hello again

where have i been? working a lot and not so much creating. (insert sad face here) but i'll get all my stuff back out very soon and will start to play. was out today meeting a friend. afterwards had a serendipity drop in to a stamp store in west seattle -- i was just returning to my car and there it was! picked up some cute little embellishments and who knows where they'll show up. for now i'm sharing a couple cards i've already made that i like a lot. they both have images from twisted papers and embellishments mostly from alphastamps. card stock from paper temptress.
enjoy & love to all.

Gingersnap Creations GC59: Random Redhead Challenge - Fairies

making a card is easy enough. responding to a challenge is tough. can someone explain this to me? anyway here's my entry for the fairies challenge from gingersnap(http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc59-random-redhead-challenge-fairies.html). our dear fairy is one of my favorites (and i have plenty 'o fairy stamps trust me). she is from "stamp happy." she is stamped on a pulled glimmers background (technique junkies tech http://www.techniquejunkies.com/). i wish the scan better showed the dimension of color. the card stock i sprayed my glimmer mists on already had a slight golden hue to it so the purples and pinks from the glimmer mists sprayed over the card stock pick up a lot of light. dear fairy is attached to a lovely card stock from paper temptress. a little string of pearls, a flower and a charm are the chief embellishments. here's a chuckle for you: the little arch on top was from a pack called "artisan elements." i got them from madrat rubber stamps. i don't know what kind of material it is but it is bendy and pliable, kind of weird. the "elements" come in ivory and can be colored. i'd planned to use chalks on it but all my chalk colors seemed too bold for this card. so i used eye shadow...

there you go. love to all.

GC60: Color Challenge - Shades of Blue #2

Here is my other "shades of blue" entry. http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc60-color-challenge-shades-of-blue.html

No stamping here at all. The background is also done with zia stamps chroma jewels, this one with blue topaz and slate. The angel was cut from a somerset studio artists paper, the little pearls are from hero arts (also purchased at "stamp it rich" in placerville!) and the jeweled feather and "love" came from a sticker set i bought for mother's day.

i had a heck of a time getting it going today. and it took me forever to lay out this card even though it is simple. in the end, this card makes me feel happy.

have a wonderful week; love to all.

GC60: Color Challenge - Shades of Blue #1

it has been over a week since i've come to my craft space and what a joy to be back with paper, ink, scissors and glue. thank you papercrafting deities, i am very grateful.

today i made two cards responsive to the gingersnap creations "shades of blue" challenge. http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc60-color-challenge-shades-of-blue.html

this one is stamping only, featuring a hummingbird stamp by "the artful stamper," tulip stamp by "denami design" and a portion of a sun stamp by judikins. the background is two shades of blue from zia stamps chroma jewels: sapphire and blue topaz. the stamped card is mounted on a batik background from twisted papers. those are the specs!

the hummingbird stamped was purchased on vacation! ("stamp it rich" in placerville CA, the town you must visit on your way to lake tahoe.) who can resist a stamp store ever?

love to all.

one more thing -- super excellent bead give away!

check out the best bead give-away ever at http://deniseyezbakmoore.blogspot.com/ .
i know i'd love to incorporate some beads into my creations!
love to all.

one month of blogging...

it has been a month since i went way past my comfort zone and started this blog. couldn't be happier i did. the feedback and friendship from all my new blog pals has made this a totally enriching experience.

well, i can't do anything particularly special to mark this day. i'm actually on vacation (hooray) and there's no crafting stuff in sight! although i've already visited one stamp store while out and about.

anyway i do have a nice patchwork card to share that i'd made before i left town. the stitch stamp is from hot off the press, there is a background stamp but i can't remember the company. its the swirly thing you see on the left side. the tag is something i cut from an artist's paper torn from an old somerset studio mag. buttons, of course, are everywhere to be found.

i hope everyone is having a lovely summer so far. i'm sure grateful to be having a bit of a break. love to all.

kard krazy tag tuesday!

i've been wanting to participate in a kard krazy tag tuesday for a long time (http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/). this week's challenge is to use a postage stamp. i've also been wanting to play around with postage stamps. so this was the perfect combination to get me going.

i looked at the many postage stamps i've got stashed. i really wanted to use one of my stamps from Mali. we have a sponsored child there so i have quite a number of lovely ones from there. there is a wonderful stamp of an african girl that i have so i was sure i'd make something work with that stamp. i tried every which way but could not get the right combination going. the nice thing is that i now have some great impressions of the stamp i can use for some other project. but not for this one. after i couldn't make it work stamping her and then pasting her on the tag i tried stamping her on the tag. that didn't work either. and then i'd wasted a tag. not so fast. i took some cool brown ink and just dragged it over the tag, covered her up (bye sweet girl) and that is the base for this tag.

the "bundle" came from a bunch of goodies from alphastamps. hopefully it is ok that it goes off the tag a bit. the mail stamp from mali you can see -- featuring a butterfly of all things, my favorite. the little flower at the left corner is punched from the same sheet of washed colors paper that i used for the face stamp in that patchwork card i shared the other day. finally it seemed like a button was appropriate. so just four elements altogether. not bad.

i would have tied a ribbon on but i am not good at tying ribbon and couldn't make that work either. i photographed this one rather than scanning which i usually do. i actually leaned the tag on a kleenex box! it was such a great color match though!

enjoy; love to all.