Red, White, and Blue Stars Card

Yes, sometimes I really do still get to post twice in one night! I have time to show off one more card I made for a challenge.

Remembering with you

 The stripes and polka dots you see as the background paper are actually washi tape! I covered a sheet of paper with them, then punched a bunch of stars out of a pretty shimmer white cardstock. I felt it needed just a little something more, so I stamped two of the star punches with tiny stars from Lawn Fawn. To finish them off, I traced the edges with my Distress Markers in red and blue before layering them on with foam tape. The sentiment is from Pink by Design.

Side view of the card so you can see all of those lovely layers

Oooo, layers!

I'm linking this one up to:
Washi Up! - use red, white, and blue washi tape

Happy crafting!

Today I Shall Be Happier Than a Bird With a French Fry

 Hello again everyone! I'm in challenge-mode, so I decided to make a card this time with my new favorite stamp ever.

Hello again, little birdie

I was going for a slightly vintage feel, and tried my hand at faux stitching. I like it, but I think I need to practice drawing straight lines...ah well. The watercolor paper the bird is stamped on is actually reused from a craft show sign. How's that for reusing? Of course, then I had to use some scraps so I decorated the inside of the card as well.

Tweet, tweet!

The bird is made with my new Fiskars punch and cut from scraps, then topped with a little pearl eye. Of course, they're craft room photos again. One of these days I'll actually create in the daylight again!

I am linking up to:
CAS-ual Fridays CFC104 - use banners and/or flags

Happy crafting!

How Much is that Kitty in the Window?

 I'm so excited that I can finally share this card with you! A good friend of mine asked that I make his wife a special birthday card. While I knew she dyed her own yarn (how freaking cool is that?!?), they also adopted two kitties recently and are putting in a new garden this year. So, put that all together and what do you get:

Today is a gift, that's why they call it the Present

 Two little gray kitties (one has a white tummy) chasing her balls of yarn and looking out the window at the garden, of course! I'm not even going to pretend to be modest and instead just say that I outdid myself on this card.

I. LOVE. IT.
Thankfully, so did Tina. I hear her "husbeast" needs to get a frame for it next... :)

I wanted to give myself lots of card square footage, so this lovely measures 6"x6". Of course, turns out I don't have envelopes that big (gak!) so out came the tissue paper instead. Hey, it's extra padding!

Closeup of the window...wait, did I smudge that? Dang it!

The window, kitties, and basket were all cut out with my Silhouette Cameo, aka my sexy, sexy craft beast. I think I found the basket in the Silhouette store, but the rest were SVG files that I imported and cut myself. The vines and flowers were colored in with Liquid Pearls and Stickles. Those clouds are from one of the My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper packs, as was the "wallpaper" I believe.

One little, two little, three little yarn balls...

For the yarn, I pulled out my baker's twine and just got rolling. It took me a few false starts, but in the end I knotted one end and just started wrapping, much like I was rolling a yarn ball. Yes, I've done it before; my Gram knits and my son likes decorating her apartment with yarn. Sigh. The basket backing wasn't solid, so I hid the patterned paper with a bit of chocolate Stickles. Ta-da!

Get back here, you evil ball of yarn! I'll keeel you!! Meow!

Then there's the kitties. They became gray as their little furballs are, and rumor has it they do indeed chase the yarn. Then again, have you ever met a kitty that wasn't enticed by that lovely ball of wool goodness?

Last shot. Yeah, I still love it.

The wall hanging was also done on the Silhouette, then hung on the wall with some twine and a square brad after its edges were inked up with Distress Stain (I think I used Gathered Twigs). The saying is one of my favorites, and lovely for a birthday.

Now, everyone go show Tina some love and buy some yarn. I promise, it's awesome.

I'm linking up to: Pink Cricut Link Up Party

Happy crafting!

Flowers and Stamps and Birds, Oh My!

Hi everyone! Yes, I know, I've been absent again...I'm also still waiting for the power to come back on from Wednesday. We had some massive thunderstorms up here in Upstate NY, complete with a few tornadoes! Oh yeah, fun fun...thankfully no one was hurt and everyone's possessions are safe and sound. It certainly makes you stop and appreciate life for a bit though, doesn't it? It also makes you hook up the coffee pot to the generator for your morning dose of caffeine! LOL

Despite all the excitement, I did manage to finish up a gorgeous wedding invitation order and I got my latest Unity Stamp of the Week in the mail. Now, I love stamps. I love getting new stamps to play with. However, I think this is the very first time I opened the envelope, saw the stamp, and RAN upstairs to immediately make something with it! The heck with no power, I had plenty of sunshine and ink pads don't need electricity. So what's the stamp that made me run upstairs? This little beauty:

I might have yelled 'squee'. Can't prove it though, the boys weren't home and the cats aren't telling. O.M.G. You have to understand, my family has gone up to the coast of Maine since my baby sister was 5. We always go and feed our leftover french fries to the seagulls at the beach and watch the little sparrows hop through the outdoor patios looking for leftovers. So this little stamp and saying made me think of all those fun times again. So instead of starting with a card, I decided to make a little canvas piece for myself.

Eek, mind the camera phone picture...

I used my Distress Stains in Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Evergreen Bough and a bit of Frayed Burlap to color in my little canvas after stamping the bird with the Distress Paint in Picket Fence. This is a fun technique; stamp in acrylic paint onto canvas first, then let it dry. You can speed up the process with a heat gun, but only if you have power...which I didn't...so I attempted to be patient and let it dry. The paint resists color so you can then go color-crazy over the top of it! I just kept layering colors until it had the beachy feel I was looking for. Once everything was dry, I simply stamped the sentiment onto the canvas using my Memento ink.

Did I mention the canvas has a cute little easel? I scooped a whole bunch of these up at Joann's on Black Friday. They were so cheap, I couldn't not buy them!

Yeah, I love it. I'm keeping it. Look at that, I made something for myself for a change! LOL

I mentioned flowers, didn't I? Well, the baby poppy plants I added to my garden last year are starting to bloom. Yowza! Aren't they beautiful?

I'm linking up to the Unity Stamp Friends With Flair and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Happy Crafting!