Retro Jules

Good afternoon everyone! Well it's still morning for me, but I just know that I will get interrupted and it will be well after 12 when this gets posted! Today I have a cute retro-ish, very red card to share with you. I'm actually not sure if I can call this retro but the paper was EP - Happy Days I just love the rose print and those poke-a-dots.

The card layout is based off of the current 'A Die for a Sketch' Challenge (#3). This is only the third sketch challenge that they have posted but I like how they keep it simple. The sketch that you get just shows the paper layout and you are free to use and place embellishment's as you like.

Close up on the image that I used. There are a lot of challenges right now that want you to make your own background. I used distressed ink for a sunset cloud background and then for a field of flowers. I'm not so sure if I love it but it's kinda cute. I really like how I colored her dress but I'm thinking that I should have colored the poke-a-dot part on her dress blue instead of red.

I tried to follow the sketch through on the inside with a few small changes and a little less embellishment. When I went to cut out the red circle I couldn't find my extra red paper, so I ended up cutting it out of the middle of the background red. Once I had everything together and started to put stuff away I then ended up finding the extra red paper that I had had out. Isn't that just how it works?

Final picture and big question. How do you attach your flowers to your cards? I had asked one person and she said that she just used glue dots. When I started using flowers on cards I would cut off the stems and then place them using glue dots, though I did try to use glue a few times and figured out fast that it wasn't going to work. Now I tend to twist the stems of my flowers together before using glue dots to place them on my cards. So my question is, short of stapling, is there any other way besides glue dots to adhere the flowers to a card?

~ A small tip from this card, when using ribbons that have a loose weave they tend to fray very quickly. There is a product called Fray Check that you can use on the ends of the ribbon, you only need to use a small amount and it drys fairly fast and clear. I really like it because I don't have to worry about my bows falling apart thread by thread.

So the Image was colored with Copic's and distressed inks, the roses are from wild orchid crafts, Spellbinders Tear Drop Circles and the Standard Circles were used as for my die cuts, the butterfly is from a Close to my Heart package from about a year ago, the bow is just a piece of scrap ribbon that I had and a corsage pin is stuck through the middle, and the image is Saturated Canary - Jules.

Thank you for stopping by!
XoX ~Sarah

Challenges entered:
A Die for a Sketch - Challenge #3
Saturated Canary - Challenge #23 The Great Outdoors
StampARTic - Dies
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 167 Going Around in Circles
Just Some Lines - Layer it Up Challenge
Totally Papercrafts - Challenge #120 Frame It
Crafty Ribbons Challenge - Challenge #25 Seeing Spots and Dots
Simon Says Stamp - Lets Play BINGO  (Ribbon-Free-Blooms and/or Die cut-Free-Glitter)

A Birthday Card For My Brother

Hello everyone,

How was your Saturday? Being on the west coast its only just getting to 6PM here, but for many of you it's already come and gone. I'll share all about my Saturday tomorrow, but for today I have a Birthday card that I made up for my brother. And this time not only is it done early, but he will be getting it early as well- *gasp*!

So nothing to fancy, he's a guy who just doesn't see the need for that stuff. Though he does love his cats. Cats and Trains are what hes into ever since he was young. And while I would get a whole big lecture about why the train that I choose was wrong or how I should have colored it, I figured that a cat image was a safe bet!

A close up on the cat. I was coloring late at night so I ended up trying to add a weird elementary school sun. I kinda tried to fix it, I'm sure that he wont even notice. I was also using water color pencils and trying to get some shading in on the cat, I think I kinda succeeded but that can be a bit hard to do as well, you almost have to work in layers.

Last picture of it standing up. You can see that I put in a pocket for a gift card back there. I used a glassine envelop and then put paper over it to write a message on. Over all I think it worked out, though I kept wanting to add flowers or bling to it! All of the things that I used on this card were just kind of leftovers that came together from my stash, though the stamp is 'La Blanche'(? those were the only words that I could find on the stamp).
Another post tomorrow about the Art walk that was here in Gresham today, and maybe another card!

XoX ~Sarah

Challenges Entered:

Pals Paper Arts 139 - A Sketch Challenge
Dude Time Doodles Challenge - Anything Goes (For a Dude)
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Lets Hear it for the Boys
Wishcraft - Waste Not Wednesdays wk27

Baby Girl Pocket Card

Hello Everyone!

Not a whole lot to say today just sharing a card. I made this on the request of a friend, who's nephew's girlfriend just had a baby. It's kinda different for me because I didn't use a digi, or a stamp, though not for lack of trying. I have to admit that I was defeated by the image of a baby elephant! The image kept smearing, if it had worked then this would have been done on Friday. But as I was gone for the weekend, I finally admitted defeat this morning and used a butterfly punch from Martha Stewart.

Though I did not use a digi, I did print this out since I dint have a stamp.

So not much going on here. I used a flower border punch and put little gems in the middle of each flower. A scalloped circle by Spellbinders. A little rhinestone flourish. And the butterfly like I said above is Martha Stewart, I punched out 3 and layered them to give the wings some dimension. The paper is Olivia by Basic Grey. I was so happy to use this, I had bought a bunch of this a while back not knowing what I would use it for and now I finally have a card to use it on. I might end up making more of these just to have on hand or sell.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week, I'll try to get two more cards done and posted so check back if your following!

XoX ~Sarah

Challenges entered:

Stamping Scrapping Challenge Central - Bling
Make it Monday - Anything Goes

PS- it was ridiculously hard to find challenges to enter, everyone is doing Christmas in July and what not, lol!

PPS- insperation for this card came from Angie's post Sassy Wedding Garter on Yuki's Girls. Thank you so much for the insperation Angie, I was a bit lost on what to do and then I saw your card and knew that it was just what I needed!

Brave(...ish)

Wow... Its been a while! I had no intention of leaving off up-dating for so long, but life gets busy and then you find that no matter how much you clean once you turn you back for 10 sec your clean crafting space is gone! It's been a battle but I finally have everything back in order and some cards to share.

This first card I'm posting I'm calling Brave(...ish). I know that she's a viking and not a Celt, she's holding a sword and not a bow and arrow, and I gave her brown hair instead of red. All that aside she still reminds me a bit of that girl in the Brave previews! ~ On a side note who is going to see that this weekend? I love just about everything Scottish so as soon as they started showing previews for Brave I just knew I was going to have to see it. ~ Back on track... While this girl is cute ribbons and lace, she can also tonce all those silly boys and look great doing it. Decked out in her leather armor and sword she is off looking for a Fae circle and is ready to tackle anything that comes her way. Hope she finds that circle but if not it looks like she has plenty of butterfly's to keep her company, or are those fairy's in disguise?

For this card I used a Bo Bunny's- Country Garden paper. Various boarder punches by Fiskars and Martha Stewart. Vicky the Viking; a Saturated Canary digi by Krista Smith. Some lace, rhinestones and pearls from my stash. As well as roses and rose buds from Wild Orchid Crafts. To color my image I used a variety of colored pencils and water color pencils.

This card is also my entry for the SCDT Call.

I will have another card posted by Sunday so keep your eyes open if your following! Enjoy your Friday, where ever you are I hope that your having good weather!

~Sarah

much happiness

     Wow, what a week! Even though spring has "started" we still had snow this last week in the Portland (Oregon) area. I haven't watched the news but I'm sure that this is the latest in the year that we have had snow, for the last twenty years at least. Over this last weekend I was able to go to the 'Heritage Rubber Stamp Show' at the Expo Center, it was pretty awesome.

    About 2 weeks ago we had the 'CKC Scrapbooking' Show in the Convention Center, but for as great as I thought it was last year, this year not so much. Maybe its more of the same product every year, but there were a some venders that did not attend this year and some vendors who just didn't bring the product that I had hoped to buy.

    I was really overwhelmed at the 'Heritage' show though, there were a lot of vendors that I had not heard about (ok so I have only been scrapbooking for 2 years now, so thats not hard but... still!). I was able to buy a handfull or so or rubber stamps, which made me happy since the ones I bought are not availible in stores near me.

    My mother fell in love with the last both we went to which had Eggimal's. I'll make some soon and show you what they are all about if you don't know already! So after a long day spent walking on concreat, spending too much money and a few hours longer than we thought, I came home and finished this card that I had been working on, off and on for the last few days. So Here it is!

     This card is a Sketch challenge for 'Graphic Cat' and product/image challenge for 'Saturated Canary'. I alredy had the image colored from a while ago when I bought my first batch (yes, batch) of Saturated Canary Digi, the image is 'Tressa the Princess'. Lucky for me It matched perfectly with the 'Konichiwa' paper by Basic Grey that I had just bought! I used the 'Kanji Phrases' stamp set from Close to my Heart for the sentiment and Spellbinders 'Fanciful Flight' (butterfly), 'Scalloped Circles' and 'Fleur De Lis Motifs' for my shapes. I have caught myself using the 'Clear Star' and 'Souffle' Sakura pens a lot, you can see this on her dress and a little in her eyes.

XoX ~Sarah

Challenges Entered:
Saturated Canary - Challenge #13 Twine
Graphic Cat - Sketch #4
Make It Monday - #82
Always Crafting - Creative Mondays CH#4