sketchy goodness at Unity!

happy MONDAY, chickens!  yep, i'm a little excited to have a 3-day weekend, so last night i was up VERY late and totally got my craft on.  lemme tell ya - it felt GOOD and i'm inspired to keep going today!

i decided to join in the fun at Unity for their challenge this month...  there are THREE to choose from - a colour challenge, a card sketch and a scrapbook page sketch.  i may actually dig through some papers to try the colour challenge, too, since i have all this fab natural light to enjoy today and no place to go until dinner time!

i used my favourite tree from the Eco Chic set (an oldie but a goodie!), and paired it up with a sentiment and the bird from Birdie Inspiration:

picked out some earthy looking patterned paper and sprayed with Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in Navy using a dotty little stencil/mask...  coloured the image with my Prismacolor pencils, added a tag for my sentiment, a smidge of twine and popped up the birds...  LOVE this tree.  LOVE this birdie set.  i have used the simple greetings for SO many cards.  wish you could see the fun shimmer on this card - Heidi does good work!  ;)

here's the sketch on which my card is based:

annnnnnnd with that, OFF TO THE CRAFT CAVE!  :)  hope you're all having a fabulous day.  the sun is shining here, there's a kitty snoozing behind me, and Sondre Lerche music playing to inspire me.  life is good!

(added to the Paper Issues link party for the Mix Tape issue - mixed media is fun and i need to do it more!)

happy LURRRRRVE day (although i lurve you EVERY day!)

and a very happy Valentine's Day to you, chickens!  i'm just happy that it's FRIDAY, it's PAYDAY, i've lost a couple of pounds this week since getting my workout mojo back, and i am determined to have some FUN this weekend.  :)  i might even put my shelving together for my craft room!

but FIRST, some lovie-dovie projects to share, made just for the occasion.  these are all loaded up with goodies that came from my Paper Issues SWAG BAG.  the February one sold out, but there may be a Doggie Bag or two left, and you should watch for the March Swag Bag coming soon!  just SUBSCRIBE already (as soon as you see the next one in the shop!), and you don't have to worry about missing out on the action.  so.  things i made.  behold:

okay.  all that you see here is either from the Be Loved collection from Fancy Pants, or the February Swag Bag, or both.  oh, except the button (from an old Fancy Pants collection) and the misty goodness (Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in Sweet Cherry). 

yep, still Fancy Pants...  the candy and tulle are from my stash!  by the time the recipient gets this, the chocolates may be gone.  wonder if they'll enjoy a nice little wad of tulle...

tab and postage stamp stickers still Fancy Pants, the washi is an older roll from Paper Issues, journaling card and sequins from Swag Bag!  alphas - you guessed it (FP). 

then there's THIS:

Swag Bag goodies featured here:  all of it except the green chevvie paper (Elle's Studio) and the felt trim (from my stash).  i am in LOVE with those Pinkfresh Studio hearts.  the wood envelopes are fab (Kaisercraft).  transparent thingies from Studio Calico.  i love it all!

this?

i felt inspired to keep going with the green theme, and used more of the Elle's Studio paper (plus alphas and an old label), added some Doodlebug alphas and Fancy Pants flair.  spoon is from Vegas CHA (the booth behind us was giving out Jelly Bellys in coloured plastic shot glasses, and i stocked up on those little suckers!).  bling.  DONE.

and since this post is long enough, lemme just say that you REALLY should check out the "All New!" section at the Paper Issues shop...  there's a ridiculous amount of new stuff from October Afternoon.  look!

and this.  for an awesome little discount, ALL THE TIME, on everything.  because i love you!  Happy Valentine's Day to YOU!  xoxoxox

in celebration of FRIENDS!

i'm up today on the Crafter's Companion Facebook page, and yesterday was a co-worker's birthday, so natch i whipped something up for the occasion!  see, since i started giving handmade cards to people at work, a store bought card simply WILL NOT DO.  ever.  even if i have no time whatsoever, they refuse to settle.

SO!  Liz turned a darling 24.  SERIOUSLY.  she could nearly be my daughter (i said NEARLY!).  and i grabbed my Mulberry Wood "Friend" set from Crafter's Companion, stamped the little fuzzpaw with Jet Black StazOn, coloured him up with my pencils, and added the sentiment from Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy "Only Words - Through the Rain".  Liz has a bit of a thing for blue, so i added a few embellies in blue, blinged it up, and VOILA!  this little card was born:

the clouds?  i love this part!  i grabbed a sheet of pale blue vellum and punched them out...  this is a one-layer card (not my forte', but every once in a while i surprise myself!), so i just laid them on top of the image, traced the edges of the image on the vellum and trimmed the clouds down to fit around the pooch.  i'm also slightly obsessed with these shaped cards and i've been making loads of SQUARE cards lately.  watch for them!  :)

here's a close-up of the critter:

fur still isn't one of my strengths, and i wanted to go subtle with an emphasis on that blue flower, so pale worked better for me in this case anyway. 

and that is that!  CLICK HERE to check out the rest of the Mulberry Wood stamp sets (oh my goomie, so cute!), and CLICK HERE for all the gorgeousness from Sheena Douglass.  i should mention that there's also a brand new line of Sheena embossing folders and they're absolutely GORGEOUS.  you'll want to check them out by CLICKING HERE!  :)

hope the day's fab, folks.  i'm crazy swamped with work lately, and putting the pedal to the metal at the gym, so let's hope that 2014 is all it SHOULD be!  see you tomorrow!

playing with Mixed Media (!!) and Crafter's Companion goodies

hey there, crafty chickens!  hope the week has been good to you!  it's been busy, rainy, and COLD here, and i'm glad the weekend is here.  i'm going to round things out with a card i made using my Crafter's Companion goodies (that's on the Crafter's Companion Facebook page today!), and i'm kinda LOVING the mixed media thing i've got goin' on here.

i'm not usually one for flat cards, and i often struggle with mixed media, to be perfectly honest.  but since i wasn't specifically going for the vintage look, and stuck with what makes me happy (bright colours, gold things, punchinella, mists), i found this came much easier than expected.  :)

SO.  here we are!

i busted out my Luxury Centura Pearl Snow White cardstock, misted with Memento Fireworks (Angel Pink) and added some drops of Spectrum Noir Re-inker (BP3), then sponged some Delicata Golden Glitz ink using punchinella as a mask.

i stamped Sheena's A Little Bit Scenic (Silhouette Grasses) using StazOn Jet Black ink, then stamped the sentiment from the same set using a wet chalk ink, embossing with black powder.  i LOVE the effect of the black embossed dots from where the Delicata hadn't yet dried.  love it!

snipped a doily and added pieces for interest, then found some matching gold hexagon confetti, inked my edges and stuck it on down onto my card base. 

i promise you it was SO much easier than it looks!  OH, but check this out:

the Luxury Centura Pearl cardstock is TO. DIE. FOR.  the shimmer is incredible.  and it holds colour so well!  for example:

the embossing with the shimmer makes a pretty fab combination, oui?  

all in all, i'm happy with this little experiment!  you can grab most of my supplies at the Crafter's Companion store, but CLICK HERE to see all the new stuff because there's a ton of it!  and play along with the challenge we've got going on by CLICKING HERE...  this month it's all about Clean and Simple! 

we're FILLIN' 'ER UP at Paper Issues! $20 up for grabs!

hey there, chickens!  it's time for a brand new issue at Paper Issues, and our theme is "Fill 'er up!"...  we love seeing what you creative people come up with to fit the theme (and remember your project does NOT have to be new!), and i kinda went for a two-fer... 

here's my card, featuring the YUMMY new Be Loved collection from Fancy Pants (CLICK HERE to check it all out in the Paper Issues store!):

those papers!  OH MY GOOMIE!  i love the shades of pink, and the awesome touches of grey throughout the line!  and the watercolor hearts are just fabulous!  the flair and alphas are from Be Loved as well.  all i added from my stash was the ribbon and sequins.  now all i want to do is make lovey-dovey Valentine's cards. 

SO.  to fit our theme, i make a little shaker box and filled it up with shiny things, and i incorporated the theme into my title, too.  piece of cake!  remember, you can do whatever you like as long as it fits the theme. some ideas, should you be struggling for inspiration... gas prices, filling a page, fill a pocket on your card/scrapbook page, filling things (like bags of leaves, bathtubs, the dishwasher, filling a house with love, etc.)...  the sky's the limit!

here's what's up for grabs!

and you can spend it in conjunction with this:

and you can buy nice things like this:

'cuz who doesn't like a discount?  and who isn't LOVING these new releases?!

LINK UP by February 16th and you might get yourself $20 to spend at the Paper Issues store.  :)