Just Us Girls Challenge #147

 

As you may know, I love photo inspiration! The challenge over Just Us Girls has my interest peaked again! My card today has a bit more colors (again, alcohol ink) and layers (diecut/stamp).
 
I had some serious fun playing with the new Lattice Background 
from Hero Arts. Part of the background was colored in green with Marvey Markers and the oval edges were distressed with Distress Ink. 

 A few days ago, I was at the book store and saw this.... (the book store didn't stop me from taking photos), so here it is!

Let's do both and that will make two good deeds a day! 

You are absolutely fabulous!

Do you find background stamp hard to use? Or perhaps it can be a bit overwhelming? I think it's a great idea to tackle it bit by bit if you do not feel like using it entirely.  Here is a card that I used only tiny part of the stamp!

See the possibilities? You will never run out of sentiment!
I don't think I had posted any card that I made with canvas yet. The white canvas ATC  by Rangers is a lot of fun to stamp on. I bought mine with the 50% off coupon from Michael's! I am linking this up to Simon Says Stamps (Anything Goes) Challenge.

I colored the background with Distress Crackle Paint (Antique Linen) and then stamped Pom Pom Flower, colored with a white Prisma pencil.  This stamp True Friends is absolutely fabulous, don't you think?

And YOU, my fellow card-making friends/bloggers/followers/readers are absolutely fabulous for leaving me such kind words time after time. I do not take the comments for granted! Thank you!

PDCC Challenge and City Crafter's Challenge!

Today I am sharing a card that combined two challenges in one. With this color scheme from Play Date Cafe Challenge (details here) 

 

and the "Bon Voyage" theme from The City Crafter Challenge Blog # 119 (details here)

 I made this Paris-themed card with alcohol inks and Washi Tape.

VERY colorful, huh? Well, alcohol inks will do that to your card! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tuesday Trigger

 (A sweet Celebration)

 I love food photos....especially the gorgeous ones! Check out the latest Tuesday Trigger photo (see above) ! The sweet photo makes me want to bring out the cake and celebrate. 

I have a few August events that are worth celebrating, namely, David's 18th birthday and our wedding anniversary! AND I will be off to an amazing trip of lifetime....blog break coming up soon!

I I created the banners with part of the kite stamp and kept the color scheme neutral and I like it!
And by the way do you know....what happiness is?
For my son David, happiness is grating the lemons and smell them! 

 For my daughter Stephanie, it is carrying the new fabulous Cambridge Satchel! It’s NEON. It’s ORANGE! 

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

CAS-ual Fridays #63

Hello Friday!! It's CAS-ual Fridays time! This week we are having a color challenge! Don't  you just love the Lime, Aqua and Navy color combo!? They look so refreshing and summery, especially at this time of the year.

Our sponsor : Stop and Scrap 

I decided to make a summery card. The stamps are from Clear and Simple. I embossed the flip flop images on the colored card stock and then applied SRM Stickers for the sentiment.  The colorful droplets are from Perfect Pearl Dimensional Glue. Very fun and easy to use!

Please link up your CAS project to CAS-ual Fridays by noon, Thursday Aug. 2 Eastern Time. I can't wait to see how you use this color combo! 

 Your comments about my use of Cricut (see post here ) truly make me and my family smile! David was all the more happy to help me after reading your positive feedback :)

A Confession.....

I have a confession to make...

I am a closeted Cricut Expression owner. Yup, I have one of those fancy diecutting machines over 1 year and half ! I read the manual and I left the machine in the box in for 18 months (edited: not 2 1/2 years (what's wrong with me!!?). Somehow I was too intimidated by the sheer size of the machine, the complicated mat and buttons, the numerous features that you can cut/do! Let me tell ya, life is tough! This Cricut Expression was a generous Christmas gift from my dear friend O. (let's just call her O. who is my former neighbor). I got O. started on card-making many moons ago and 4 years ago, I bought O. a Cuttlebug! Needless to say, O. has been in love with paper-crafting ever since! O. has since acquired many diecuts that are out there on the market! O. has even bought me two more new Cricut cartridges after getting me the Cricut!! I can't bear to tell O. that I haven't cracked it open! My bad!

 Early this summer, I overhear the kids and Dr. John's conversation...it went something like this:

Dr. John: " Hey, David, you know what you can do this summer?"

David: "What?..."

Dr. John:" Mommy has this Cricut machine for the longest time now...and it just sits in her craft room!"

Stephanie:" I know!! What is she waiting for?"

Dr. John:" I think the fancy buttons intimidate her. She's just happy with her Cuttlebug!"

David: " But, Cuttlebug is so primitive!!"

Dr. John: "Exactly! Why don't you help Mommy figure out how to use Cricut!?"

So that's all how it started. Here's David helping me with the Cricut Expression. I must say, David QUITE enjoyed the Cricut --so he told me while playing with it! (and so do I--after seeing the possibilities!!)

 Aren't I a lucky mom or what? With the machine, I was able to cut the hexagon shape (gasp!! more hexagons!!). And...here is my card after playing with the Cricut machine.

I decided to use the white hexagons for the background, then I added the stamped images. I am linking this card to Moxie Fab World's Hooked on Hexagons challenge.

 I am happy and relieved that David can always be my tech support (Go, David!!)! It is safe to say that I am not so intimidated by the big machine any more! Life is good!

Embellish Challenge (Dry Embossing)

The latest Embellish Challenge's theme is to use dry-embossing element in the projects (details here). I must admit that I do not use the embossing folders as often as I should. It used to be "exciting" to run the embossing folders through the little Cuttlebug! The magic seemed to have been lost as there are more and more products that grab my attention. Do you ever feel that way? I vowed not to ignore my embossing folders any more!

I chose one of the flower pattern (from ProvoCraft) and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I used a hard sponge (were made/given to me by my friend Jane) to press the distress inks over the embossed image. Then I cut out the flower pattern as a border/focal point....a card was born! I also colored the flowers lightly with copics. The sentiment was embossed in green. And noticed the pink zig zag line? I used Exacto knife to scrape some pink off the lines. That way the white will show through. Do you have embossing folders sitting idle in your craft room? Time to get it out, give it some love that it so deserves :)

RIC #16 and Winner of "How I Stretch My Stamps"

I find it quite challenging (which is  a GOOD thing!!) to make a card from this inspiration photo. This is what I came up with. Basically I used the dress for the colors and sketch. The added blue gem was inspired by the model's sun glasses. I love how the vibrant pink flower draws our eyes to the card and keep all elements in balance! Here are all the details about this fun challenge!

Lastly, the random winner of "How I Stretch My Stamp" is.... (drum roll please)   
Donna Mikasa!
Congrats, Donna, please e-mail me for the prize! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Square Hexagon Card!

Sharing another hexagon card. I hope you are not tired of hexagon cards! This background stamp is from Stampotique. Making background with this stamp is a lot of fun! The sentiment is also from Stampotique.
I love this saying!

I am linking this card to Moxie Fab World's Hooked on Hexagon Challenge! 

Over the weekend, my family and I went to Our National capitol Ottawa for a brief visit with my in-laws. We went to our usual lunch at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. As we were chatting over lunch amongst ourselves, the restaurant owner came to our table and alerted us that there is a VIP guest in the house....I looked at the corner table and noticed there were a few security guard type of people sitting across a few tables in the restaurant. Well, guess who came to lunch?
Our Prime Minister Stephen Harper!

 My in-laws with the Prime Minister. They look cute in their matching yellow jackets! 

 (left to right): brother-in-law Calvin, Prime Minister, Virginia and my son David. I wish I had put some makeup on! Who knew that I would meet the Prime Minister?

How I Stretch My Stamps (Series 5--last)!!

We are down to the last post of my series of "How I Stretch My Stamps".  I don't know about you, bu it has been so fun for me! I hope you pick up a few tips along the way as to how to use your stamp as creatively as you can !

Today I like to talk about the unsung heroes in our stamps. They are your tiny and unremarkable  filler stamps that you rarely have the chance in using them. These type of stamps usually come with the desired images that you want in a set and they happen to be included in the package! I am sure you have quite a few of  them and I bet some of them never got inked!?

Never underestimate a little heart stamp and what it can do.

Circle stamps are pretty unremarkable, right?

Think again.

The little birdies always look even cuter as a group, don't you think?

The little stamps can make wonderful borders, too!

The little stamps can make an awesome grid design!

I think you are getting the idea now?

They can also make an interesting pattern! 

 And here is my latest card for the Scramble challenge (details here). I made it under 20 minutes! 

I hope this prompts you to look at your little stamps in a creative way!  Thank you for keeping up with this series. A random winner will receive $25 gift certificate and will be announced next week.

 Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback! 

CAS-ual Fridays #62

TGIF!! Hello, friends! It's CAS-ual Fridays time!

The challenge is to use black card base for your clean and simple design! I must admit that it seems a bit daunting to use black as a card base. We all feel so much more comfortable to reach that white/neutral color card stock!! I am now actually pleased to share my card with black card base! I chose this stamp To From Flower . The dotted details are amazing, so I embossed the flower in pink and orange. With the sentiment from SRM Stickers and May Arts ribbons, this card was rather easy to make!

What do you think? I highly recommend you to check out the DT's inspiring card to get inspired! Please link up your CAS project by noon, Thursday,  July 26 to CAS-ual Fridays. I am also entering this card for Moxie Fab World's Thank You card Challenge (details here).

I can't wait to see your take with a little black magic!