CROP with the Odd Girls! lots of prizes, new recipe challenge!

WOOT!  it's CROP WEEK in the Some Odd Girl Facebook community, and if you haven't already dropped by to see what we're up to, you're missing out! 

this week, we Odd Girls are hosting a challenge each day, Monday - Friday, and there are five $20 gift certificates to the Some Odd Girl shop up for grabs!  BUT THERE'S MORE!  there will be one GRAND PRIZE winner of a $50 gift certificate!

wanna know how to win?  CLICK HERE and play along with any of our challenges this week - each entry in the challenge gets you a shot at that $20 gift certificate, PLUS one entry into the grand prize draw. 

for my challenge today, i've got a RECIPE for you.  it's an easy one! here are your ingredients:

1 - incorporate a GRID into your project somehow
2 - use a technique.  anything that ALTERS any other thing (besides, like, stamping and coloring)
3 - mix up your fonts!  combine 2 or more fonts to create a sentiment

and don't forget to use Some Odd Girl stamps!  that's it.  you can create a card, a scrapbook page, an altered item, a tag, an art journal page, a piece of home decor, whatever! 

here's my card featuring the UH-DOOR-UH-BULL Pixie Dust clear stamp set, plus the frame from Garden Gwen, and clear sentiments from Wink Mae, In Stitches Tia and Walk the Dog Piper: 

my grid and my technique are combined - i embossed 7/8" squares all around the front of my card, punched 3/4" squares and adhered them into random squares.  embossing is my technique - told you it was an easy one!  and here's a hint - MANY of the Some Odd Girl sentiments combine different fonts for a dash of whimsy, so that one should be easy, too!

Pixie Dust is coloured up with my Spectrum Noir markers, and the sentiment and frame are stamped on clear acetate (because these would never stamp nicely on the embossed lines of my card!).  here's a zoom!

and that's how it's done!  so you want to play along, right?

CLICK HERE and go to the community.  enter your NEW creation (made especially for our challenge), upload it to the appropriate album (not just on the wall), and feel free to combine with outside challenges, but not with other crop challenges this week.  everything closes at midnight on June 7th, with the winners being announced in the Facebook group and in our email newsletter (CLICK HERE to subscribe so you don't miss all the dirt!) on June 8th.

OH, and because i'm a total enabler, you might want to know that all of the stamp sets i used except Walk the Dog Piper are in the RETIREMENT category right now, with limited quantities and DEEP discounts!  

see you on Facebook, and happy croppin'!

i have I AM issues!

hey there, chickens!  i'm up on the Paper Issues blog today with a brand new layout featuring the gorgeous I Am collection from Simple Stories.  i have been loving on it since i laid eyes on it, and i've already made a few pages, with about 3 more underway!

here's my latest page:

zoom!

seriously, i LOVE this line.  everything except a couple of enamel dots, sequins, the strip of ribbon and the "fabulous damn it" alphas are from my stash. LOVE!  oh, and that divine Limba Woodgrain card stock.

there's not a LOT of this line left in the Paper Issues shop, but i'm getting a TON of mileage from the 6x6 pad, and it's TOTALLY easy to make it work with the items left in the store!  CLICK HERE to check out the Simple Stories inventory, and lemme just warn you - if you click on the "All New!" category, you might just find your shopping cart overflowing in no time!

there's new TWINE (mmmm, pretty!), new Snarky Stamps, the new Poolside line from Crate Paper, not to mention the new, ahem, MAY SWAG BAG.  hurry and grab it before it's gone!

remember, EVERYTHING in the Paper Issues shop is 20% off, all the time!  just use this!

 

Paper Issues is hopping with Tombow USA!

YAY!  it's time for a FAN-FLIPPIN'-TASTIC blog hop with Paper Issues and Tombow USA!

there's a whole list of creative folks blogging this fun event, and you MAY have arrived from Jennie Garcia's blog - great!  if not, CLICK HERE to start at the Paper Issues blog and be sure not to miss a stop!

Paper Issues and Tombow USA are giving away awesome prizes, so you'll want to make sure you comment on EVERY stop along the way in order to be eligible to win!  wanna know what's up for grabs?

Paper Issues is giving away a $20 gift certificate to spend on anything you'd like at the Paper Issues shop!

and the Tombow USA prize pack?  this fantastic adhesive bundle that i had the pleasure of working with!

Tombow Xtreme Adhesive Permanent (this stuff BONDS like nobody's business!), new Tombow Adhesive Dots (love these!), Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue and Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue.  SO VERSATILE, and so many purposes for your crafty projects...

i made this:

i used the Aqua Mono Liquid Glue for everything that was paper, namely the box inserts, the banner, frames and the stands for my bits and pieces (they're all movable, so i can "redecorate").

 

 

the Xtreme Permanent Adhesive secured paper to wood WONDERFULLY, especially inside the squares so SOME of the paper boxes are permanent.  and the new Adhesive Dots were for the random bits like the twine, key ring and bird that are partly adhered and can also be moved.

there are TONS of little bits from many different manufacturers and lines in this project.  i grabbed everything with miniatures and scoured until i found a happy combination:  Fancy Pants' Office Suite, Pink Paislee Switchboard and Bella Rouge, Pebbles (Jen Hadfield), October Afternoon Treasure Map, Seven Paper and Webster's Pages, Doodlebug, The Twinery, enamels from Chickaniddy Crafts and We R Memory Keepers and some other blingy randoms from my stash.

 

i had a TON of fun making this and i am just as excited as you are to hop! 

be sure to "like" Paper Issues and Tombow USA on Facebook, and the clock's already tickin'! 

here's your full hop list for easy reference...

Paper Issues
BethWatson

Kathy Skou

Daniella Hayes

Heather Joyce

Erin Reed

Jen Boumis

Jennie García

Leah l’Orange

Jennifer Priest

Mary-Ann Maldonado

Latrice Murphy

Meaghen Calder-Losier

Tombow USA Blog

 

now off you go to visit Jennifer Priest for more crafty inspiration!

THANK YOU so much for hopping, and remember to leave your comments at each stop! (then go to the Paper Issues Facebook page to tell us which project is your fave!)  you have until Tuesday, May 12th at midnight EDT to get your comments in - our random winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 13th.  HAPPY HOPPING and happy SATURDAY!

limits, inspiration, and color swatch for Some Odd Girl!

sometimes limiting oneself can have WONDERFUL effects, especially when one feels overwhelmed with the amount of crafty things in one's stash.  ;)

today, i'm up on the Some Odd Girl blog with some inspiration for you!

i surprised myself by playing along with part one of Kristy's Color Swatch Journal for May!  she's thrown down the Copic color BG23 or equivalent Spectrum Noir color GT2, and invited all our crafty friends to share their blendy combos to see what we can come up with!  since i'm a Speccie girl, i went for the GT2 and instead of sticking within the GT family, i went with BT2 (which was much lighter for my base) and BT6 (which is a step darker than i might normally choose to blend).  my challenge was to limit myself to just 3 markers and try to rock some monochromatic coloring. 

enter our gorgeous Coy Kaylee digi stamp - she's one of my absolute faves!  the simple outfit helped with this "challenge" because i didn't face the struggle of aiming for more depth than i might be able to achieve with just 3 markers.  you can always layer on top of color once everything is dry, but after too much saturation, there tends to be a mottled effect and i really wanted to avoid that.

here's my card, featuring sentiment from our Birthday Mae clear stamp set, Sunshine Sorbet paper, and Hexie Dots wood veneers:

 

whatcha think?  is she looking a little sickly, or is the combo fun?  i've played around with pink and blue monochromatic coloring (and, of course, grey tones), but this is the first time i've ventured into the green family (aside from hair colors) and i wasn't sure as i was going along.  in the end, i'm pretty content with it, and now i'm anxious to try the other Color Swatch Journal prompts!  have you checked it out before?  CLICK HERE to see what i'm talking about!

here's a (slightly) closer view of my girl:

and i may just try this one again soon!  tomorrow's Friday - any plans for the weekend?  apparently The Son has a lunch or dinner thing in mind for us on Sunday (it's Mother's Day here in the U.S.), so i have a little quality time to look forward to.  in the meantime, i'll be back Saturday with a super fun event you won't want to miss!

Sketchy Saturday at Paper Issues!

hey there, chickens!  it's SATURDAY!  i'm in Canada right now, taking care of business (there's still SO much to do for my Dad's estate and getting the house ready to sell), but welcome to a Sketchy Saturday, on the Paper Issues blog!

we've got awesome sketches for both scrappy pages and cards today, and while i've been doing a LOT of scrapbooking, today i'm going the card route because i knew i HAD to use this paper and saw the speech bubble in my mind.  the card practically made itself while i was sleeping!

here's my card, featuring the gorgeous Pinkfresh Studio paper, a label (cut in two) from the Fancy Pants Office Suite collection, the speech bubble die-cut from this fun Jen Hadfield set for Pebbles, and sentiment from Snarky Stamps (it's two of the sets mashed together):

i went for a pretty LITERAL translation for the sketch, but there's a lot you can do with it!  rotate it, flip it, change the shapes, as long as we can see the sketch!

and here's the layout sketch:

want to play along?  want to win this:

CLICK HERE and join us!  i promise you'll be RIDICULOUSLY inspired by the Paper Issues Creative Team and what they've done with BOTH sketches, in case your mojo just ain't goin'!  have fun!