Birthday Card for a Challenge

So I decided to try some card making challenges. I've never really done them before but thought it would be a good way to step out of my comfort zone and try some new things.


Here is the challenge I tried. Its from www.stampinwithstacey.blogspot.com


What fun colors! I haven't used Kraft much at all so I was excited to try a new color combo. I wouldn't have put these together on my own and I love 'em and will use 'em again!


Jeeze - whats with the blurry photos??? I used the new SU! embossing dots folder and LOVE it!! The packages/gifts are from a saleabration set and are paper pieced. I ended up having to put the flower on the top note because the happy birthday sentiment left a little mark from the edge of the rubba - I ended up liking this little flower so much in real life that I put some on the inside of the card.

I always try and decorate the inside of my cards - not sure that the flowers fit the birthday theme but I loved them...so there they are! They are part of my USE IT UP personal challengs - I used a punch I've had for ages and little green brads that I've had for ages and never end up using ..turns out they almost perfectly match the old olive!

Thanks for stopping by -- hey I've been on a posting roll this week! Andrea

Is it an Afghan or a blanket? It grew!

My entry for this weeks Craft It Wednsday is a crochet "masterpiece" .

The title sure is appropriate! This started off as an afghan for my DD. I had just finished making a couple of afghans last year that all used one stitch throughout the entire afghan - different stitches for the different afghans but 1 for each individual one. When I started this one I wanted variety - I was kind a bored with using one for an entire project.

So I took a crochet afghan sampler book and made strips of different stitches.

I made a total of 7 stripes. Here are a few of the different stitches I used. It was fun to mix it up!

LESSON learned: I wasn't an experienced crocheter to realize that using different stitches used different amounts of yarn - so I would need way more yarn than in my prior 2 afghans. RESULT - I ran out of the varigated blue yarn before I was done....and of course - I had started the project last year and couldn't find any more this year!!

SOOO I bought some purple yarn that coordinated and made 2 purple stripes. Here is one of 'em.

I then used the purple yarn to make a border around each stripe and single crochet stitched the borders together...actually there is another LESSON here - I didn't measure all the stripes to be exactly the same - sooo RESULT/FIX - I had to add some purple "patches" to some of the blue stripes. Definately makes it look homemade :(

but hey - its still if I may say so myself gorgeous - its huge tho! I had to make some purple stripes to tie it all in together and it sure made it large - which is great for my DD cuz she loves to snuggle under blankets! Thanks for looking

Embossing fiend - First of my USE IT UP challenge

I finally sat down and made some cards today. My Dad needed a sympathy card and I offered to make him one.

I'm giving myself a challenge - anyone wanna join me? USE up WHAT YOU HAVE!!! Its stuff I obviously liked enough to buy - stop hoarding - use it - enjoy it - make some space for when you find new stuff you gotta have.

Lately I've really been enjoying heat embossing and decideed to start with that today. It can add such a nice touch to a card. Here is an example of the same stamp and clear embossing powder done on 3 different colors of cardstock. I'm thinking I may make a few of these up ahead for those times when I need a fast card - I'll be partly started.

I used the damask stamp from SU! Friends 24-7. If usage is any indicator this is my favorite stamp - it sure is my "go to" stamp! I used versamark ink and clear embossing powder.

This is on the retired SU! "in color" Soft Sky paper

This is on the retired SU! "in color" River Rock

Sorry this card is so blurry - I'm too lazy to go down and retake it LOL but you can see its on SU! night of navy cardstock.

You know what is so funny - I really am OPPOSED to the idea of the SU! In Colors - I despise the idea of "in colors" - the idea of retiring papers/colors - what if you fall in love with the color (Like I did with Pink Piroquette) and then you can't get it ANY MORE!!!!!! - so I refused - for the most part - to get the in colors - except for these 3 - soft sky, river rock and pink piroquette.

So in the spirit of USE IT UP - I used 2 of the retired incolors - but I couldn't , just couldn't touch the pink piroquette yet LOL
Here is a card using the river rock damask background - I also used some river rock patterned designer paper, brown satin ribbon, the new SU! bird punch, SU! tope note die and a nesties tag die. The sentiment is from the SU! Friends 24-7 set stamped with chocolate brown SU! craft ink and clear embossed.

LESSON LEARNED: when you practice on your scratch paper to see how the craft ink will look - move the scratch paper before you accidentally get it on the top note part of your card and you have to make sure to cover it when you put on the tag and ribbon

Finally - here is the sympathy card I made for my Dad. I really like this one!

(Disregard the date - somehow my camera reset itself )

jeez I sure talked alot today!!

Thanks for stopping by! Andrea

Whatcha Making?

Whatcha making is a good question for this project. It started out as a scarf - not one of those warm winter ones but a delicate one to wear with a solid (boring) shirt to jazz it up.

Those of you that know me IRL know I infrequentely (well - never) follow a pattern when making a project unless I absolutely HAVE to - somehow I just take off and make what comes out -

well in this case I started to make a stripe of pretty shell stitches and decided it was too wide for a pretty delicate scarf. Fine width for a warm winter scarf - but problem - it was in thin bamboo yarn and therefore not gonna be warm...so whats a gal to do? I made another stripe and decided to join them together for a purse... .

I played around with some stitches to make an edging that was lace like and used super large snaps (like the size of a quarter) to hold the purse closed.

Recently I reconnected with a dear friend (hi Jo if you're here) and told her I wanted to make a 3D wall art of various flowers - crochet, paper, felt etc. So I was playing with crochet roses....they ended up on the purse.

This started out as a project that I didn't like too much - I didn't like the scarf - so I re-invented it - I didn't like the two stripes together as a purse - so I added to it - it ended up as a project that I love! I used it yesterday as my purse and really enjoyed it .

Thanks for looking!

P.S. I promise - I will get back to paper soon - maybe even - dare I say it - scrapbooking?

Valentines Day Goodness

I'm back playing with another Craft It Wednesday!

Today I want to show you some of the Valentine's Candy Gifts I've been making.

First - I repurposed some packaging and turned this container -

Into THIS!!

I used a bunch of left over paper scraps from the MyTimeMade EAsy Butterfly pattern that used their (then) new digital paper. I filled it with Peanut M & M's to give DH for Valentines. The tags are cut with my sizzix Big Shot and an old old die - the brad is a clearance velvet brad from Hobby Lobby and the Love You stamp is an ancient SU! stamp.

Lesson learned/tip - I put all the scraps and "rejected" papers and embellies into a box/bin when I'm done with a project - especially if I think I'll make another project soon that will use the same color/theme. When I get around to cleaning up my space I often put those bins into zip lock bags - I find that way I can just grab and craft w/o having to refind all the goodies.

Here are some drawers I made from the red/black/white/valentine "bin" supplies. The drawer pulls are made from jumbo eyelets and black satin ribbon and little XOXO red ribbon scraps.

Many of y'all know my Dad comes for dinner every week - usually on Tuesdays. I decided last minute to give him some Valentines Goodness - I don't think he even realizes the holiday now that Mom isn't here - He loves pistachio nuts and I picked him up a bag and made a gift bag. I don't know about y'all but masculine projects are a challenge -

I used my scor-pal and scored the c/s every 1/2 inch on both the horizontal and vertical axis (don't I sound so smart LOL) - it actually made it easy to customize the size of the bag since it was scored so much! I cut 2 sheets of c/s about 10 x9. I cut the top border with the new SU! heart border punch and folded it over ata an inch (this picture stinks so you can't really see the details). I just scor-pal taped the 2 sides together and folded the bottom up (that was a bit of a struggle LOL). The handle is just attached w/ heart brads.

I had fun with the tag - I took scraps and made a couple of different sized tags with Happy V' Day (from the dollar bin at M's) and I love you bunches (an oldie SU! stamp) and a heart punch. I decided I wanted it to "swing" so I threaded ribbon through the holes and then put them on circular paper clips and then had all the clips on a clip that was put on the bag ----hard to capture in a picture but CUTE and I will definately do this again!



I was messing around with boxes cuz I'm gonna make a bunch for a friends DD's Bat Mitzvah so I made another candy gift for Dad. This is just 5 x 5 black c/s that I embossed with the houndstooth cuttlebug folder. Score all sides at 1 inch - snip the corners, scor-pal tape up the sides and you have a box top/bottom. Make two and the box is done...e.a. s. y p.e.a.s.y

Wow - I sure did go on and on --- thanks for stopping by and till next time - which better be some V'Day gifts for the dorm - cuz I haven't made those yet!! YIKES - candy bought - check ---ideas on what to make---nope not yet!

To Copic or Not

So To Copic or Not is the Question - right?

I've resisted the Copic wave for a LONG time - basically due to the cost of each marker - and if we must be honest - I didn't think I had the talent to make them work

Well - to be perfectly frank with y'all - I've always been a SU! kind of gal - I started stamping with SU! (didn't most of us?) and it usually works out that my demos are my good friends (shout out to the former demo and great friend Jo and the current demo and great friend Sharon). I love their coordinating colors and quality of c/s.

So a while ago I had heard that BIC markers were good so on sale a while ago I bought BIC markers

Yesterday I went to the Heirloom Stamp show and picked up some Copic markers - as well as a few on sale over the last few weeks at Hobby Lobby

so today I did a little comparison to see whats up with each type of marker. Let me just say - I have a new respect for those on blog land that can upload pictures that look good and have titles embedded in them - I am soooo NOT techocrafty!! LOL






Maybe another day I'll take better pictures to illustrate my point but here goes.


the image on the far left is SU! - sorry to say I don't like the markers for coloring at all. They are great for coloring directly onto the stamp (rubber or clear) but not so much for coloring...see the streaks and some of those lines were my attempt at shading - not nice at all. If you leave them w/o any shading you still see the streaks. My markers are a few years old and I didn't like the feel to the tips - to mushy.

the middle pix is the Bic Markers. There were some positives to the bics. - They went on smoothly. Easy to stay in the lines. There wasn't any streaking when I colored in a larger spot. But there isn't really any way to blend the shading so it doesn't look like an obvious line.


the far right is the copic markers.
I hate to say it - cuz I resisted for so long - but they are the best way to color. Especially for someone like me who isn't an artist - the color goes on smoothly. Its easy to layer colors. Easy to shade and blend with the lighter color. If you go out of the lines a LITTLe the colorless blender can push most of the color back into the right spot. (ps the title should say copic but when I tried to fix it in paint it wouldn't let me and this was like the 4th attempt and I gave up rather than create a whole new image tee hee)

So the next challenge for me is to be content with the colors I have and not covet lots and lots more shades of copics LOL

Just an aside - coloring with pencils and OMS/gamsol or blender pens is nice too -- but I have a limited selection of pencils and for some reason - for right now at least - I'm prefering the copics.

Thanks for listening if you make it this far - I have a card to post with copics later but its cloudy and grey here and the quality of the photo is even worse than my usual ones....