Faux Washi Tape

After reading some discussions on faux washi tape, I thought I'd give it a try.  I haven't jumped on the washi tape bandwagon; given my completion tendencies, I refuse to go there.  So faux it will have to be!

I used paper tape from the dollar store.  It took a few tries to get it torn the way I wanted it.  Funny how it never tears straight when I go to put it on a patient's dressing at work, but that is all I could get it to do when I was trying to tear my drifts of snow.

Nichole posted a very cute snowman card and tag set that I styled my card after.  I loved the simple snowman stamp she used, but didn't have any similar to it, so what else was I to do but make my own!  I punched out a circle and two different ovals, taped them together and traced around them on my card.  Then I added his face, buttons, and mittens.  So fun!  I also made my own polka dot stamps a long time ago by punching out a piece of scrap rubber with both size punches from my Crop-a-dile, and glued each 'dot' to opposite ends of a chopstick.  *patting self on back*

Isn't he cute as a button?  Haha!  Get it?

I think it's past time for me to go to bed!

Supplies used:
Stamps - Hero Arts holiday sayings, home made polka dot stamp
Paper - Pool Party
Ink - white craft, Memento black
Accessories - 3/4" circle, large oval and wide oval punches, paper tape, markers, baker's twine, button, dauber

K

OLW in Two Minutes

I almost cried when I read that Susan was going to take a break from her OLW challenges on her Simplicity blog.  Seems popularity is running it's course with her, and she had to cut back somewhere.  I wish I had that problem!  heehee!  But then Jennifer Styles stepped up to the plate and is going to be posting the challenges for a while.  I'm grateful for her!  Thanks, Jennifer!

The challenge this week is to make a one layer winter holiday card without using white, cream, red, or green for the base.  When I first read it, all possibilities went out the window.

Then I had an idea.

This is possibly the fastest card I have ever made.  I think it took me longer to ink up my new silver Stazon pad than it did to make the card!  Even the simplest card I make can take me a while before I get it 'right'.  This just happened, and I love the result!

Isn't it cute that Dasher is looking at the Merry Christmas aimed right for his back end?  I think he's thinking "I'd better get out of here!"

After I lined up the image and sentiment on my background-sized acrylic block, I inked them both with silver Stazon, and presto!  It was almost done.  It still looked a little flat to me, so I sprayed some sparkle shimmer spritz over it, and that was just what it needed.  That stuff has to be my favorite new product.  I find myself reaching for it very frequently.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Dasher, Christmas Greetings
Paper - Concord Crush
Ink - silver Stazon
Accessories - sparkle Shimmer Spritz

What is your favorite new product?

K

ETA - Silver and gold Stazon inks are a good alternative to embossing when using on dark cardstock.  The embossing buddy leaves a little powder behind that I can never seem to get rid of, and no matter how careful I am about removing any errant flakes of EP before heating, there are always a few that show up after the image is embossed that 'ruin' the card for me.  Stazon eliminates all this and is still fairly shiny.  I will still use EP on light colored card stock, but for darker colors, I will always use Stazon for metallic images.

K

Quick Fix

Do you ever make a card, take pictures, post them, and then realize that you could have done something to make the card better?  I do that a LOT, and my pumpkin card was no exception.

After I posted my last two cards, I happened to look at the pumpkin card that was lying on my desk.  You know how I felt the bow was too heavy and competed with the pumpkins.  I was trying to figure out how I could add more 'weight' to the pumpkins to balance the card out, and then it dawned on me as to how to fix it.  When I made my original card, I practiced coloring the pumpkins first on a scrap of cardstock (I'm *n*l that way).  All I needed to do was cut my practice pumpkin out and pop it up.

See?  Doesn't that look much better?  It definitely seems more balanced to me.  If you look closely, you will see that I added white gel pen accents to the tops of the pumpkins.  When I was practicing, I tried it, but didn't like the look, so I left it off of my original card.  But when I used my practice pumpkin to balance the card, I had to add gel pen to the second pumpkin.  Oh, well, I still think it looks better than the original.

The next time I have a card I'm not happy with, I'm NOT going to take its picture until it gets fixed.

I promise!

K

P.S.  Thanks for all your nice comments on the cards I submitted for the DT search!  Only two more days...

The Final Round

I was picked as one of the 10 finalists in the CAS fall DT search!  Yea!  I was quite shocked and became giddy with excitement when I found out.

The last few days my head has been filled with ideas of twos.  Our card for the final round has to have a 'couple' of something on it.  It wouldn't be hard to make a card with two brads, or pearls, or images, but when you have to make one with two of something, it becomes exponentially harder.  You all know how that is!

I had several ideas, but only made two (a couple - heehee!) of cards.  I knew I would never be able to make a decision if I had more than two to choose from.  They are both very different, and I hope I picked the right one to submit.  You never know what the judges will be WOWed by.

Here is the first one I made.

I wanted to do everything in two's, so I have 2 pumpkins, 2 fibers in a double bow, 2 mini rhinestones, and a sentiment with 2 words.

I like it.  Kind of.  I think the bow looks out of place and competes with the pumpkins.  It didn't WOW me, so I made another completely different card.

There are two 'couples' on this one.  Two bulbs, and a two word sentiment, but I think it has a lot more WOW factor.  At least I hope it does, because this is the one I submitted.  The bulbs are sponged around their perimeters to make them glow, and are accented with glossy accents.  I hand drew the cord.  I'm hopeful they will be judging on creativity, because this is about as simple as it gets!

Supplies used for pumpkin card:
Stamps - autumn harvest, teeny tiny wishes
Paper - GKD PL white
Ink - Memento black
Accessories - Copics, taffeta ribbon, hemp twine, bow easy (my knock-off), mini rhinestones, SAMJ

Supplies used for bulb card:
Stamps - jolly bingo bits, Christmas greetings
Paper - GKD PL white
Ink - real red, garden green
Accessories - artichoke marker, glossy accents, daubers, SAMJ

I feel just like I did in high school when I was trying out for something...nerves, adrenaline, self-doubt, excitement, hope. ACK! The anticipation is killing me!  My stomach will be in knots until Thursday night when we all find out!  This is going to be a looooooong week!

So tell me. Did I submit the right card?  What do you think?

K

Gingerbread Men make me Happy!

The CAS challenge on Splitcoast this week was a sketch challenge.  And one I am very familiar with.  It has been my go-to sketch for a while now.  So it wasn't really a challenge to make the card, but it was a challenge to find the time to do it!

I decided to use one of my many neglected wheels for this card.  Now I know what I can do with all of my other wheels...use them to make cards!!

The hearts are glittered with dazzling diamonds to make them look like sugar cookies - yum!  I want to eat them up!  And the little gingerbread men make me smile.  (Probably because I can imagine the taste when I bite their little heads off!)

Would somebody please get me some sugar... chocolate... anything?

Supplies used:
Stamps - gingerbread man wheel, so many sayings
Paper - GKD PL white, cherry cobbler
Ink - Memento black, Versafine black
Accessories - Copics, glue pen, DD glitter, wavy border punch, ribbon

Have a happy day!

K