Monday, May 31, 2010

No More Bad Puns!

I've been hearing a lot of that around here lately. The punning at our house is getting worse and worse. Of course it had to run over into my crafting!

This one's for three challenges: Embellish (color), City Crafter (recipe) and Card Patterns (sketch).


The stamp is a digi from Pollycraft (Love them!) that I paper-pieced. There's a little chalk behind her for a sky, which didn't show up well. The CS is all Bazzill and the swirly cut-out paper is, I think, from KI Memories. Flowers are Prima, brads American Crafts and the ribbon is from Michael's. The font is LD Dainty.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I do love comments - I learn so much from them!
Elizabeth

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Butterflies for Mandy

She is a genuinely wonderful teammate and a crafty person herself. This is a thank-you to her for the crafty birthday basket she put together for me.


This is also for challenges at Flutter by Wednesday (anything goes) Just Us Girls (dry embossing) and would have been for the Sweet Sunday Sketch, except I'm late to that dance. Oh, well.

The DP is from the DCWV Garden Party stack that I found in my birthday basket. :) I used a CB folder to do the backgrounds for the butterflies. Butterflies were cut with my Cricut (Indie Art). Pearls were in the stash.

Here's a somewhat better picture of the embossing:


Anyway, thank you so much for stopping by! I  hope you're enjoying your holiday! Please leave a comment - I learn a lot from them!

Playing in the Treehouse

Found another fun challenge place this week while blurfing. The Tree House had a way-cute sketch that worked just right with a new stamp I got for my birthday!

I love this little guy. He's the King of the Wild Things from Stamping Bella. I tried to color him as much like Max as I could without making him too dull. The stamp is really just for fun - my only child is off to middle school in August, and even my nephew is 8 now. I need more young boys in my world again.

The DP is Line Up from the Orbit Collection at Papercrate. It's been sitting in a folder for a long time waiting for the right idea. The font is CK Storybook,

Thanks for stopping by today! If you have time, I do love comments. I learn so much!

FTL 92 - CAS-tastic and boyish

I do love the CAS sketch challenge blogs. They really help me make use of my stamps in a way that keeps me in line with that shoestring budget! This covers two of them - FTL at Clean and Simple Stamping and A Touch of Green at CAS-tastic. This also is 'One for the Boys' over at Dare U to Digi Stamp.

This is for my fifth grader's promotion ceremony next week. *sigh* I can't believe he's going to middle school in August! I swear, I just had him!

The stamp is rockstar Ethan from Pollycraft. He's colored with  Copics. The paper is Reaper from Basic Grey's Eerie collection. The font is Angellic War.

Shoestring Alert! - The font is a freebie at dafont.com !

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm still learning this craft, so I truly love comments!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Fairy Flowery

My husband was nice enough to go on a field trip to Charlotte with me and visit Family Memories while AJ was at Tae Kwon Do Friday night. *Sigh* I wish they were closer! I could live in that store! While I was there, I found this cute Cosmo paper and this sweet little Ketto stamp from Stamping Bella! It's always a surprise to me that without shipping - and they'll take a Michael's coupon - my shoestring budget can do a few new bits of rubbah! Woo-hoo!

So I inked her up this afternoon for Flutter By Wednesday and Get Sketchy. We were challenged at FBW to add flowers to our flutterings. (Say that 10 times fast!)

I used a labels four to background her and a scalloped circle for the sentiment. Red flowers are Prima, their centers and the white flower are Making Memories. I used a MS punch and a pattern from Fred, She  Said to paper pierce the center bit.

Shoestring Alert! - The pattern is a freebie at the Fred She Said website!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you're enjoying your weekend!

A List of Reasons...

... I love my teammates! I got moved from fifth grade to kindergarten this year - due to serious overcrowding issues - and had no idea what I was doing! Thankfully, my team and the first grade team pitched in to help do up my room and figure out what to do with a crop of five-year olds! I've been working on thank-yous for them this week. I think I'll order in pizza one day soon and throw them a party.

This is also for two challenges - The Pink Elephant (a sketch) and The Color Chef (black light red, and tan). I found this cute lists at the Cutting Cafe. The set comes with a bunch of these for different people and occasions.


The background paper is Bazzill CS, inked up with the Pinwheel backgrounder from CHF. I used Brilliance Graphite on the top and Adirondack Watermelon on the bottom. The flowers are Prima with American Crafts brads in the center. Pearls were in my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Elizabeth

Sunday, May 16, 2010

C is for Chocolate Cat!

I hope you're enjoying your Sunday!

This week at The Alphabet Challenge Blog, we're working with the letter C. As in Chocolate. I threw in a few Cs of my own - cat (chat) and Cosmo Cricket.


Sorry it's shadowy - it's threatening to storm.
While I'm typing this, Chloe the cat (my own tabby) is trying to capsize my computer!

This image is from Shirley's 2 Girls April in Paris release. She has a bunch of really cute and tres chic digis with this set. The frame is a QuicKuts embossing folder touched up with Distress Ink. I cut the sentiment with a Labels Four Nestie. I paper-pieced the skirt with the Cosmo paper.

Thanks for stopping by!
Elizabeth

Home Tweet Home

Cute, huh? Mo's challenge this week was to use your favorite image and add flowers. Here's my offering:

So many awesome images there! It was hard to pick my favorite!

I used a sketch from Card Patterns and the colors come from the challenge at Raise the Bar (Yellow, Grey, White) .
I used a sunflower backgrounder from CHF to stamp the mat for the image. The yellow CS was run through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. Flowers are Prima and the edge was done with a MS punch, Doilie.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!
Elizabeth

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Paper Piecing and Cussing Creatively

Happy Saturday!

The challenge this week at Flutter By Wednesday is to paper-piece your image. Obviously, whoever thought this one up doesn't wear bifocals. (LOL - sort of.) I did like how the color worked out on my fairy (from MelJen Designs). As much as I love my digi stamps, I have found their shortcomings this week. One, you can't always easily stamp under an image for details (like for BF antennae, here, it's the curlicue at the end of the stick she's using to hold up her lamp). Two, you'd better save the file on which you sized the image, because if you don't and you're paper piecing, you'll never get them to match up again. Oh, well. At least I learned a few things. :P


The font is Lavender (from SNF, I think) and I used a MS punch for the edge. The middle's a Nestie Labels Four. Paper is Sarah Griffin. (Last night's post was wrong. Good thing I looked.)

This is also for the challenges at Get Sketchy and the Cupcake Challenge at Hope Stamps Eternal (Zowie colors.)

Shoestring alert! - Sadly, Hope Stamps Eternal is closing her web store. She's running a sale - everything is 45% off!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Elizabeth

Friday, May 14, 2010

Another Leah for Friday

I do love this little girl. Her name is Leah and she's a Whimsie Doodle digi. Aside from her cute factor, I can size her up or down, another feature I adore in digis.

Here's one for SFYTT (Sketch for You to Try.)

The Bingo card came from The Cutting Cafe (another of my favorite haunts.) Flower is Prima with a brad from Making Memories. Ribbon is from Michael's,and the DP is (I think - It's Friday night and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and look - My Mind's Eye.) Circles are Nesties (which, to my delight, AC Moore is beginning to carry.)

Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
Elizabeth

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Getting Sketchy with The Cutting Cafe


One of the best ways of keeping my stamping habit affordable -even for a teacher - is using digi stamps. The Cutting Cafe was sponsoring a challenge (or two?) on one of the many blogs I love to read, and I thought I'd stop by. Good stuff. Cheap. Three of my favorite words...

So, anyway. Here's for this week's Get Sketchy. This thing gave me fits! Could not, not, not(!) get the background right and the flags to stay  put in a way I like them. Maybe that's the Zen of cardmaking. Some things you can't control. Move on. :)

The trees and flags are from The Cutting Cafe and this is Leah, my favorite from Whimsie Doodles. I Cuttlebugged (Is that a verb?) the grass and pink background. The font is Lavender (Apparently, it's Kim Hughes' handwriting.) from SNF.

Thanks for stopping by! Testing week(s) for many of us teachers. Bubble on, Sistahs! Bubble on!

Elizabeth

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Ahhh. Saturday!

Got up waaaaay too early this morning! The neighbors had a yard sale, which meant they were clunking around at about 6:15. I love my neighbors - they're great - but come on, now!

Used my time to cruise some of the challenges and found a Clean and Simple Challenge at Flutter By Wednesday and a color challenge -aqua - at The Pink Elephant.

I came up with this:
I cut the mask using my Cricut (Stretch Your Imagination) and mixed Pool and Silver Dabbers to cover it. I stamped the Verve butterfly with Graphite Brilliance. Flowers are Prima, ribbon from Micheael's and the button from Oriental Trading. The scalloped circle was cut with a Nestie.
Shoestring Alert!
On my web-travels this morning, I found a new digi-stamp site I'm all excited about. The verse is from The Cutting Cafe, which had a BOGO today to celebrate {i}NSD!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Please come again soon - leave me a link so I can blurf in your direction!

Elizabeth