Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday: SSD017
I’ve been procrastinating making this card all day long. I also had to postpone the next reveal of Scrap My Scraps. It’s been a rather unproductive day, although I did sit at my computer and stare at YouTube while crocheting a cute little mini cupcake (which I will share later when I get it stuffed and stitch the top on) and then went and took photos of a friend for her daughter’s “portfolio” for a job with a local bridal shop that sells modest prom gowns, wedding gowns, and other formals which was loads of cheerful fun! Here’s today’s sketch from Sgt Stamper: Pretty straightforward and leaves LOTS of room for imagination (which fled my brain tonight, lol!) I followed the rules and whipped up this card pretty “quickly”. Well… a couple of hours because the triangles threw me for a loop. I was not sure what to do with them. LOL! Had I oriented the card differently I might have used some flourishes or something… but they didn’t work with my card, so I left the triangles. I chose to use two stamp sets for this card. I used my all time favorite SSD stamp sets – Dandelion Dreams and Healing Wings. My friend, David Hogge, passed away on Sunday morning while on a visit to inlaws for a baby shower (not sure on reasons… just yet something with pneumonia & something else) and I wanted to make a card for his wife, Jineena. Dave left behind his wife and 3 small children under age 7. Here’s the card I came up with for this sketch: I love this card but I am not happy with how this card photographed. That’s what I get for taking photos (literally) at midnight and not setting up my photo studio box thingy. The blues match in real life and the background paper is tan, not greenish. (No amount of Photoshopping helped it.) The card needed some “appropriate bling” so I colored the floral images with a Sakura clear stardust pen. I did have a lot of fun using my Nesties as stencils and pouncing some color onto the cut out shapes inside the frame edges. I also stamped the floral images while the Nesties were still in place as stencils. This is my all time favorite sympathy sentiment. I truly believe that it is true. Heaven can heal any earthly sorrow that we experience. Most of the layers are popped out with foam tape and tabs. I have this “thing” about dimension lately and love popping things out. I love the shadows that are cast on the backgrounds and the added depth. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the cards from our fabulous DT! (See right sidebar) ~Inky Smiles Supply List: Stamps: Skipping Stones Design’s Healing Wings and Dandelion Dreams Ink: CTMH Twilight, Chocolate & Creme Brulee (yum) Papers: CTMH Best Friends Forever Kit Miscellaneous: CTMH Ribbon, American Crafts Foam Tabs, Scotch Foam Tape, Fiskars scalloped border punch, Fiskars small hole punch.
Scrap My Scraps II: Reveal #2 – Stacey Tippetts
We’re up to Reveal #2 today in the Scrap My Scraps II challenge. This is so fun for me getting to see what other people come up with using my “odds and ends”. I’m waiting on the rest of the group to send their photos in. I believe that one set went MIA in the mail but hopefully the others make it here soon 🙂 Today we have a treat froM Stacey Tippetts What a treat when I opened my email and received the photos from Stacey and all her delightful projects! I love all her little giftie ideas! AND…. she’s also a crocheting fool. LOL! But I think she’s been a crocheting fool a LOT longer than I have been. I love her idea to attach the gifties to the card. Thank you Stacey!! Check out all these little treasures. {You can click on any photo to view larger in a separate window.} Magnets in Origami Gift Box: Hair Clippy Gift #1: Hair Clippy Gift #2: Hair Clippy Gift #3: (before flower is attached, with flower attached, inside) Welcome Baby Gift: Cards:
Scrap My Scraps II: Reveal #1- Emily McLemore
I’m starting to get the photos in from the players in the Scrap My Scraps Challenge part II. I was so excited to see this email from Emily McLemore come through with a lot of photos. She created this darling banner project to use up that Pepto Pink Paper. And seriously, I’m not hating the paper as much. Sometimes it really just does take a different view on something to change your mind. I love how Emily added all the ink and distressing to change up the papers. <—— Look at all the details on this banner. Emily cut out the gift images and further embellished them by adding glitter and bling to each individual piece before tucking them neatly into place. Love it! There are bits of paper used neatly all over this project. I think she had to have used a lot more than 50% of what I sent her! I love that she added the flowers and coordinating papers. Everything just ties together so nicely! Thank you Emily!! Be sure to check out Emily’s blog. She might just have some candy for you! ~Inky Smiles!
Blog Candy Winner Announced
Hey friends! I realized that I did not put an announcement date on the blog candy, so I figured I’d better give it away now before I go too long and forget. I pulled up Random.org and had it “draw” a random number between 1 and 16. Drum roll please…. The lucky winner is Stacey Tippets is Comment #14! Congratulations Stacey! I will pop THIS UNRELEASED Skipping Stones Design stamp set in the mail to you this weekend! ~Inky Smiles!!
It Started With a Little Flower (or two.. or three… or six… or twenty…)
Well this HUGE, HONKIN, BIG OLE, GRANDMAMMY OF THEM ALL post is a few days in the promising… to Jeanne, at least. Sorry, Jeanne, I’ve been so crazy busy this week! I was going to blog yesterday but after my dentist appt I decided to stay up north in the “big city” to do some shopping… I really shouldn’t have since I did some “shopping” with Miss Jeanne while visiting Denver, but, I just HAD to. Went to a couple of consignment stores and did some perusing, bought a new to me Liz Claiborne leather (BLUE BLUE BLUE BABY BLUE) purse (which I LURVE and looks BRAND spanking new) for under $20 and some cutesy boutiquey hair clips (which I am going to case) and then stopped at Real Deals in Lehi and picked up some fun house decorations and a couple of birthday presents 🙂 WOOT! ANYWAY This post is dedicated to Jeanne Tomshack. Because it’s really her fault in the first place, so there. 😛 When Wendy posted in this post and then this one and again another one about her new craft addiction and blamed it on me in the first one, I decided that I had to clear the air and keep on passing the buck back to it’s rightful owner and clear my good name as a “responsible crafter”… hahahahah.. just kidding… but seriously… We owe this new and fabulous addiction to our sweet and delightful and unselfish friend, Jeanne Tomshack, who has delighted us with her beautiful creations and has even sent a few of them to a few of us! A while back Jeanne sent me some loverly little tiny crocheted flowers that I have used from time to time on cards. I begged her for more. LOL! She told me I could do it even when I said, “I just can’t do it right!”. LOL! Well my friends… Just a little over a week ago, while in Denver for a work trip with Brent, I got to visit Jeanne again. This is what awaited me at Jeanne’s house when I arrived. Jeanne made this absolutely out-of-this-world stunning doily for me for my birthday (which was the day before I arrived). Look at the DETAIL!! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Thank you Jeanne for such a beautiful gift! I am currently displaying it on the antique hutch/buffet in my front room. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. BONUS for ME: I was the lucky recipient of a ONE on ONE personalized crochet lesson from our resident crocheting professional on said professional’s couch! AHHHH THE MASTER @ WORK! I like to think that the top left photo is a special memory her girls will have of their mother when they grow up…. Lovingly creating very special treats for family and friends. First she showed me and then I followed along…. “Mastah, I just don’t get it!” “Be still young grasshoppah and become one with the yarn…” “Yes, mastah… become one with the yarn…” This is the look you get when you question the great mastah… or maybe it’s when you annoy the bajeebers out of her by constantly snapping photos while she’s trying to teach you something important… like taking the crochet hook out and THEN turning the row… LOL! <<ducking so that the crochet and knitting needles that J’s gonna chuck at me miss me as they come flying through the monitor>> We went and picked up the girls from school in the mid afternoon… here’s a couple fun shots I snapped while waiting for the bell to ring. In the photo on the right I am wearing the necklace Jeanne made for me for Christmas and Jeanne is wearing the necklace I made for her on the way out to Denver in the car. (Btw, it’s a copy of the necklace Wendy gave me in my roomie goodie bag at CU. Full circle, full circle….) We had some fun snapping pics with the girls after school, too. Here are a couple of my favorites. I slipped my little blue flower onto my bobby pin and into my hair… super cute! LOVE IT! And did I continue crocheting? You bet your crafty little bum I did…. Now I am hooked… pardon the pun. I have been crocheting on and off over the last week during my free time. I crocheted a gatrillion (yes that’s a real number now, at least in my book) tiny flowers during the daylight hours on the drive back to Utah from Denver… and then… because of WENDY.. hahaha… yes, dear Wendy, it’s your fault, too…. I made a HAT! Jeanne lessoned me in the proper forming of the first row and turning around for the second row and Wendy further tempted me… buwahahaha. Here’s some snapshots of some of what I’ve been up to my arms in lately. (I have since learned that I can’t really do the tiny flowers for very long because they flare up my fibro hot spots in my arms, but big things like the big red hat… not so bad. 🙂 Just some flowers and odds and ends I was messing around and experimenting with… practicing stitches and whatnot. The big puffy white flower started out to be a hat… but then I didn’t like how fuzzy it was… not really a good “spring” hat.. maybe for next winter… so I changed it up and started making a giant fuzzy flower. hehe! (You can click on photos to view larger.) The brown flowers are made from hemp. I thought they might be cool on a tropical or even a masculine card… or maybe just a card or project that wasn’t all “girlie” colors. The hemp was a little tough to work with and my fingers were a little sore, but the overall end product is cool. This cream colored hat is for my niece who is turning 4 in May. I thought it would be a super cute spring hat. 🙂 It
Chick Chat 2 – Two More Cards
I loooooved playing with the Skipping Stones Design Chick Chat set!!! I made a couple of extra birthday cards while I was fooling around with the set for Tuesday’s Sketch Challenge. Here’s what I came up with: These are both simple cards playing on the same basic idea… but different, lol. I was fooling around with the flowers and grass for the top card and popped everything out with foam tape. I love how the grass looks “real”. I used a Sakura glitter gel pen to highlight the grass and the flowers. (You might have to click on the photo to view it larger to see more clearly.) The inside is blank. The bottom card is a quick n easy peasy card for my little friend across the street who just turned 9. I was playing with the chick and felt like it needed something, so I added eyelashes to the eyes. I wish StazOn made markers to match their nice inks. The inside says “from one cute chick to another”. I’m off to get some things done around this house, like laundry and whatnot… or maybe I will edit the pics of my visit to Jeanne’s house so I can share! ~ Inky Smiles
Skipping Stones Design Sketch SSD016: CHICK CHAT new release & Blog Hop!
Hey friends! I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Photo Roundup of Creative University Make N Take projects! They were so much fun to do! Today is a special Sketch Tuesday as it’s our first Design Team only blog hop. We’re celebrating the release of two new Spring/Easter Inspired sets. If you just happened upon my blog today, you’ll want to go back to the beginning at Skipping Stones Design. You should have arrived from Jamie Bova’s (aka Sgt Stamper) blog. Jamie is also our March Sketch Artist! We’d love for you to play along with today’s sketch. Just remember to use the keywords SSD016 if you are uploading to any online galleries (like Splitcoast or TwoPeas or Papercraft Planet, etc) or link your card at the Skipping Stones Blog. We’ll be looking soon for Guest Designers so you never know…. *********************************************************************** Today’s sketch is a fun one and I took a few creative liberties with it… I flipped it and bumped down the white focal piece to fit what I wanted to do with the sketch. And then I left off the stringy things since my paper was busy enough. 🙂 Here’s the sketch… before and after.. haha! I mostly just rotated it. 🙂 The stamp set I decided to use today is the NEW Chick Chat set. I LOVE this set and have made 3 cards already with it. (I will post the other two later this week, like soon, cuz I have it scheduled already, hehe!) I couldn’t resist all the cheeky chick humor and had a lot of fun with these stamps! Here’s my spin on this sketch. When I showed the card to Brent he literally busted out laughing. Glad it had that effect on him. Haha! Sometimes my quirky humor is lost in translation… The layers on this card are all sorts of popped up. I wanted DIMENSION, baby, on this card and needed some good shadows for the full effect of the birdies. The branch is hand drawn and hand cut from chocolate brown cardstock. The little cherry blossom flowers are really old CTMH paper flowers that I dyed pink with some Glimmer Mist. I wish I had actually stitched on the card instead of using a marke rfor stitches. Hrmmm… maybe I can re-do that layer later. I used 3 beautimous Kaisercraft rhinestones in each corner to “anchor” the whole thing. The chicks are all colored in with watercolor pencils and blended with a blending pen. How about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, our DT has blog candy up for grabs. So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! If you want to win MY prize (hint * which is an UNreleased stamp set * hint) here’s what you gotta do: Leave a comment and link back to this post on your blog. 🙂 Your next stop is Kandi Phillips. ~Inky Smiles Supply List: Stamps – Chick Chat by Skipping Stones Design Paper – Imaginesce, CTMH Inks – CTMH & StazOn, CTMH blending pen Miscellaneous – Watercolor pencils (Various brands), Kaisercraft rhinestones, adhesives, CTMH paper flowers.
Photo Roundup: Creative University 2010 – Make-N-Takes
I’m finally getting around to sorting through my photos from Creative University. Let me just tell ya… I had SO MUCH STINKIN fun!!! n (Ok, well Stacey and I missed the “stinky” part because the Friday group had the water run out on them and nobody got showers…) We made some projects and crafty goodness on very little sleep. LOL! Here is a brief photo summary of the projects we made. ************************************************************* Wall Hanging w/Elegant Paper Flowers ~ designed by Denise Anderson-Turley This beautiful project that Denise designed was fast and easy to put together … that is… until… we had to make…. THOSE CRAZY FLOWERS. LOL! That little tag on the left slips in and out for hidden journaling. The papers are all distressed with Tim Holz’s distress ink in linen and tea stain (I mixed them up). I also spritzed some shimmery schtuff along the top left corners and the bottom right section of the artwork. The flowers are also shimmery. The leaves of the flowers are inked to death with Tim’s tea stain distress ink. (Denise’s original piece was not as inky/messy/aged as my piece. I just wanted it shabby.) The flowers are crumpled “paper ribbon” flowers that are hot glued as you go along. I burned my fingers and got annoyed with the hot glue so I gave up and went back to my seat and used my Helmar 450 glue. It dried fast, but did not burn or dry TOO fast (like cooling glue). It took me a while to get the technique down and once I did the project flew right along. I need to get a “class” photo to put on this piece o’ art. 🙂 🙂 ************************************************************* Vintage Songbird Necklace ~ designed by Bren Yule OOOH… a girl can’t go wrong with a JEWELRY making class! Yeah babeeeee! Bren designed this BEAUTIMOUS necklace using a key fob and some crafty supplies including rhinestones, a paper flower, a bird “brad”, and some vintage style music paper. Before and After…. ************************************************************* Watercolor Pencils Cards & Scrapbook Layout ~ designed by Nona Davenport I haven’t finished mine yet, but here’s Nona’s. Mine is sitting here on my desk waiting for me to create a title and stick some photos on it… hahaha…like I ever stick photos on my pre created layouts. I’m so bad. I need to develop some CU pics first!!! I took some liberties with making mine …well, MINE. I changed up the layout a bit and added some shimmer to it.. cuz all ROCK STAR layouts need some shimmer! My cards are also half done. I am trying to get everything finished up tonight so I can have everything DONE! I should have finished everything AT CU, but we were having so much fun visiting and doing other crafty things, too. LOL! See… it’s sitting there… waiting.. for you know who. But I’d rather take a shower and hit the sack than finish it up tonight. The cards are in the little baggie in the very far left corner…. also waiting… poor little cards. ************************************************************* Spring Banner ~designed by Tresa Black OOOH!!! This banner is so fun and sparkly and springy and just delightful! We made each “block” at different stations over a period of two days. There wasn’t anything “difficult” about this project, just a lot of steps on each block and LOADS of glitter and glittery goodness to let dry. LOL! I’m going to hang this in my front room for some SPRING cheer tomorrow! ************************************************************* “Unofficial” Crocheted Necklace Class ~ held during free time by yours truly Several ladies wanted to learn my crocheted necklaces so I told them I’d teach them during our free time at CU. I was surprised how many actually brought their supplies and were eager to make the necklaces. It just made my day!!! Here we are learning and playing: Thank you to Wendy Tunison for the photos! She’s my Paparazzi girl! LoVe HeR! That’s Connie Dryer in the above left photo. She went hog wild making crocheted necklaces… She holed up at a nearby table when we were done and made SEVERAL more crocheted beauties! So glad to get ya HOOKED on another hobby!! 🙂 That’s it for the first Photo Round Up from CU… I will post more soon! ~Inky Smiles! PS.. Tuesday (March 16th) is a blog hop for Skipping Stones Design and I have something to give to a lucky somebody! See you Tuesday!
SSD Sketch Challenge 015: A Sneak Peek
OOOH I am still TRYING to recover from my “vacations”.. I seriously need a vacation to recover from my vacations. LOL! We got home from Denver on Sat night, laaaaate, and crashed. Then Sunday night we had company come stay for an overnight on their way back home to Washington. I got up early Mon morning to make breakfast and see them off. (I usually only see two 7 am’s twice a week… Tuesday when I work and Sundays for church. Yes, I am a wuss… and yes, I will own it.) I just barely unloaded my camera and started looking at photos from Creative University and our Denver trip… hopefully on Wed I can get the pics transferred to my computer and edit a few to share! I also have pics from my visit with Jeanne, the crochet master! In the meantime… Today is Tuesday which means that I am again slaving away at work while you lucky friends are having a wonderful time reading blogs … AND it means that it’s time for our Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday! This month we are lucky to have some FABULOUS sketches from Jamie Bova aka Sgt Stamper!! Here’s today’s sketch: I had loads of ideas running through my head.. you know that feeling where your brain is on fire but your body is screaming that it wants to go to bed instead? That’s me today. BUT… I perservered and pressed on…. I pretty much stuck with the sketch as is and threw down some loverly paper layers and stamped a fun little bunny. The stamp set is called “Gray Hares” and is not yet released. I believe it is being released later this week or next week. 🙂 🙂 I love this set because I am one of those girls who will never have grey hair. My grandma doesn’t have it and I don’t want it. I love my hairdresser and her magic bottle. 🙂 Anyway… enough dirty little secrets… The lighting is atrocious tonight, so please forgive the terrible lighting… I have a birthday present from Brent that should be here THURSDAY which should help with my lighting issues… Can I get a woot? But I’m a cute chick.. Really.. I have grey hairs… but they stay hidden… like all good grey hairs should. 🙂 I couldn’t resist playing up a fluffy bunny tail with that fluffy schtuff… Liquid Applique. I love it! Sqwooooshie Bunny! 🙂 Supply List: Stamps – Gray Hares from Skipping Stones Design Paper – Not sure cuz it came from my scraps bin, but isn’t it FUN? Miscellaneous – Dew Drops, Puffy Schtuff (CTMH), thread & Bernie, water color pencils & blending pen, Sakura glitter gel pen, heat gun, We R corner chomper, Liquid Glass, way old My Accents – CTMH. Inks – StazOn Black and TImber brown, Copic grey blender pen.
…and now I’m back…. for a minute anyway
Hey friends! I am BACK from Creative University… OH MY GOOODNESSS! I am so exhausted! We had such a delightful, fantastic, exhausting, phenomenal BLAST! I can’t even begin to describe the amount of crazy fun we had. Let’s just say: Tresa Black ROCKS and throws one heck of a party! My roomies ROCKED! I met some FANTASTICALLY FUN people!! AND I will be BACK next year. 🙂 I won’t have a SSD Sketch for you this week. I am exhausted and extremely busy which is a bad comobination. I just got home last night and am totally beat… My birthday is Tuesday and I have to work and then head home to pack and leave for Denver with Brent on Wednesday am after my dr appt (to figure out what’s wrong with my knee) for a work trip which is turning into a birthday getaway with my hottie and a visit (ahh… PLAY DATE) on Thursday with Jeanne Tomshack. I am SO EXCITED 🙂 So until I return I will share with you a couple of photos that Nichole Lewno took at CU because I have not even unpacked my camera! LOL! THANK YOU NICHOLE!! U ROCK 🙂 ~Inky Smiles & Enjoy! My FABULOUS ROOMIES (Dana, Wendy, Me, Donna, Stacey) & The outrageously fun and crazy Donna Smith Me, Donna Smith, Nichole Lewno, Sheila Bennett This is what happens when you’ve had entirely too much sugar and the photographer is not really looking AT the photo in front of them 🙂