CASE Study Challenge #131

I came across this challenge and it was irresistible!  I was in the mood to do some colouring and some embossing and to try out something quick and easy.  Well, when a CASE presents itself like this, full of colouring and embossing and the thinking is done already, I had to try it out.  The inspiration image is by Julie Ebersole.  Isn't it pretty!  I loved it.  Now if only I could photograph my images like that!  Wow.  

As it is, I settle for Sauron the Scanner, who grudgingly translates my cards from real life to the internet.  You will just have to imagine a soft glow from the back, like Julie's has.  

I used a Sunshine Designs image and painted it with Twinkling H20s (how I do love my twinks!) and added a birthday sentiment (Stampin' Up!).  I volunteered to provide birthday cards for an outreach program my church is doing, so I think this will go in that little stash.  The background is a cover-a-card stamp by Impression Obsession.

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty Individuals Challenge May 2011

Here's my entry for the Crafty Individuals May challenge, "Free as a Bird". I used this wonderful bird stamp from Crafty Individuals. It's so striking! I stamped it twice on two sheets of sprayed watercolour paper from my stash and embossed in black. I cut out some of the pieces from the blue version and adhered them to the orange piece. It's not technically orange, since I used terracotta and butterscotch to make it, with a bit of spiced marmalade/copper concoction. So while it turned out orange, it's really shades of rust and honey gold that combine to look orange. I prefer to think of it as sunset glow. And just like a sunset, this card requires heavy-duty sunglasses to gaze at it. Ha ha ha. I used my bleach brush to highlight the birds, and coloured back in using the opposite crayon (blue on gold, marmalade on blue). Ok, so this isn't the most stylish of all colour combinations, but sometimes you just need to go where the design takes you, and this is one of those times. I had a scrap of embossed paper handy, so that became the accent strip, and the background got stamped with a Crafty Individuals script stamp. The card base is a mustard fleck, which is in keeping with the colour scheme, but not an exact match. (An exact match would require a warning and a welder's mask for viewing.) The last few highlights were in the way of white and black enamel accents (Ranger). And with that, the challenge is finished, with moments to spare. The design team will pick their favourite, and the winner gets a CI stamp of their choice. In the likely event that this isn't chosen, I may award myself an equivalent consolation prize.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stampotique challenge - Recycle

Here's my submission for this week's Stampotique challenge, which is to recycle something. I started off using a few different things, but they didn't work, so I raided the recycling bin. No joy there, but next to it is our box of things to go back to the bottle depot. I nobly sacrificed the 10 cents we'd get for the Stella can and cut out the label with my Kai shears and gently molded it flat against my brayer. I was careful not to cut myself on the sharp edges. Then I used some cereal box to cut into the fleur-de-lis border (Tim Holtz - Sizzix) and sprayed that with Riptide glimmer mist and some other mist concoction of vaguely orange/copper nature. This got piece got stamped with one of my Stampendous rock cubes using black ink. The crown (Stampotique) was stamped on a red scrap and cut out. That same scrap got used for the sentiment (Inkadinkado), which reads, "It's not just for breakfast." I only inked a portion of the stamp, which starts off with "Chocolate:" but I figured since this is likely going to finish up as a Father's Day card, I'd make it about the beer instead of chocolate. The red scrap also did duty behind the border. The card base is kraft cardstock. I like this and I hope hubby does too. I did wash the piece of can, but there is still the faintest aroma of beer about the project. Also my hands. This brings me to the end of my post and near the end of the long weekend. It's been a good three days, and I am trying not to think about the mountain of things waiting for me back at the office. No, I will banish those thoughts and go back to stamping!

It's Sweater Day

It's National Sweater Day - time to turn down the thermostat by 3 degrees and put on a sweater. I feel a bit like it's cheating since it's going up to plus 5 today, but still. It's a balmy 15 in the house right now - not too bad so far.

Check out the website:
Turn down your heat on Thursday 150,000. That’s how many Canadians we need to participate in National Sweater Day this Thursday, February 17. Help us meet the goal by turning down your heat by 3°C and putting on a sweater. You will make a big difference in the fight against climate change.For more information about National Sweater Day, visit our website.Other ways to get involved:
Take the National Sweater Day pledge for the chance to win a $500 gift certificate to Loblaw or one of two $250 gift certificates to Joe Fresh Style!
Sweater yourself on Facebook with our app. Dress up your profile picture and show your friends that you’re serious about fighting climate change.
Bid on a designer sweater, donated by leading Canadian designers. All proceeds go to WWF.

Exciting news

Imagine my delight and surprise when I checked my favourite blogs today and discovered that Vicky Garrett chose my Starry Lady card as one of her challenge favourites! I was so excited. It's one of my favourite cards that I've made and I felt very honoured to be chosen from such wonderful entries in the challenge. Thanks Vicky!!!

Check out the entries - they are all fantastic!

There's another challenge on right now, masking, and you can use any stamps (their first challenge of the month is open to any stamps) so go out and get inky!

Fun (?) Challenge

We were out for dinner with the kids to a family restaurant called Montana's. They give kids a placemat with puzzles on it and, lo! there was a word puzzle. I am a sucker for these and have been interested (my husband went so far as to say "obsessed" with it for a few days). The challenge is to come up with as many words as you can from the phrase "Escape to Montana's!". That was it, I was happily occupied for the entire meal, and for the rest of the evening. I have been adding a few words now and then since then, but I am running out. So far we have 181 single words, plus another 127 plural/conjugated words, and another 7 of questionable validity (though not sure there is a judge). The 8 questionable ones are santa(s), poo, pee (stop snickering), panto(s) and namaste. I didn't include any proper nouns. I allowed contractions as there was one apostrophe in the phrase. We astonished the waitress - she said people don't normally do that puzzle. What kind of joint is that? I mean you can't put a price on that much fun. It's just like Boggle only better because there's no timer! By the way, the puzzle comes with 16 spaces for the words. Sixteen! As if!!! We found 315, including the dubious ones. You can't write small enough, especially with the crayons they provide to fit those all into 16 spots, so we had to sacrifice the square challenge, colouring picture (moose and stag) and the maze.

BTW, you don't need to flame me for this post. I am well aware that I am a bit of a word geek, and noticed that I thought of words like "capon" and "peasant" before "mat" and "top". I'm not sure if I pass or fail that geek test........

So, in conclusion, I throw down the gauntlet: how many words can you find in the phrase "Escape to Montana's!"?