One Layer Wednesday (OLW) - Variations On a Sentiment

Leave it to Susan R. to create a real tricky One Layer Wednesday challenge #72.  She wants us to use a sentiment and nothing else on a non-standard sized card!  Wow, now that is a challenge!!  At first I pulled out the largest sentiments I have ... but then I got creative and created these:

They are mini scraplings ... 1" x 3" little mini cards.  I keep lots of these small little cards around the office to leave on the desks of my co-workers on their birthdays.  The ones I have at work right now are all girly cards so I was stuck last week when one of our tech guys had a birthday!  These will make great additions to the stash and will be perfect for the guys!!

Thanks Susan for a real challenge, like usual!! 

Donelda

Make a Moo or Two - Robots

Well, here I am back to the "old ways".  Yup, these Moos were made for the Make a Moo or Two challenge that was posted March 4th.  I had started them and then my life took a crazy turn for "the busy" at work and I didn't have a chance to get them posted by the posting date.  However, when I dropped in to the site today to see what the new challenge was ... I was sad to see that there isn't any for a bit and that no one participated in the robot challenge!  That makes me sad :-(  !!!   I love making Moos!!  If you do too, please make sure you head over and give some love and encouragement!! 

This first stamped image is from the Robots set by Recollections sold at Michaels.  His is so cute!  I colored him in with Copics and then covered him with Glossy Accents to make him metallic looking! 

This second moo has almost no stamping, only the sentiment (from Mixed Messages, Papertrey Ink).  This paper made it easy to create a great moo!  I carefully cut a piece of scrap to make sure this orange robot was in just the spot I needed him.  Then, I colored him in with Copics and added the Glossy Accents!  Super Simple. 

I believe I will save these two scraplings to give to my wonderful son when he needs a little reminder of how wonderful he is!! 

Don't foget, drop over to the Make a Moo or Two site and let Carole you are ready to make some moos!! 

Thanks for dropping in.  I am hoping to be more active in the coming weeks ... crossing my fingers!

Donelda

Hi There!

Hi everyone.  I know I haven't posted much in the last few weeks.  I am in the middle of "cleaning house" and not just the typical clean a spot here, do a bit of dusting there kind of cleaning.  I'm talking about the take everything out of the room and wipe down the walls kinda cleaning.  I try to do it every summer when I am off work.  It makes me feel like at least it gets done once a year so I don't cringe too badly the rest of the year. 

Anyway, what it means is that I have not been able to post much to my blog. 

I do have a few cards made, just none photographed yet.  I am hoping to be able to do that later today! 

In the mean time, here is a cute little 'scrapling' that I made out of the scraps left over from THIS card.  I am trying to use up scraps as I create them in an attempt to reduce my scraps.....

Enjoy your Monday!!

Loonie Stamper's Challenge - # 91 - Butterflies and Ribbon

I know I'm very very late with this. This is the Loonie Stamper's Challenge from a few weeks ago (obviously, it was to make a mother's day card). And honestly, it was actually done in time but I never got a chance to photograph and upload it on time. And, no, I didn't make a mother's day card because at the time the challenge was issued I had already made all the mother's day cards that I needed.

Simple card, stamped butterflies and sentiment. Colored butterflies with 1 Copic marker doubling up on the color near the inside (more obvious IRL). Added a strip of cardstock and this yummy satin Kraft ribbon.

Supplies: Stamps - Butterflies (smARTworks), sentiment from Garden of Life (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!), Ripe Avacado (Papertrey Ink); Other - satin Kraft ribbon (Stampin' Up!).

And I am totally behind on all the other Loonie Challenges as well. Maybe I'll play a bit today!!!

Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge 53 - Candyland

Even though I didn't get last week's Clean and Simple Challenge done (well, I have now it is just not posted yet), I decided to do this week's challenge - Candyland #53. That decision was made when I started browsing through the Candy Blog that Jen had posted to use as inspiration. You see, I found this photo. I totally remember chewing Black Jack gum...and I loved it!!!

Because of the shape of the gum packages, I decided to create some scaplings. If you haven't seen them before they are acutaully a way to use the part you would cut off an A2 size card to make it a square card. These ones are cut down a bit more. I cut the main color, hand drew the oval and cut it out with my hobby blade. Then I used white embossing powder to really get a strong white for the lines and the sentiments. I hand drew the white oval with my white gel pen.

I have started dropping these cute little scraplings off on my co-worker's desks. They really seem to enjoy them!!

Supplies: Stamps - Paper Tray, Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); ink - Versamark; Paper - all scraps; Other - hobby knife, white embossing powder, white gel pen.

Thanks for dropping in today. I hope you have a stampin' good day!!

Donelda

Daring Cardmakers - Scraplings

So here I am doing another Daring Cardmakers challenge -- two weeks in a row!! And, I am actually getting them posted!! Wow!! This week the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers is to make Scraplings. Now, if you know me at all you totally know that I LOVE making scraplings. I had so much fun today. I spent the whole day creating great stuff out of scraps (and I have a ton of that!!). These first scraplings are created from a background I created using alcohol inks. I have been watching Jennifer McGuire's videos on alcohol inks....again... and was inspired to drag mine out and give them a go. Can you believe that this colorful background was created with only 3 colors of ink -- lettuce, stream, and wild plum. I put them on the felt in strips and then swiped it across the glossy cardstock. Stunning!! Stamps: letters (Hero Arts) sentiments -Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), squiggle line - Borders & Corners {square} (Papertrey Ink). Next up are these cherry cards. The inspiration and main background for these scraplings came from some Mary Engelbreit packaging - the black cardboard with the tiny red dots. Not sure if you can tell but the cherries have glaze over them to make them shiny! Stamps - All Through the Year (Stampin' Up!), sentiments - Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink). And last but certainly not least my pastel Scraplings. Many of my stamping friends laugh at how I save every little piece of paper and ribbon, especially Papertrey Ink paper!! But here is a good example of why I do it! See all those little strips of paper...I've been saving them!! Even the cut out side when I cut out scallops - see a few of them on the left hand scrapling. I love the result! I drew and hand cut the little talking bubble - so cute!! Stamps - Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Other - Cuttlebug Die (Cat), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), gems (Dollarama), flowers are from a friend (maybe Stampin' Up! punch). So there you go, a whole bunch of Scraplings! I have all my different bins of scraps pulled out (large pieces of background, medium sized backgrounds and stamped images, medium sized punches and die cuts, and small items like the flowers and mouse and other small scraps) so I think I will just keep creating!! You might see more of these in the near future!! Thanks for dropping in!! Donelda

Loonie Stamper's Challenge #64 - Copics

So I missed last week's Loonie Stampers Challenge, but I saw that Regan picked Copics so I wanted to jump in on this one! However, I have so very few Copics...only 20 plus the colorless blender. And, very few are shades of each other which is required to do all the great blending that the pros do!! That's because I bought a set ... If you are considering getting into Copics I would NOT recommend that you start with a set!! The problem is the smaller sets come with various colors but the brilliance of Copics is the blendability...but that is only possible if you have colors that are close in hue. Regardless, I do the best I can with what I have.

I decided to pull out Simple Little Things (anniversary set from Papertrey Ink, not available for purchase) and create a border with one of the circle stamps. I love this particular image and since I do have a few greens, figured I could do a little blending with those!! I started out by coloring the leaves Lemon Yellow, then adding about 3/4 of the Yellow Green, and finally justa small amoutn of Forest Green at the base. Then I blended with the Yellow Green and again with the Lemon Yellow. (Note- you can click on the picture to see it larger which will help seeing the blending). Finished off the rest of the image by adding Pink and more Yellow Green and Lemon Yellow.

Of course, I don't have any pink or green cardstock that matches these particular marker colors...but no fear, I just took some white cardstock and used my markers to get the right color!! I love doing that!!

I ended up with a long strip of the border and only used some of it so I cut out a few of the remaining circle images and crated a 3x3 card and a Scrapling card too. The sentiments are from Simple Little Things and Mixed Messages (both Papertrey Ink). I also used the dotted square border from Borders & Corners {square} also from Papertrey Ink.

Off to see what the Loonie Girls did with their Copics:

Dee, Wendy, Maria, Regan, Jewels, Char

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Tin Foil Luck

So it is Friday and that means the Loonie girls set another challenge! I like to play along because being Canadian, I consider myself a little Loonie too!! And they are really nice gals!!

So today they truely proved they were as loonie as get out!! It was Maria's turn to pick a challenge and she picked "aluminum foil". That's right... can you believe it!! Now what in the world am I going to do with tin foil?? As soon as I read it, I started to laugh because waaaaay back when I first started visiting Splitcoaststampers there was a thread that was to share your ugliest card. Well, there were a lot of ugly cards but the one that was ultimately the ugliest was this one made with tin foil!! It was UUUUUUGGGGGLLLLYYYYY (I'm not being mean, the creator herself openly admitted that it was an ugly card and we all had a good laugh over it!!).

Anyway, I pulled out my cuttlebug and a small folder and embossed the tinfoil (that was attached to some cardstock). Then I punched it out with a 1" circle punch. I like the look of it, kinda like a medallion. I decided to create this "scrapling" card (You might remember THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS scrapling - yes, I enjoy making this size). I added this teeny tiny "luck" sentiment which is actually one word of a sentiment (good luck) in the Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink) set. I like it with the medallion and the colors...kinda oriental looking.

Now I can hardly wait to go see what all those Loonie girls did with this one!!

Maria, Dee, Char, Regan, Wendy, Jewels

Have a great evening!

Donelda

Late smARTworks party card and next tea party invite

Well, being on holidays has gotten me all confused!! I was a week late and figured that Donna's tea party wasn't until NEXT Wednesday...but it was actually yesterday!! Drat becasue I had a creation all ready to go and missed it!!

Donna had asked us to create scraplings! Well, if you follow my blog at all you will know that I LOVE scrapling cards. Seems like they are all I make these days.

So, here is my scrapling. I instantly thought of these great domino designs and knew they would fit perfectly on a scrapling card. The background is glossy cardstock with blue, green, and brown alcohol inks sponged on. The sentiment is from the Cookie Plate set and is embossed in white. And, everything here are scraps from my scrap bin! I bet I could make a million creations and still have leftover scraps!! Sheesh!! :D

Okay and here are all the great creations from all the other Cookies:

Susan, Trish, Donna, Giovana, Sarah via Susan's blog

Okay, and now for the NEXT smARTworks tea party!! This time it is Giovana who is hosting the party and she wants us to try shaped card. She is being so kind and has indicated that we can count square, circle, or triangles as shapes...but I have something so much more exciting!!! We'll all be posting April 22 (ETA - note date change!!)....so come and have some tea with us!! I can't wait to see what shape you all create!!

Supplies: Stamps-Domino Designs, Cookie Plate (smARTworks); Ink-Versamark; Paper - Whisper White, Basic Black, Glossy cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Other - white embossing powder, alcohol inks (Ranger).

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

smARTworks - Scrapling White Daisy Card

Okay, so if you follow my blog at all, you will know that this is my new favorite size of small card to make. It is 1 1/4" x 4" and just the right size to add a small little note for a friend!! I love to doodle on my cards as you can see here. These flowers were a continueation from the card I posted

yesterday. I stamped them onto vellum and then they were dry embossed on the back. Supplies: Stamps-Daisy Square (smARTworks); Cardstock- Whisper White, Buckaroo Blue(Stampin' Up!); Ink-Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); Other-vellum (Stampin' Up!), black marker (Sakura), embossing stylus.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Thinking of You ~ Friend

My friend Dawn's husband had a car accident the other day! He is okay but we were very worried about him. And, of course, being worried takes a toll on everyone so I wanted to make sure my friend was taking care of herself too! So I made her this little Scrapling card.

It is made of scraps. I added a sentiment from the Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon set. The little flowers were punched out of some pink paper and then, using my embossing stylus and foam pad, I pushed the backs of the petals to be more like a Prima flower. I added a few blue rhinstones to the middle of the flowers for a little bling factor.

I hope this reminds my friend to take care of herself.

Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

Loonie Stamper Challenge 28 - Kraft and Pink

So Regan picked the challenge this week for the Loonie Stampers Challenge#28. She wanted us to use Kraft and at least one of the 3 Papertrey Ink pinks! But the twist is -- no ribbon!! What, no ribbon??!! Well, honestly, I'd totally forgotten about that part when I made my Scrapling. And added some twill....but twill isn't really ribbon...is it?? Hehehehe!! I just have to get better at reading these challenges :D

So, here is my card (well, actually a Scrapling - see THIS link for more details). I generally make smaller sized projects for these challenge because...gasp...I am almost totally out of PTI paper!!! Only a few scraps of each color left!! I really have to put in an order!!

I printed off the sample Raspberry Fizz paper that Nichole supplied and used a few pieces of that as well as a little strip of my "home-made" variety. Then, added the button, hemp, and counterband twill. Finally, I added the sentiment with Chocolate Chip ink. But I twisted it a bit when placing it on the acrylic block so it followed the flower's edge...one of my favorite reasons why I love acrylic stamps!!!

Now, off to see what the other Loonies have created with this awesome combo:

Jewels, Regan, Dee, Char, Wendy, Maria

Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

Valentines and Last Chance to Win PTI!

This post is everything valentines. But first up, the last chance to win something from PTI!! Man, I've entered every contest but no luck so far. However, with the numbers of folks entering there is no wonder. Nichole and the team has really whirrled us up into a frenzie for tonight's release party. Can't wait!!

So, today Nichole wanted us to use one of Dawn McVey's great color combinations on a card. I decided to go with Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, and Dark Chocolate. I did end up adding a bit of white in there too because this is the only bit of Raspberry Fizz I own...yet!!

This is my new favorite size of cardlet to make. It is 1 1/4" by 4 1/4". Saw it on the Hero Arts site by Shari Carroll - and I just love it! I added some scallops and a button tied with some linen thread a la Dawn!!

Supplies: Stamps-Garden of Life (Papertrey Ink); Ink-Chocolate Chip; Paper-sample of Raspberry Fizz designer paper, Dark Chocolate, Kraft (all Papertrey Ink); Other-thin twill (maybe PTI will think about carrying this stuff for nice size variety..it would look great layered!!), scallop scissors (Provo Craft), linen thread (SU!), button (from great grandma Mary's stash).

Now, on to Valentines day. It is true, I have THE most awesomest and best husband in the world. He could have bought me pretty flowers that would have died in a few weeks. He could have bought me chocolates that would add pounds to my waist line (because they would have been eaten in a few hours). But instead, he decided to suprise us with a wonderful Valentine breakfast!!! Look at this:

Strawberry crepes with strawberry coulis, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. As well some orange juice and champagne!!

And even very nicely decorated plates...note the chocolate shaped heart in there :D He is a trained chef so I am alway lucky to have a guy who can whip up such wonderful surprises!! It was delicious and very appreciated!! He told me that making cards is my way of showing how much I love and care about someone and he makes fancy food as his crafty was of showing how much he loves and cares for someone!! It was so sweet!! I love him so much !!

Here is what I got for him. A pretty box decorated with some pretty paper and ribbon!!

And inside, some chocolate covered espresso beans. He works night shifts and I thought he might like a jolt in the middle of the night!!

The frame and card were made for my parents! Granny and Grampy live very far away and don't get to see their grandson very often so I made a frame and included a current photo for them. I hope they like it!

Supplies: Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp papers, Heart and butterfly punch by Marths stewart, Wedding Day stamp set and Favor it Weddings stamp set by Papertrey Ink.

Okay, I'm off to enjoy more orange juice and champagne in the hot tub with my sweeties!! Have a wonderful Valentine's day. See you tonight at the release party.

More Scrap Cards - Chris' Scrap!

My friend Chris and I like to swap scraps from our scrap bin to see what we can make with each others' scraps!! If you are a regular reader, you might remember that last week I decided to go through my scrap bin and use up some of that delicious stuff. I guess it got Chris inspired because she decided to send me a bunch of her crap....oops, I mean scrap!! Looky what she sent!! (Hey Chris, I actually remembered to photograph the scrap before I started using it!!). I laughed out loud when I opened the package because inside I found this white scallop item. Hehehe, it is actually a drink coaster from a close by hotel .... and I have a matching pair in my own scrap bin!! Hahahaha!!!! Anyway....believe it or not, I made 6, SIX, six cards out of this stuff!! It was all so yummy that I just couldn't stop playing!!

Here are the first two cards. Well, actually they are called "scraplings". I saw this idea first from Shari Carroll. She uses the cutoff portion from turning regular A2 cards into square cards. There is a 1 1/2" portion that gets cut off and I love the size. Inchies fit perfectly onto it!! If you scroll down on THIS post, you will see another of my scrapling cards - the red velvet butterfly card.

Anyway, I decided to use the mult-polka dotted paper for these scraplings. I punched a bunch of 1" squares out, mounted them onto 1 1/4" squares of black cardstock and adheared them to the scraplings. Then, using Paptertrey Ink's Mixed Messages stamp set, I added some small sentiments. You can see them better in this close-up. I love these little scrapling cards!! My new fav size to work with!

Next up was to use these wonderfully masculine looking scraps. I decided to make a few 3x3 cards with this. As I searced through my stamps, I found these two images that felt masculine enough to go with the papers. Both images are from smARTwork sets and both sentiments are from Papertrey Ink. The little grasshopper is cut out...and let me tell you it took a while to get that done!! Sheesh!!

Next up I wanted to use the scallop circle (aka drink coaster LOL!). I decided to also use the lovely blue ribbon that was included with the package. I pulled out my Upsy Daisy set from Stampin' Up! because it was one of those "must haves" that I've barely used!! I decided that Pomegrante would go great with that blue and I like the results. I was going to put a border of pomegrante behind the inside focal circle but it was "too much" so, instead, I used the circle that I had cut out as a template to do my faux stitching around the scallop circle. :D Love it when things just go well!!

And last but not lease, I decided to use the last 2 itty bits of scrap - the orange and blue strips with polka dots in a different way. This card uses all scraps from Chris and my own scrap bin. the stitching is holding on a layer of clear plastic -- from on top of my PTI stamps...you know that piece that comes on top and we throw it away...don't do that any more!! Use it!! So, I grabbed some matching ribbon from my ribbon scrap jar and turned to the great Alli Miles for inspriation .. see her card HERE (ETA - I looked and looked and looked and couldn't find the post where Alli showed this card, so I've just added the picture of it. I was saved to my computer and then posted on this post so I hope I am not using bandwidth or whatever!! ). I layed out the scrap and ribbon, covered it with the clear plastic sheet and stitched it together using my sewing machine!! Then I added the doodle around the white piece (which was also in my scrap bin and added the sentiment and a big matching button!! I love the result!!

Can't put all the product info in here but most is in my very lengthy blabbing...ask if you want to know what anything is!! :D

Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

Scrap Cards - Lots of them!

I told you yesterday on my post that I would upload my various "scrap cards" today. Well, here they are!! I really had so much fun making all of these on Sunday afternoon. And EVERYTHING you see is from my many scrap bins!! All of the flowers and butterflies had been punched out before but never used!! Even the ovals, circles, and squares were pieces in my "little scraps" bin. The bits of ribbon also came from my ribbon bits and pieces jar.

While there is just too much here to step you through it all, I will point out a few of my favorite details.

See the triple panel butterfly "scrapling" - the black, vanilla, and red one. That one is one of my favorites. The butterflies were punched out shortly after Christmas from a Christmas card. The card had this awesome velvet-like stocking with a design. It made great velvet butterflies. I still have a few in my scrap bin so you'll see them in future cards for sure. The size "scrapling" is an idea I got from Shari Carroll. She uses the scrap you cut off of a standard A2 size card when you make it into a 4"x4" card. Brilliant!!

I also like the cluster of orange flowers on the vanilla oval. Those are "faux" primas!! I found some previously punched flowers, then using my embossing stylus and a soft mat, I pushed in one side of the petals, flipped them over and pushed in the center!! They are so much fun to make!! And if you look carefully at the background (the green part) you might be able to see some lines. I love the look. How did I do it?? I simple used my ruler and drew lines using my Versamark pen. Simple but provides a nice subtle background!! You can be sure that I'll be doing that one again!!

See the shimmery apple..well, that glittery apple actually came from a small piece of the glitter strip I had left over from THIS card. See, I really do keep everything! Anyway, I saw that it was just big enough to punch out the apple. I loved how the colors worked into the punch! Cool. The background was done with alcohol inks. My hubby liked this one best!

I also really like the orange, turquoise, and black collage looking one. The elements just fell out of the scrap bin onto my table close together. All I had to do is make some final arrangements and it took shape. See the tuele on the side... that is from Heidi Swapp and I love it. I bought it a while ago (probably like 2 years... ) and I had obviously cut some to use and must have changed my mind. Anyway, it was a scrap ... so on my card it went. It makes for a great "light" element when you need something for balance but you don't want anything too heavy!

Oh, and just one more tidbit. The pink butterflies on the brown circles, well they were punched out of some watercolor paper that I had painted (with watercolor paint...I think ... it was a while ago) and then I sprinkled coarse salt onto the paint while it dried. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see some of the design on the paper. I had cut out a bunch of these butterflies from the paper.

While I could never list all the supplies (and probably don't have all the product info anyway), I will list some of the key ingredients. Stamps: Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), Garden of Life (Papertrey Ink), Pocket Silhouettes (Stampin' Up!), Cute as a Bug (retired Stampin' Up!), Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink), Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink), Print Pattern (retired Stampin' Up!); Punches - apple, butterfly, butterfly (all Martha Stewart), leaf die (Cuttlebug)little flowers (EK Success), various circle punches (Stampin' Up!).

I hope you enjoyed my scraps!! I am still interested to see what beautiful creations you can create with your scraps!!

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda