Bit out of my comfort zone...

I tried to sponge...and distress...and well, I'm not a huge, huge fan of it if I am to tell the truth. Others can do it flawlessly and make it look sooo awesome! But me? Notsomuch. Mine just looks dirty. LOL!

And a little about how I do my cards. I wonder if I'm a little backwards but it works (mostly) for me. But anyway....I pick out the stamp and the papers I want to use...then i stamp and color it in. Then I decide how best I want to display my stamped image. (I stamp it on a way bigger piece of stamping CS than I intend to use...but this gives me flexibility.) Sometimes I just cut it out and don't use my Nestabilities...but most times I like to use my Nestabilities...mainly due to sheer laziness. hehe After I've cut out my image, THEN I'll decide on a sketch to use. If I don't have a list of sketches that are out there all ready for me to cut and paste my stuff to my card, then I will draw it out in a little notebook. You should SEE some of the ugliness in that notebook. LOL!! So there you have it. Backwards Jennifer stamps again. hee!

Last day to enter my blog candy! I'll be picking a winner tonight right before I post my card or project for tomorrow. You can find it >~~~here<~~~.

Thanks for stopping by today!

What I used: Inkadinkado stamp, Basic Grey PP, SU CS, Neenah CS, Memento ink, Copic markers, Creamy Caramel ink for sponging, Vintage Photo distress ink for sponging, Making Memories sanding block, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folder and Perfect Layers tool.

Well...duh.

I loved the saying on this stamp. hehe

I was going for kind of manly on this card...even though I added the ribbon. Ribbons can be manly, right? I just always associate turtles with men because my husband collects them...sort of. LOL

What I used: Inkadinkado clear stamp, SU CS, DCWV PP, Memento ink, Copic markers, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folder, ribbon.

So that is it for now! I may have a little something cooking up behind the scenes. hehe. Stay tuned! :D

Two Challenge cards for today

So anyway, I'm having some fun lately trying out different things. I love, love sketch challenges because for me, sketches are so hard. They shouldn't be as I do blog design work and have the basics of design and balance on my brain all the time. But I can do it on the computer easily, it is the hands-on part of putting it into paper that I have difficulties. *rolling my eyes* LOL

So anyway, on the All That Scraps blog, they posted a cute sketch challenge that I thought I'd try this week. I used my new C.C. Designs stamps for this one. Isn't that little bear so cute with all his drippy pink ice cream?! I could just snuggle him to pieces. hehe

What I used: C.C. Designs stamp, Bazzill and K&Co papers, Scor-Pal, faux dew drops, Memento brown ink, Copic markers, pink ribbon, oval nestabilities and my cuttlebug.

The other challenge card is from the challenge posted on the Our Creative Corner blog. These ladies are so talented...I'm always just in awe of their fabulous work. Maybe someday I'll be at that level...I'm a few years behind them so I'll keep working at it!

Anyway, their challenge was to do dry embossing. EEee...I love dry embossing! I just love texture. I'm a "touchy" person in that I like to touch things and see how they feel. Does that make me weird? Anyway, for this one I used two cuttlebug folders for the cream cardstock. First I inked up my Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. Then I ran it again through the cuttlebug using my Birds and Swirls folder. I just loved how the embossing turned out on that! I used my Nestabilities oval to cut and emboss some vellum, then I stamped my birds stamp from Inkadinkado in white on my vellum. I colored it from behind so the colors would be a bit muted. I then took a piece of black cardstock, cut and embossed a scalloped rectangle then ran it through the Swiss Dots folder. I then mounted the vellum onto the rectangle using my Xyron adhesive so that I could get the itty dots to appear on the vellum from behind.

What I used: black, pomegranate, vanilla CS, vellum, Cuttlebug and Nestabilities ovals and rectangles, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Birds and Swirls folders, black SU! ribbon, white craft ink, Copic markers, white gel pen, Scor-Pal.

Whew. So now that I've rambled on for 10 days...thanks for stopping by. Hope you're having a fabulous weekend. :)

Piercing bonanza

Hehe! How ya' like that piercing? I love piercing and think that it adds a little extra to a sort of plain-ish card. BUT...Mary Dawn and I were bemoaning the other day about not having any piercing templates. And so I told her...well...why don't you make some yourself? Which then prompted me to study some of the piercing templates that are available on the market and put some together myself.

I drew a few out in Adobe Illustrator (some were good, some were duds), printed them on to plain copy paper, cut them out, covered the copy paper with my removable Scotch Tape, and practiced on some cheap-o cardstock until I found one that I liked. And then I thought to myself...well, what if people don't HAVE Adobe Illustrator (it is an expensive program)...what else could they use? And then I had an A-HA! moment. There are TONS of scrolly dividers available in clip art on the web, why not use those? And so I repeated the process from earlier with the Illustrator created ones, opened the clip art into Microsoft Word, resized them, and they worked just fine, too!

I realized after I was putting it on the card that I should have reduced it just a tad more which I can totally do later. I'm going to reduce them just a smidge, print them on cardstock, and then laminate them with my Xyron laminating rolls so that I can reuse them. :) Cheap and easy piercing templates. :)

Supplies I used: SU paper, DCWV paper, Memento ink, Copic marker, Nestabilities and Spellbinders dies, green velvet ribbon, homemade piercing template, paper piercer

Just because...

Well, I picked up this new Inkadinkado stamp at my LSS yesterday and I am in LOVE!

And see the black spots on the ribbon part of the picture? That is on my camera not on the ribbon. LOL Dangit. I have to clean the lens now. hee!

This is just a card front. I haven't got any bases made and I'm short of time, thus why it is shoved into a picture holder. :D

What I used: Inkadinkado stamp, SU CS, Georgia Pacific CS, K&Co. pattern paper, ribbon, SU! rubon sentiment. Colored with Copic markers and stamped in the brown ink from Memento. Sponged around the edges of everything with my distress ink and added some little dots. Ticket corner punched the paper at the top and added a brad.

Some things to share!

First, this card was made for the Dutch Dare Challenge Blog. We're on challenge #4! This week it is a sketch challenge and there is a really nice prize! You can click the images to get a larger view.

What I used: CS by Stampin' Up, Prima Flowers, Stickles, May arts ribbon, Tuxedo Black Memento ink, Copic markers, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Ticket corner punch, black gel pen, Basic Grey button.

These two cards I was just futzing around and wanted to play with some stuff so off these came! :D On this first one...do you see that little white scalloped thing? Mary Dawn over at My Pink Mexico made those for me with her Silhouette. Ooh...neato!

Friend card...what I used: CS by Stampin Up, K&Co patterned paper, felt flowers from Stampin' Up, For a Friend hostess set from Stampin' Up, Memento Tuxedo black ink, Old Olive ink, Copic markers, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, cuttlebug embossing folder, silver brad, and that silhouette cut scallop-ey thing.

I wasn't going to post this blue and tan one. I don't really care for it that much. LOL I LOVE that stamp though...it is from Inkadinkado (probably a while ago) and Mary Dawn sent it to me. I LOVE it! Anyway, I was trying to convey a sense of beach with the colors of the card but I think I failed. Anyway...hehe

Blue and tan card...what I used: Inkadinkado stamp, Adirondack Pitch Black ink, Copic markers, stick on pearls, K&Co paper, Stampin' Up CS, Prima flowers, Making Memories hardware. The sentiment is from the Hey Cupcake stamp I bought from Eclectic Paperie.