Grey Wolf

My first card made in my new craft studio!  I'm just so excited!  I cannot believe how much easier it is to find things, move around, do things, EVERYTHING.  Such a joy!

This card is for my oldest son's 20th birthday.  He is out in Oklahoma, so we will miss being able to celebrate with him.  So, I wanted to make something grown up masculine but also with something that is him.  He has always been an animal/nature lover so the wolf is perfect for him.

Lately I have been very obsessed with everything Taylored Expressions.  So, I decided to use their sketch challenge for this week for the card.  It is clean and simple and works great for masculine cards.Then, over at The Paper Players, the challenge was to make a masculine card with clean and simple lines.  Finally, my colors were inspired by the color challenge at City Crafter.

As you can see the card is very clean and sleek. I embossed the black background to give more depth to the card.   Also for more depth, I crimped the kraft scalloped border and added more kraft behind the sentiment, which I punched the sides of with the scallop punch and also crimped.  I couldn't decide whether to put any embellishments along the cloth ribbon.  I finally chose one brad to put in the center underneath the sentiment and added a metal round paper clip for a little extra man touch.
 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment  (Inkadkinadoo); Wolf digital stamp (M&M Designz).
Paper:  Buttercream, black and kraft cardstock.  DP - Little Black Dress (Basic Grey).
Ink:  Copics for image.  Tuxedo Black ink (Memento).
Extras:  Labels die (Spellbinders); diamond emboss folder(Provo Craft) scallop border punch; paper crimper; cotton ribbon; brown brad; brown paperclip ring.

City Crafter Challenge #97 -- It's All Natural

Thanks for stopping by!

Life Is An Adventure

Eat Sleep Stamp Sketch #159

The title of this post definitely says it all!  Life is truly an adventure and the last few weeks in the Salkeld abode has been moreso.  I am in the process of moving into my new craft studio so crafting has taken on a new meaning for me over the past couple weeks.  My studio is a wonderful Valentine gift from my husband to help me get back in the groove and even maybe make a little spending money at it.  I will share pics in a later post.

Of course, in the middle of it all, I was trying to get Valentines made and a few other special cards for some special events coming up.  This cute 'adventure' card I sent to my son who will be participating in UNC's Dance Marathon this weekend to raise money for NC Children's Hospital.  I think the dog stamp is so adorable!  It is from Artistic Outpost.  They have some gorgeous stamps!

I wanted to make a masculine, yet youthful card.  My son, Ben, is a freshman at UNC Chapel Hilll.  The sketch at Eat, Sleep, Stamp this week is very streamlined and simple and perfect for a masculine card. So, I took some Tim Holtz grunge paper, sprayed it with blue and orange glimmer mist and then stamped the image in Staz On Azure.  It gave it a more grungy look.

I thought the notebook DP paper was pretty appropriate too.  So I used a notebook border punch on one side.  Then, I chose some wood looking DP, used a wood grain texture plate on it to make the wood look more defined.  And I used some of the same wood paper as a border for the sentiment.  I finished off the card with an orange leather and metal brad and a metal arrow on the compass in the image.

SPIES:

Stamps:  Image and sentiment -Artistic Outpost;
Paper:  Grunge paper; white cardstock:  DP from stash.
Ink:  Staz On Azure.
Extras:  Wood grain texture plate - Taylored Expressions; notebook border punch; glimmer mist; orange leather and metal brad; metal arrow.

'Owl' Love

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #151

It's been a very hectic week here.  My Hubs is painting my new craft studio for me.  The downstairs is all torn up due to the redecorating. I've been busy trying to get Valentine care packages together for my sons away at college and staying out of the Hubs' way at the same time.  So, with all of that going on, what do we do tonight?  Scrap it all (no pun intended, really) and have an early Valentine date at the circus, Ringling Brothers!  I hadn't been to the circus since I was a little girl.  It was wonderful!  I think we may have been the only adult couple there without kids!  LOL  We definitely won't the oldest ones, but most of the older adults I noticed had grandchildren on their laps.  I have a few years yet before getting to that stage.

Before we went, I put together this Valentine for the Taylored Expressions Sketch and now am posting it before the deadline. I had a lot of fun with this card.  I bought a bunch of stamps from Taylored Expressions weeks ago and just hadn't pulled many of them out yet.  So today was the day.  I love those sweet little owls!

I decided to make my own little tree die using the stamped image from the stamp.  I textured some kraft paper with the wood texture plate from Taylored Expressions.  Then, to make it more defined and stand out, I went over the grooves with some Copic markers, outlining the edges also.

Then, after coloring the Owls with Copics, I cut them out so it would pop out on the wood.  Next I added a piece of kraft twine for the branch the owls are sitting on.  I decided to carry the twine out by lacing it through the squares and added a twine bow to the sentiment to bring it all together.


SPIES:
Stamps:  Owls, tree and sentiment all Taylored Expressions.
Paper:  Kraft, pink cardstock; DP from Taylored Expressions card kit.
Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown; Colorbox rouge.  Copics.
Extras:  Spellbinders scalloped square dies; Textured panel- Taylored Expressions; twine; heart punch; pink grommet; heart button stickles.

Framed Hearts

Trying to stay out of the Hub's way today as he paints my new craft studio for me.  I am sooooo excited!  I will finally have my own studio room to craft,  paint and stamp and not have to worry about cleaning up right away.  Not to mention my own little space in which to disappear!  LOL   Another plus too is that we will actually be able to play pool on our pool table instead of me using it for an extra work station! But I digress, here is my card....A quick and simple card for PPA Color Challenge today.

 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment - Hampton Arts; Victorian Frame - Recollections.
Paper:  Rose, Red, Deep Red, white cardstock; DP - My Mind's Eye 'Stella Rose'.
Ink:  Colorbox
Extras:  Ribbon, heart gems, Spellbinder die cut; scallop punch.

Layers of Love

The Paper Players #80

My first time playing at The Paper Players today and I'm just under the deadline.  Ive been playing around with different papers and textures.  I wound up with lots of tiny tissue paper hearts.  What to do?  So, I took a piece of craft plastic and Mod Podged a bunch of them on the plastic.  Then, I took others and using a tissue paper method to making flowers, I made the puffy heart. Had to play with it a bit to get it to look how I wanted.  I am very happy with the outcome.

Unfortunately too I am having camera issues, a loose lens that won't stay fastened since my camera fell off the desk earlier this week, so my photos aren't doing my work much justice.  So, please bare with me until I can get my camera fixed. 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment:  Hampton Art.
Paper:  Tissue paper in red, orange and pink. DP from stash.  White cardstock.
Ink:  Colorbox.
Extras:  Lime green ribbon, lime green sticky gems, Spellbinders label die cut.