp, and it was embossed with VersaMark & covered in an antique-y gold embossing powder. 

The patterned papers are either Simple Stories, I think. 

Playing with new stuff...

I'm back with a card for a challenge, as well as a few others.

My first card is for two challenges. I used a stamp from my new Tim Holtz Bird Crazy set. Love this little guy! I saw it at the store, with some really cute samples, and I couldn't resist.

There is still time to enter these challenges so check out the links!
Crafty Time Challenges - Anything New
Addicted to Clean and Simple - Birds 

A few weeks ago, I took a class at a local stamp store. It was all about playing with distress inks, which I love. I particularly loved that we got to use some stencils. I was finally inspired to buy a few, as well as some embossing paste, and the new Bo Bunny pearlescent stuff. First I will show you the cards that are not for the challenge.

The photo of the first three cards isn't great, I know. I can't quite figure out why it was so blurry, and I'm charging my camera at the moment, so I can't try again. When I get a chance I'll take another shot. I can also take individual shots of the cards if people would like to see them in more detail, so you can get a look at hte stencilling.

The top card uses the new Cracked Pistachio distress ink from Tim Holtz. Sigh.. love it. The bottom one uses a blending of he pistachio & the Mermaid Lagoon. I wanted to by that exact honeycomb stencil, but I they didn't have any left. I think I have a butterfly very similar to this one. That is washi tape in the top and bottom corners.

I really love how this pink card turned out. Kathy, our instructor, did some of the prep for us, such as the background stencilling & the cutting of the chipboard pieces. We coloured them up with Inka Gold in blue, green & copper. I have GOT to get some of this product; it will be great on Christmas cards, with any of my ornament stamps. At first I thought the background was created using an embossing folder, but it turns out it was a stencil and embossing paste. Again, they were out of stock for the stencil, so I'll have to wait to add this one to my collection.

Card Details: All products Tim Holtz, except cardstock (Bazzill)