Brave Girls

Way back in January of this year I found out that there was a contest at GCD Studios.

It was the Brave Girls Camp contest and

the winners get to go to Melody Ross's Brave Girl Camp (all expenses paid).

there were a few hoops to jump through so I jumped.

Planned and shopped, planned and found that I was going to Melbourne so  I 

bought my Melody Ross Chipart supplies while I was there visiting my Aunt Jane/godmother.

Bought two tools, some metal stamps and a bunch of Chipart chip board.

And then I procrastinated....what to design, what stamps to use, which pieces would work with what project.

I did not want to scrap book or make a card. i felt that it needed to be over the top. something that no one else would do. I had a chip board book of MR's, but thought that idea would be taken, too!

In my craft room, I had a bug cage...and that was IT!!!

I  sprayed and painted, and hammered, and glazed, and hammered, and stamped the metal into ink and paint, and hammered some more. I mixed paints with more paint and some with ink, some with alcohol inks.

I hammered into the wood, into the chip board. I hammered into foil and metal.

I cut into soda cans and bottles. I punched and die cut and hammered even more.

I tried hanging butterflies inside and out, front and back.

I took it all outside and took pictures under the tree, in the tree, on the bricks, in front of dead weeds.

Pictures that had too much sun, too little sun, way too may dead weeds and grass. 

Some with more green than you can imagine!

some photos landed in the trash bin as some elements ended up in the recycle bin.

papers were used and abused.

BUT it got done with hours to spare.

I must say that there was one person that helped me find the way through the hoops,

through the rules, over hill and dale, and where to find the list of stores that carried the product and that was

my blogging friend, Laura.

This was a ton of fun and work, but I loved playing and painting, planning and plotting.

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this cage.

Thanks for coming by!

Did i leave you with a question to be answered? check it out here at GCD studios for your answer.

Verve...and the last hours

Here for your viewing enjoyment will be two Verve cards on one post. Week three and week four are due by midnight tonight so I have to get cracking.
The power went out Thursday night at 6:30. Lightning hit the transformer. the company said it may be back on by 11 pm and then another automated call said Friday, 1 am. forget the heat, forget the rotting food in the fridge, forget that it will be dark at 9 pm and...forget that I wanted to watch Big Brother!!! I wasn't going to get my last two cards uploaded on SCS and I struggled at 4:30 this morning to get them done before Mimi's Summer Camp started at 7:30am. I watched out the window while the line men were doing their thing. i watched them pull away at 9:45 and no power, yet. The antiquated phone that I keep for these purposes rang and the automated voice told me the power would be restored by Friday......Forget the Verve!!!! Then I hear a series of beeps.....but no light...nothing. I head over to the bedroom where I see light ...and lo and behold the power is on!!!! Ran down here and got the cards uploaded to SCS got the champion thread done and then sat to do the blog.
Now it is 11:24 pm and the eyes are heavy......so here's the quickie you have always waited for....

Week three---

And the card........the rectangle is behind rather than in front of the main image. (It's a piece of vellum.)

Week four......

And the card...again something behind not in front, and no room for a tag.

Two hearts...one black and embossed and the other gold and ran through the wavy crimper. This paper is from one sheet....love the front and back from SU..the name escapes me. All sentiments are from Verve, 'Blessings' and a Plain Jane, 'Nature'
Thanks for coming by!!!!

Christmas in July 2

 

Combined two challenges again today! Kraft Journal's challenge is Christmas in July which is perfect for the Delightful Inspiration Designer's challenge with the Joyful Snowman. His real name is Christmas Snowman, but since I chose the image with the word JOY, I like Joyful snowman. I outlined him with a clear glitter pen and popped up the two snowball gifts. Tried a little creative layering with the Spellbinders and even cut my

twill ribbon from SU with the same Spellbinder to get the perfect edge.

    Haven't used an outline sticker is ages and this was the perfect time to get the box of them 

out with "Seasons Greetings".

I love kraft card stock, don't you?

The snowflake was in my stash of small die cuts that didn't get used.

Thanks for coming by!

Christmas in July

 One more snowman which means another Christmas in July. 

(first one I did gets posted on Thursday)

This one is for a brand spanking new

challenge blog called Jellypark Friends Friday challenge.

I found Jellypark at one of my SBS29 sis's blog. Tracey is on the design team and she makes awesome cards and projects. This little guy was a freebie and how could I resist the challenge? I know right off the bat that I was going to put him with the Trees from the SU set 'Lovely as a Tree' and when it was time to select the paper the idea came to me..dark blue and starry skies. silver paper and dazzling diamonds provide the starry skies and cover the torn edge of the very vanilla paper. I printed out two fellas so I could pop up the scarf and the top hat. I love how half the sky is lit up! (thank you error of the photographer) thanks for coming by!

Had to get this posted...quick...the last day to submit is Thursday. So, two posts in one day..woohooo!!!
Posting this to Delightful Inspirations Christmas in July, no red or green (except on image)!!

Mojo Monday

For today's card I used the sketch from Mojo Monday and a sentiment as the focal point for Sentimental Sundays.

This creation measures 5 1/2'' by 5 1/2''. The papers are Stampin Up DSP, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla and the inks are Baja Breeze and Tea Dye from Ranger. I did not emboss the Spellbinders, but did sponge them while the dies were still on the paper. did not want to hide all those buttons so made my under layer a frame to show them off. The sentiment is from Verve's set, 'Blessings'. This card also works it's way right into the Verve Diva Dare for another chance at some lovely Verve stamps.
Thanks for coming by!

P.S. Could not get Megan interested in finishing her photo album with the mandala on the front, perhaps sometime this week.

Mandelas?

I still have no clue as to what a mandela is! However, when I head on over to the Daisy Doodles store, it shows me a mandela. It shows me three sets of three and they look like doilies in the digital arena. But what is a mandela? My dictionary doesn't even have mandela in it. it must be an English thing. It really doesn't matter because Jules at Daisy Doodles has created some gorgeous ones. You can find them in the $1 basket.
I printed out a few and Megan colored one while Lily was sleeping. Here's mine and scroll down for Megan's

 

I am very much into these little fan folded embellishments. I find that the thinner paper works best and will stay put better than the card stock which is heavier.

Megan is working on a photo album and this image will be on the front cover.

She should be finishing it up tomorrow so until then this is what you get!!!

thanks for coming by!

Supplies for my mandela: Spellbinders circle set and tag set. Waltzingmouse sentiment from Teeny Trees.

DSP from a SU pack, ribbon and a button.

Happiness

Mojo Monday hits 200!!! and there are prizes to be won.

There is also the great DIVA Dare going on at VERVE.

The challenge on day one is to highlight a sentiment and use some papers that are being hoarded.

The dp and brown are from the same paper Daisy D's - double sided, then I added some Pale Plum for an accent color.

I used the All Purpose Ink from SU in Champagne Mist and my index finger to smear it all over the embossed areas of the Spellbinders Lattice Pendant. While the stenciling is not perfect it adds to the shabby!

Dark gray thread on the sewing machine matches the writing on the DP.

The sponging was done with some Vintage Photo

The Verve sentiment is from the Blessings stamp set.

Thanks for coming by!

Birthday Waltz

Do ya wanna dance? ERRRR...WALTZ?

Do ya, Do ya, Do ya, Do ya

Wanna waltz?

I do and here are my projects to prove it!

this box idea I found on Audrey's blog just this week,

and knew I had to incorporate it into the waltz.

the theme for the July waltz is Birthday Party.

Made a card using the leftover scraps from the box.

This sketch for this card is from the newest Waltzingmouse Sketch challenge

For more inspiration from all the Waltzingmouse DT and the devoted followers

go check it out at the WMS forum. If you have not been there yet you will have to register, but it

only takes a moment. If you are interested in the stamps hit the store, you will enjoy all the stamps that Claire has created. From the store you can head over to the blog and see what Claire has made for the waltz.

for those of you interested in more pics of my box or how I got it together you can scroll down below the supply list.

Just one more pic before the rest of you take off and go see all the goodness the waltz has waiting.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies: Stamps from WMS- Celtic  Heritage, Big Blooms.  All the  DP papers were pieces in the scrap drawers with the exception of the Pixie Pink card stock. Ink used was from SU and Distressed ink - Antique Linen, Shabby Shutters, Early Espresso, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi, Pear Pazzazz, Regal Rose

Dies from Spellbinders 'Nested Pennants', 'Lacey Nested Pennants', Sizzix  label dies, SU window punch, MS trio of flowers. Pear Pazzazz seam binding, pearls, Liquid Pearls, crochet  cotton thread

Here's two pics of how I got the box started--

click on the photo to see the directions, as I deviated a bit from the original box on Audrey's blog.

 

This box is easy whether you have the Pennant dies or you cut them out with scissors.

Just be sure the base is square and the base sides are the same measurement as the base of your triangle. If you are cutting out your own try Audrey's idea and start with the same size chipboard. If cereal isn't on your list you can use the stiff cardboard that comes with a pkg of paper, or desperate measures call for layering a few triangles of card stock together to get a nice sturdy box.

Here are a few more photos of the box where you can see the different ways I did each side.

I Stamped the claddogh  and cut out the heart and crown only.

For this side I stamped the smallest of the 'Big Blooms' three times and cut each one smaller than the last. remember you can click on each photo for enlarging.

The liquid pearls, on the frame on the left, were a disappointment. they looked so nice and then once they dried they looked a bit disheveled. (Two of them were messed up due to crafter errors.) 

Here on this last side there is not a WMS stamp, but the tag certainly is from the 'Big Blooms - Chrysanthemums'. The sentiment is from two stamps from Celtic Heritage. I stamped the leaf in Pink Pirouette then rocked it a bit in Regal Rose, came back with the co-ordinating outline stamp and used Pear Pazzazz. the little tag is a Sizzix Sizzlit and was in a set with three other small plates. that tag came on the same plate as the label that I used for hinges on the base of the box.

After I shot this pic I added the very small bird to the tag and you can see it (the bird) at the very top of this post.

 That's all folks. Happy Waltzing and thank you for spending your quality time here.

Delight in the beauty

There is a peacock in your future!!! Delightful Inspirations has added a gorgeous peacock to it's portfolio.
Faith has done it again and now you too can own this delightful beautiful peacock..check it out.
If you feel like you are missing out on all the freebies, then go buy this and the ones to follow can be yours for free. It's progressive, what more can I say?

I chose Card Positioning for my sketch.
Used a clear glitter pen to highlight the peacock, a doodle border, and some of the stitching.

Thanks for coming by!!!!!

Good Wine and Good Friends

Jen del Muro's Sketch for You to Try is once a month and it's right now for me. The sponsor for July is
My Favorite Things and I do just happen to own just one set from there. It's called "Meet me at the Cafe".

The Groovy Guava (still have a few sheets remaining) and the Coredinations paper are the only papers that are not scraps that were sitting on my counter. This is the very first time that I opened the pkg and used the paisley die from Cuttlebug.  the wino on the right has some real nicely textured boots, but she tucked them under so you can't see them...LOL. Just did not have enough real estate on the 4 1/4'' x 5 1/2'' card for the boots to show. Gotta run, so much to do.....thanks for coming by!!!!

OOPS..here's the inside ..almost forgot!!!!

Have a great day and a wonderful week.

Sometimes for Verve

Verve's Viva la Verve week two is done and three is in the works already. so I am a little behind. That's what is so great about the Verve challenges on SCS you can do them whenever in whatever order...there are no police checking the dates, etc. One month I did all four/five in one week and then got them all posted at once.

 

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies: Target papers with SU cardstock- PPie and  TTango. Verve's stamps, even the flower is a stamp, both are Plain Janes.

New Moon

There are two new moons this month July 1st and July 30th so it's appropriate to call the Daisy Doodles Challenge, New Moon. a new moon means Anything Goes at Daisy Doodles. Make anything you like using a digital image and enter it into the Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge.  We have a sponsor this challenge, Clare, one of our ab design team members has her own store and she is giving away Promarkers.
There will be a link to her store at the DD challenge.(see end of post  here for banner and link to Clare's)
Now on to the card. I chose the flip flops from 'Summer Fun'...am I giving away my age when I tell you that when I was younger flip flops were called thongs? Now, when I tell Lily to get her thongs on she stops and says, "What do you mean Mims?" Every time!!!!! Wouldn't you think that she would catch on? I bought her three pairs of thongs and I know that she couldn't possibly know about the other kind of thongs.

 

The sentiment is from WMS set, Teeny Trees. I just kept stamping it til I thought there 

were enough  'miss yous'.

The sketch is from Fetch-a-Sketch and the colors are from Just Us Girls.

The color challenge at JUGS is - coral, blush, and gray.

Check out the rest of the DT to see what images they used for the Anything Goes challenge.
Rhonda, Tina, Sammi, Lucy, Clare, Kary, Jacqueline

Daisy's special guest this summer, Stephanie. She has stepped in to help us out for the summer.

Liz Gorka's blog - she is our talented youthful Guest designer this month.

Thanks for coming by!

Challenges

Designed 2 Delight - 'Let's go to the beach'
Card and Scrap - Punches/Dies
Bling it On - Anything Goes
Emerald Faeries - All Things Nice
Crafty Ann's - Embossing/debossing (spellbinders are embossed)

Clare's banner and link to her Threadbare Store:

Tri-fold Easel

I saw a card similar to this one and can not remember to give credit to the designer. It was green and that's all that I can recall. The elephant is from Helen at Ellephantastic. It's one of her newest images in her store.

Right now the elephant ears are hiding 'Elle'.

Used the leaves to hide the white elephant.
Here's the card open.....

Another shot of the front sans belly band, leaves......

For more pics and some scoring info go to the mid month post at Ellephantastic.
This tri-fold easel card qualifies for the Fancy Folds Challenge at Craft Your Days Away.
Thanks for coming by!

Book borrowed

You all know that a book is borrowed from the library. Knowing that here's my entry for The Kraft Journal's challenge, 'Something Borrowed, Something Blue". So link the borrowed to a book and the blue to the Spellbinder's Label Twenty-one and there you have it, "SB, SB"!!!!

The thin chip board is cut twice so I could place the ribbon between them, and then the light kraft paper adhered over it. Spellbinders dies sure do make it easy to layer all the papers so perfectly.

There is ample ribbon out the top as well as the bottom for finding that last place read.

Oh! I am such a book borrower it hurts me to see where ppl have bent over the corner to save their place.

In the summer, I average about four books in a two week period. I could read more, but then nothing else would get done around here. Believe me when I say that it's hard to run Mimi's Summer Camp and read novels at the same time. Ask the two girls...they will tell you that their Mims likes to read. The three of us check out 10-12 books every week from our community library!

Books for me to read to them, Lily with books to look at the pictures, and Megs loves to read, too!

Megs enters first grade in August and she is a prolific reader! She's a bit afraid of the chapter books, "So many words on a page!" she says, but she did manage to read just one so far this summer.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies: chip board, kraft paper, CTMH blue textured paper, white paper.

Pumpkin Pie ink, Daisy Doodles image from 'Flower pack', Spellbinders 14 and 21, 

sponging technique, sentiment is SU 'So many Sayings' from me to you.

blue ribbon

Happy Place

It's free week time and that means Tableau Tuesdays at Daisy Doodles. We have a young lady this month that agreed to be our guest designer. You may have met her during the Daisy Doodle blog hop, Liz Gorka. To see her wonderful cards and bookmark head on over to the DD Creative Challenge Blog.
For my free week card, I chose "Bloomin' Potty" from the DD store, added some sparkle by way of a Sakura clear glitter pen. Used a hardly ever Spellbinders die set, the scalloped and plain squares and three silk flowers from a bouquet.

All the papers were on the work counter from previous cards. 

Glossy accents were used on the flower pot to make it look like white ceramic.
Don't forget you can always click on the photo to get a better look at the glitter.

Thanks for coming by!

Challenges

Stamp Something - Butterflies
Digi doodles Shop - Butterflies
House of Gilli - Lots of Sparkle (click on pic to see)
Make it Monday - Anything G

Simon Says - Stamp and show some stitching, my sentiment was stamped

Gingerloft - Make it sparkle
I Did It Creations - Floral
Stampin for the Weekend - Wings and Things

RX

STAMPS: Bloomin' Potty, Cute Converse

PAPER: BOTD, Orchid Opulence

INK: Pallette Noir

SUPPLIES: silk flowers, brad, Round Tab punch, Verve's Cut Above die-"Charmed Ovals", Butterfly- SU embosslits, Glossy accents, Sakura glitter pen, 1/4" hole punch, sewing machine

Bookmark.....READ

On your mark, get set, GO!!!! Another bookmark!

Here we have a Daisy Doodles image, 'Candle'.

It can be found in the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' set.

I used the Spellbinders Labels 21 for the tops of the kraft card stock and chipboard

for a different tag topping!

Had some bright green thread and thought a bit of sewing might look nice with it. 

The remnant from the border punch was used for the letters' tags.

Made the bright green ribbon extra long to hang over the top of the pages of the book!

Sentimental Sundays is looking for some INKY Fingers for this weeks challenge.

Thanks for coming by!!!

Delightful Inspiration's Strawberries

The strawberries certainly are 'delightful'. I used them to combine with a challenge from Waltzingmouse Stamps sketch challenge.

I inked up the Swiss Dots ef with black and then sent it through the Cuttlebug with a piece of SU Natural Ivory cs to resemble the strawberry, and then sponged some Cherry Cobbler very gently over the debossing side of the card stock. I made a frame from the Spellbinders labels 14 and 10 and inserted the ''strawberries" from D2D behind the frame and added two different Fancy Tags in back and on both sides for interesting elements.. Added some clear and one pink gem, some velvet ribbon and the WMS sentiment from 'Teeny Trees'. Added some dimensionals in a few spots and called it 'done'.

Thanks for coming by!

OOOPSS! Nearly forgot to tell you that I put some Glossy Accents on all of the strawberries for a nice pick you up for the recipient of this get well card.

Bookmark

One of my gal pals is starting a book club and we have our first books. The library was kind enough to loan us five of the six books that we needed. One of our BC members already has the book. Thought it might be nice if I made them all a book mark. Here's the first one wielding an image from Ellephantastic because I needed a patriotic creation, also, for The Kraft Journal.  The image is the newest from Elle and just happens to be an elephant...how patriotic can one get? Just missing the A*@ to make it the most politically correct book mark.

Took a lightweight chip board and used spellbinders label 21 on the top only. Took a piece of Kraft and used the side of the Labels 21 at the top....don't you just love how versatile the Spellbinders can be if you just think out of the box...ooops die? I've got my striped paper in the bg and plenty of stars on the front to make a patriotic book mark for a book club member.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies: Spellbinders Label 21 with image and the base and kraft layer of the book mark, SU border punch, sewing machine, red eyelets, star punches from SU, Vary Vanilla cs, white, and some DSP from DCWV, red fibers

Shaking and more shaking!

Verve time. 

Here's my first week of July creation, right after the sketch.

With all the shaking going on thought it would be appropriate to have all the paper shaking, too!

So, it's all uneven and totally shaken up. One of the Verve divas used 'What's Shaking?' stamp set and right then and there I knew I was going to use it, too. So I more or less just CASE (d) Amy's card

from the Viva La Verve thread there at SCS. I just shook mine up a bit!!!!

All the papers are Stampin Up with one exception...the blue and white DP...that I bought at Target...

99 cents for a variety pack of patterned paper.

Bought it for the girls to use and stole a piece before I gave it to them.

So thievery is the pattern for this post...plain ole thievery.

Thanks for coming by!!

RX

STAMPS: Verve's 'What's Shaking?'

PAPER: Soft Suede, Sage Shadow (sent to me already textured from a secret sister), various pieces of SU DSP, and Target

INK: Soft Suede

SUPPLIES: Spellbinders Circles, SU twine, button