Midweek Throwndown

I don't usually do the Midweek Throwdown Challenge but I saw the challenge was to use a monkey. I just bought a package of cute sock monkeys from Michael's. Here's my card.

It has some brown twine, a few flowers, and the little sock monkey! The silver heart paper is from Target's Valentine papers in their dollar spot from a year or so ago.

Sketch #127

I have been to FL for a quick road trip, just in time for Tropical Storm Debby to start rolling on FL. Fortunately, we left before the relatives got 10" of rain and no electricity for a while.  And that I am back Ohio has decided to get really hot and my craft room is feeling quite warm.

I have gotten a few cards done despite the warmth of my craft room. Here's the weekly sketch from OWH.

Here's my version, well, I actually have 2!

I was organizing some supplies and found this image and the embossed star piece. A bit of ribbon and some punched stars! Done.

I picked up this sheet of pixies at Joann's in FL and used one for this card, using the sketch #127. The gold rub-ons were hanging on my round-about.

Sketches 20 and 101

I completed two more OWH sketches yesterday.  I  really like the card using #20, where I used a Lawn Fawn stamp and sentiment. The bike is pretty cute. I used markers to color the bike and added baker's twine for the streamers on the bike handles and little flowers and bling in the basket. I added a row of bling at the bottom of the image.

The second sketch I used was #101. My pennants were a bit small to me but this is the first time I have used pennants and they need a bit more swoop in the string. I printed these off the computer but I did purchase Marvy Uchida's pennant punch at Archiver's the other day. I think it is about 1 1/2" long and I used it to punch a lot of pennants out of scrap pieces. I used the sentiment  from one of the OWH stamp sets from Hero Arts. I love it. I added  a gold sticker too since it was still on my table from the gold and white Best Wishes cards I did.

Note to self:

I did try a different way to photograph my cards. I usually take my photos in the kitchen and lay the cards down. Today, I stood them  under a better light and the cards are not as yellow as some of my other photos.  I also purchased a light box and a pin frog from Joann's and I'll try those new tools too. Next, I need to find a free program to add a watermark to my pictures. I know I read a blog entry about photographing cards just recently but I can't find it again. Arrrggghhh! Don't you hate that when it happens to you - you know you read or saw a great article but can't find it again.

Later,


SandyBear76

New Riley stamp from the blog hop

I won this new release stamp from Riley & Co.

during the new release blog hop! 

Thanks to Joy and Tanya!!!!

And it came in the mail yesterday. 

And, of course, I had to stamp the new image! 

I plan to color most of the images in red, white, and blue colors

but a few images will be black and gold for the college colors.

I do have a small stamp that says "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness" 

that I'll put on the image too.

I am trying to decide how to get the song's lyrics on the card too

 but the lyrics might be too big. 

Maybe, I'll use the musical note embossing folder with my Cuttlebug.

Go to http://www.rileyandcompanyonline.com/___new____may_2012_release_

to see the newest Riley stamps.

Hopefully you'll check back here to my card 

in about a week or so when 

I get to use the new Parade image I have stamped already.

Here's the lyrics for the song "I Love a Parade". 

It is a snappy, happy marching song.

 It was used in an old movie and some old cartoons and maybe a kid's show or two.

 I Love A Parade

I love a parade, the tramping of feet,

I love every beat I hear of a drum.

I love a parade, when I hear a band

I just want to stand and cheer as they come.

That rat-a tat-tat, the blare of a horn.

That rat-a tat-tat, a bright uniform;

The sight of a drill will give me a thrill,

I thrill at the skill of everything military.

I love a parade, a handful of vets,

A line of cadets or any brigade,

For I love a parade. 

Lastly, I wanted to share one of my photos I took at the Retreat recently. 

It is called the purple passion flower and grows as a vine. 

I just love the lacy look of it.

It might be a card someday too.

50th Anniversary card

I am attending a relative's 50th Anniversary this weekend 

and they have requested no gifts.

 But I had to make a 5x7" card for them.

 I found the two gold and white papers on Joann's clearance rack

 and used a piece of gold glitter paper. 

The Jolee's sticker was on sale at Joann's too. 

I used a Martha Stewart punch to do the gold glitter paper's edges.

I used strips of both gold and white papers on the inside of the card

 and a gold sticker for the sentiment.

My hubby thought I had done a good job, blinging the card.

I like how the gold card turned out too though it is a bit heavy, so 

good thing I'm delivering it. : )

________________________

Of course, I had scraps of the 3 papers all over the table so naturally, 

I had to make some cards with those scraps to clean up the table.

 I got 8 cards made but here is only 5 of them. 

I added some gold ribbon to a few of the cards. 

The shiny gold Best Wishes and the lacy flowers were purchased at 

Crafts 2000, now Pat Catan's, a while back. 

More Cards from the Retreat

I got a few cards done at the Retreat but the quilters seemed to be sewing faster than I made cards. 

Here's a few of the quilters' quilt tops they got finished at the Retreat.

I had a long table to myself and still could only work in a small space on it. 

I did have my OWH sketches on my table and the stack of cards I got made. 

I could have used more light but I had forgotten my light. 

I did have to set up my Cricut  and my Cuttlebug on another table.

 I did try to use a bunch of supplies that I don't usually play with such as the E K Succes button border punch and the Martha Stewart button punch. I borrowed a needle with a big eye from one of the quilters
so I could tie baker's twine (Queen & Co. ) on the buttons' holes.

I purchased a supply of 4-5 packages of die cuts stapled together as one package at TJMaxx one day. 

The golfer above and the shirt below were in the packages. I got 4 shirts, 3 golfer in carts, and 3 other die cuts that were too big to fit on a card but they will be great on an upcoming scrapbook page.

 I popped up the green grass so the golf cart appears to be driving over the fairway. I used my Fiskars cloud punch and a stamp from Unity Stamp. I used a border punch on the shirt card and the  sentiment from my new stamp set from Paper Smooches.

Occasionally TJMaxx has some scrapbook supplies but infrequently. 

They have had paper packs, punches, and stickers and usually I have found the supplies 

near the front in the lane heading to the cash registers or in the stationary dept.

I

The two cards below are made with a package of die cuts and stickers from Bo Bunny I purchased on sale at Pat Catan's (formerly Crafts 2000). On the first card, I used trendy tape by Queen & Co. It was very easy to use and added a lot to the card. I have several designs of the trendy tape. I love the sentiment but it didn't fit on the second card so I only used the "thanks" on it with the birdhouse. Of course, I had to add some pearls on the cards. 

I had several Bingo cards from K & Co. that I didn't know what to do with so I made a card with them. I had a few toys to go with the bingo card and had the sentiment from Hero Arts' set of Huge Hugs. More baker's twine (pink, black, and white) from Queen & Co. is tied around the bottom of the bingo card. 

I think I made about 8 of these cards. 

The last card is the card I sent to my dad for Father's Day. 

I cut the die cut on my Cricut and used a piece of paper from DCWV Natural stack. 

My dad wanted nothing, zero stuff for the Father's Day as he says he has enough shirts, 

he can't eat candy or nuts anymore, and he didn't need any more stuff. 

So, I cut a bunch of zeroes out on the Cricut and placed them inside the card.

 Happy Father's Day, Dad.

Sketch #126

Sketch #126

My card using Sketch #126

I only got one design done today but I was able to make a few of those cards done.

The bear, the two sentiments, and the bee border are all in a Fiskars stamp set 

I purchased a while back from Joann's and finally used it.

The strips are from a big bag I purchased for a dollar at a LSS that was going out of the business. The strips were the price label on a 12x12 paper that the LSS owner had used from a class she was teaching. The old yellow and the cream cardstock papers were in the paper stash. Little pearls on the strips finished the card. I only colored the honey and the paws on the bear as the brown markers I have were too dark.

Sketches 7, 10, 123 and a Bonus one

Sketch #10

I found the sticker tags at Joann's and my girlfriend gave me a bunch of Joann's pound of scrapbook paper. Some faux stitching and a sentiment (new at Archiver's) from a new stamp set and this sketch is done.

Sketch #123

The card is made with DCVW Natural stack so the photo does not do justice to the shiny copper paper or the shiny stripes in the "ribbon". The sentiment was new at Archiver's the other day and I had stamped a few of them to see what I could do with the sentiment. The white chalky ink is a little light and the black block is a bit bigger than the sketch's meusurements. I used a white pen to faux stitch around the black and the pale orange blocks and also around the stars.

Sketch # Bonus

I know I found this sketch in the OWH sketches and it took me a while to realize it was a bonus sketch so it doen't have a number.. And I did another card using this same idea and I can't find that photo.
 Cue Twilight Zone music!

Sketch # 7

I got 2 of Sketch #7 done. I used papers from DCVW's Natural stack on the first one and a variety of other papers on the second one, which included some fancy gold and white papers on clearance at Joann's. I actually did cut the strips for these cards but at home I know I have a bunch of strips to use to make of this sketch. The downward sentiment looked too lonely to me so I had to add some flowers too. A few that I didn't photography had twine added to them too. I used the letters from Note to Self packet. I normally don't use the letters in packs like that but now I have a use for them.