Birthday Note

Just a quick little birthday note using "Icing on the Cake" by My Favorite Things and Jen del Muro's "Sketch For You To Try" from yesterday. Dimensions are 3 1/2" x 3".

Stamps: Icing on the Cake (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana, Not Quite Navy
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Accessories: paper piercer, scallop punch, 1 3/8", 1 1/4" and 1/16" punches, so saffron brads, word window punch, aqua painter, dimensionals

A V-Day Quintet

Once I did the "I Dig You" card two days ago, I started looking at the other images in the set for cute Valentine sayings. Ready? Here goes ...

"Loads of Love" (I know, predictable, but stay with me)...



"I'm On Fire For You"



"You're the Complete Package, Valentine" (the brown kinda wrecked my color scheme, but it was worth it, don't you think?)



"Police Be My Valentine" (my favorite, as DH is in law enforcement)



And last, but not in the least least: "Your Bed Or Mine?" (get your mind out of the gutter, ladies, this is a family-friendly blog! I was thinking of a Sunday drive in the country. Ahem.)



These are the last of the Fun On Wheels projects for a little while. Consider the set garaged ... unless anyone has a clever V-Day phrase for a cement mixer or a crane?

Stamps: Fun On Wheels
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories: silver brads, paper piercer, word window punch, circle cutter, black gingham ribbon, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, red eyelets, white gel pen
Dimensions: finished cards are 3" x 4" each.
Note: I printed the sentiments on my computer using the Arial Black font at 10 points.

Are You My Mother?

Okay, so yesterday, as I was making the "I Dig You" card with the backhoe digger thingy, I kept thinking about the P.D. Eastman children's book "Are You My Mother?" The thought of making it into a card was cracking me up, so here it is!

Maybe it's just me, but I think it would make a funny "congratulations" card for a new baby, or a wacky, humorous Mother's Day card. Even better ... I'll tuck this one away for my birth mother, in the event that my twin sister's on-again/off-again search ever turns up someone. Wouldn't this be PERFECT? LOL! Go ahead. Say it. I'm a little wacky.

This second project is from a few years ago....







You may have seen the Scooby Doo/Mystery Van party invitation I posted about back in October. At the party, I had the kids follow a set of clues that, by the end of the party, led to the discovery of a phantom who had stolen all the birthday gifts. After the party, for thank-you notes, I came up with this sheriff's badge "wallet," commending them for their detective work. I can totally get into stuff like this ... hope you enjoy!

Tomorrow, I have a few more projects with this set (I'd post them now, except they're still just in my head) and then I promise to stop having fun with my wheels!

Supplies & Instructions for "Are You My Mother?"
Stamps: Fun On Wheels, Canvas
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Going Gray, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Brocade Blue
Paper: Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Brocade Blue, Whisper White
Accessories: Spots and Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, sponge daubers, pewter jumbo eyelets, orange and blue grosgrain ribbon, gray taffeta ribbon, paper piercer
Instructions:
1. Fold Basic Gray card stock in half. Sponge edges of Pumpkin Pie block with Basic Gray ink and adhere to card base. Dry emboss Brocade Blue block using the Cuttlebug and the Spots and Dots embossing folder. Sponge edges with Basic Gray ink and adhere to card.
2. Stamp Pumpkin Pie card stock with Canvas background using Pumpkin Pie ink. Sponge edges using Basic Gray ink. Use the plastic guide from the Mat Pack to mark positions for the jumbo eyelets on Pumpkin Pie card stock. Punch and set eyelets with Crop-a-Dile. Tie three lengths of ribbon through top eyelet: orange grosgrain, blue grosgrain, and gray taffeta. Adhere piece to card.
3. Print sentiment from computer in blue ink on white cardstock. Cut to size. Sponge edges using Basic Gray ink. Use markers to ink the stamp in different colors. Position and stamp. Layer onto Brocade Blue (edges sponged in Basic Gray ink), then Basic Gray (edges sponged). Adhere to Pumpkin Pie block, just to the right of the jumbo eyelets.
4. Draw a bird's body on Basic Gray card stock. Add eye using a white gel pen. Trim tightly. Draw a wing on Brocade Blue card stock. Trim tightly and adhere to bird's body. Adhere bird to main image panel. Use a black marker to add legs.

Supplies & Instructions for Sheriff's Badge Wallet:
Stamps: Fun On Wheels
Ink: Basic Black, VersaMark
Paper: Basic Black, Sahara Sand, Metallic Gold
Accessories: paper piercer, clear embossing powder
Instructions:
1. Pierce holes along all four sides of a 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of black card stock. Fold at 3 1/2" and 7". Adhere the short side to the middle using tacky tape to make a pocket.
2. Stamp police car and siren in VersaMark along the bottom of the front and along the inside pocket. Emboss with clear powder.
3. Print official sounding language onto Sahara Sand and adhere to the inside of the wallet, left side. Adhere a photo just above the text.
4. Fold a 6" x 4 1/4" piece of Sahara Sand card stock to make a note card. Stamp three police cars along the bottom, the "Thank You" sentiment just above, and sirens at the top. Tuck in the pocket on the inside of the wallet.
5. Pin sheriff's badge to black circle. Mat with Metallic Gold card stock. Adhere to wallet front

I Dig You

Here are some words I never thought I'd write: I'M SICK OF FLOWER STAMPS! This'll last, oh, say two seconds, but for now, it's true. So I went "digging" through my stamps (pun totally intended, lol!) for all things non-floral (they're few and far between, I tell ya), and pulled out this old, old, old Stampin' Up set called Fun on Wheels. Just to give you an idea of how old it is, there isn't even an SCS gallery for it. But with two young boys, I'm not likely to part with it for a good little while.

I started out planning to make a little boy birthday card. What I came up with could work for a kid birthday, but I'm much more excited about using it as a light-hearted adult card ... my husband's valentine, even. He's not a pink and red heart kind of guy anyway (shocking), so he'll probably appreciate the non-traditional colors and image.

I used this week's SCS Sketch Challenge, which is a "kick stand" card. Fun little things, they are. For instructions, click on the link. The colors came from a romper my sweet little baby boy was wearing yesterday.

I stamped the backhoe in going gray, sponged basic gray around the edges, then used a black marker to accent a few areas. All of the card stock edges are sponged with basic gray ink and distressed with the distressing tool. I was hoping for a grunge look that would complement the whole construction theme, but I'm afraid it just looks sloppy and messy instead.

The dry embossing is done with the Spots and Dots Cuttlebug folder. I used the Stampin' Up mat pack to mark the equidistant holes for the jumbo eyelets, then used the adjustable "stop" on the Crop-A-Dile to make sure the row stayed evenly spaced up from the bottom edge of the yellow strip. (If you want a visual on that, be sure to check out Kristina Werner's "How to set evenly spaced eyelets" video tutorial.)

For the sentiment, this might have been a good time to print from a computer and stamp around it, but I used a marker on select letters from the Amazing to Zany set instead. "You" was easy, as it came from the word "your." "Dig" came from the "delightful" stamp. You can see that even with the stamp-a-ma-jig, the word "dig" came out uneven. In the end, I thought the crooked letters fit the card, so I kept it. Thoughts?

Now that this set is out, I have some other cute ideas for it, as well as a fun old project (if I can find it), so be sure to check back in the next couple of days.

Stamps: Fun on Wheels, Amazing to Zany
Ink: Going Gray, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Brocade Blue
Paper: Basic Gray, Barely Banana, Brocade Blue
Accessories: pewter jumbo eyelets, Spots and Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, ticket corner punch, sponge daubers, distressing tool

Sparkly Mojo

I put this one together for Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. This week, she's choosing two winners who will each get to choose a free Verve Visual stamp set from among the five new ones coming out tomorrow. Very cool prize! You have until Sunday (1/13) to enter, to be sure to check it out!

I started out by painting the chipboard flower with Making Memories scrapbook paint in "Daquiri." I smooshed into VersaMark, sprinkled with Heat and Stick powder, then covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky flower center are made with stamps from Close to My Heart's Rustic Flowers set.

The brown satin ribbon and the blue flowered ribbon (by May Arts) are just threaded through the jumbo eyelets. The rest of the card is straightforward stamping. The only thing you might not be able to see is a large outline-type flower stamped in white on the soft sky background. In real life, it's kind of neat because you can hardly see it at some angles, but when you turn the card, it's a bright white that really pops.

Stamps: Rustic Flowers (Close to My Heart); Warm Words (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Versamark, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: chipboard flower, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds glitter, brown satin ribbon, pewter jumbo eyelets, dimensionals (all by Stampin Up): Daquiri acrylic paint (by Making Memories); blue flower ribbon (by May Arts)

Really Great Finds

One of my resolutions is to spend more time visiting other blogs and leaving more comments. So I thought it might be fun every so often to share of few of my favorite finds, in case you missed them:

A good laugh:
Dear Paperlicious: 2008: The Year That...

What a blessing a good cry can be:
Angels are hard to find....

And a few other good things:

- Laurie's comment about the elephant's trunk had me laughing out loud. Plus, her card is a gem.

- Which of the nestabilities will look best on a given card? Donna has a helpful solution!

- I've been drawn to cards with lots of white space on them lately, and AJ gets the gold!

- YAAAAYYY! {{{{{Beate}}}}} is back with her Weekend Sketch Challenges.

- Mercy celebrates 20K hits with some scrumptious blog candy! But ya gotta hurry. I think it ends today.

- Pam shares a great tutorial for her signature "Ribbon Blossom." This is a MUST-try.

Featured Stamper - stampinat6213

I haven't done one of SCS's Featured Stamper challenges in a long while. It was well past any reasonable person's bedtime last night before I finally got started on any stamping, so this quick challenge was perfect. All you do is pick one of the featured stamper's cards to CASE, making only a couple of changes along the way. Start to finish time: under 20 minutes.

This week's stamper is Nancy Riley, aka stampinat6213 on SCS. Her gallery is full of fantastic projects! I chose to CASE one of her older cards, from August 2006. I liked the vertical strip she used for her greeting. I kept the overall layout, black gingham, and floral theme, but made these changes:

1. different color scheme (my color scheme comes from last week's Color Challenge: Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, and Real Red)
2. different floral stamp
3. different sentiment and background
4. changed large orange triangle to a smaller photo corner and moved it out from under the focal point
5. added a word window punched piece for the second part of my sentiment

Not stamping-related ... have you ever forgotten to put the pot back in your coffee maker as it's brewing? I did this yesterday! There was coffee EVERYWHERE. I think it's the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation. I stamp late at night, my kids are up early, and my baby still wakes in the night. That's a candle that's burning at both ends and in the middle, too. Resolution #5: Get more sleep.

Stamps: Simply Said, Amazing to Zany
Paper: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, White craft, Black Staz-On
Accessories: black gingham ribbon, paper piercer, word window punch, photo corner punch, Certainly Celery, Real Red, and Taken with Teal markers