happy mother's day!

hope all of you moms out there are having a ♥FAB♥U♥LOUS♥ day! i made this card for my mother, whom i saw on friday and will see again midweek, but probably won't see today, so i thought i'd blog her a happy mother's day, instead! 

(flocked paper and pink brad: my mind's eye; patterned paper: basic grey, kay and co, american crafts, kaisercraft; acrylic hearts: heidi swapp; rub-on letters: ki memories; flower and pink rhinestones: michaels; twine: doodlebug; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

i used the current palette at colour q which is rather ravishing* i think you'll agree. i have to tell you that in real life, my darker shade of pink looks A LOT MORE like "strawberry slush" than it does in the photo. which is a bit of a shame, seeing as all you can see on t'internet is the photo. ah well. it's pretty close, honest! and you are all officially invited over to see the card in person... how's that?! :)

and now back to your regularly scheduled mother's day celebrations! if you're stumped for what to do, may i suggest chocolate and papercrafting??!?! (you're welcome, darlings!) ♥♥♥

*assuming you like pink... which i do... i may have mentioned that once or twice! :)

inch by inchie

sometimes serendipity is REALLY awesome, but i'll get to that in a minute. first lemme just remind you that we're having ourselves a "merry LITTLE christmas" at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight. by which we mean we'd love to see holiday cards that feature inchies and twinchies*! here's what i made this week:

(cardinals from an old christmas card, cut into inchies and mounted on a scrap of core'dinations cardstock; patterned paper: studio calico; florals: michaels; brad: my mind's eye; vintage seam binding from my stash; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

so here's the serendipitous part: i wound up making my card reaaaaalllllly late this week, and thus i was looking around for a sketch on wednesday night, whence i found, newly posted, this week's offering (#107) from christmas challenges with sketches, which... i mean... has there EVER, in the entire history of papercrafting, been a better sketch with which to use inchies?! i think not!!!

then i saw this uber-xmas-friendly pallette, at colour q (#225):

so yeah. basically all i had to do was flip through my stash of saved christmas cards for something that'd make a nice 3x3" grid, mount my inchies on an offcut of "artichoke(ish)" cardstock, and assemble the card. i originally had the squares right on the white cardbase, but there was this bit of woodgrain paper sitting out and suddenly i thought, "we're looking out a window at the cardinals in the snow!" so i decided to add one more layer. i actually already know EXACTLY who will get this card, next christmas, too; which is unusual for me, but i know someone who will just adore this image! come to think of it, it may have been he who sent ME the cardinals card, in the first place, a few years ago! ok, i think i have check my recycling bag and see if the inside of the card is still there, just to find out! :)

meanwhile, i'm sure you're longing to see what stephanie made this week, and check out the divine readers' gallery at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!!! ciao, christmassy darlings! ♥♥♥

*we're not rabid about exact measurements, though; so if you've got the perfect 1.5" label punch you'd like to bust out, or have found some 3/4" round embellies that rock... WAHEY! consider those honorary inchies, and c'mon over to PLAY!!! :) :) :)

it's birthday mania!!!

ok, strictly speaking, this week's challenge at shopping our stash isn't actually called "birthday mania"... but it could be... or at least, the brief is to make a card, layout, tag or any other papercrafting project with a birthday theme. since this week, as you know, niece riley is turning eleven, there was much joy and rapture; not to mention a certain amount of sewing, gluing and embellishing!

(pocket + chipboard: teresa collins, patterned paper: basic grey, echo park, amy tangerine, sei; bunting: basic grey;felt cupcake: recollections; rub-ons: EAD designs; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, gluedots, sewing machine)

i had A TOTAL BLAST making this, and for sheer elderly, forgotten-about-stash usage, i think it is kinda hard to beat, but i'll essplain that part in a minute. you see it all started with a sketch. this one, from deconstructing jen:

as soon as i saw it, i thought, "that center panel should be A POCKET!"; because, yeah, even when talking to myself i use a lot of bold print, all caps and exclamation points. :) then i unearthed a verrrrrry old sheet of teresa collins punch-out cardstock elements which mostly consisted of pockets and little cards to go in them, so i was all set. then i added a few more tags. then i embellished the heck out of everything! then i built the rest of the card around the pocket element. then... belatedly... i discovered that the pocket really really reallllllllly needed to be sewn on if it was going to be as overstuffed as this and still stay attached. then i discovered that some of my cards and tags had been a pretty tight fit and had to basically squeeeeeeeze them all back in. but they fit. luckily. phew.

(tags: teresa collins, heidi grace, cosmo cricket; stickers + elements: echo park, love elsie, sei, hello kitty, ; alphas: making memories, doodlebug; strawberry brad: doodlebug; washi tape: recollections, hambly; ribbons: american crafts, heidi swapp, michaels; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner)

you can see i used the colour q palette again, even though i knew that challenge would be over by the time i posted this. for one thing, my worktable was still covered with pink and red and smashing orangey bits.* for another thing, i just really like this combination!

speaking of combinations i really like, the SOS design team has done stellar work, as usual, and you will heartily enjoy seeing it! so off you go darlings, to check it out! ♥♥♥

*jaffa cake, anyone?! :) :) :) 

i live to wrap!

ok, not quite. but as you know, i do ♥LOVE♥ wrapping gifts, the more elaborately the better; and then i love making a fancy gift bag to hold them; and then i especially love giving them to a very special niece, in this case riley elizabeth, whose *ELEVENTH* birthday was celebrated this weekend!!! (where exactly did that whole entire decade go... because seriously... it seems like we just had her FIRST birthday party fifteen minutes ago!) anyway, here's the bag that held the loot, i am proud to say it was quite a hit with that young lady!

(patterned paper, journaling card + transparency, alphabet stickers, stick pins: basic grey; florals: prima; small label tag: k and co; happy birthday rub-on: EAD designs; bunting rub-on: hambly; cupcake ribbon, plain white giftbag + tissue paper: michaels; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

now, i realize most of the sketches out there in the papercrafting challenge world are created for either layouts or cards, but really, a good sketch can be used for ANYTHING, and is always a great starting point if you're in a hurry. in this case i grabbed the current sketch from the basic grey blog, a whole bunch of my favorite BG supplies, and one or two other odds and ends and came up with my design post haste!

since riley's actual birthday is on valentine's day, i often incorporate plenty of hearts... as well as reds and pinks... into the cards and presents i make for her, and this week the palette at colour q was BRILLIANT for that; it's "brilliant" in every sense of the word, actually!

here's a closer shot of the gift bag, with the birthday girl's name on it. actually, riley's favorite part was the big sparkly pink flower! 

you can probably tell more easily from the big photo than from this one, that the entire design is built on a 7x9" panel of dark red paper, and every single element is attached securely to THAT rather than the bag itself; then the whole panel is attached to the bag using only 4 or 5 little squares of foam tape. which is enough to keep it securely on the bag, but make it easy for the birthday girl to detach the panel and hang it on her bedroom door, or the bulletin board in her room. because it's important to enjoy the sensation of being THE FABULOUS BIRTHDAY GIRL for longer than the span of one little party, don't you agree?

happy birthday, riley elizabeth, and i hope this is just the start of your best year yet!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

strictly speaking, this ornament is a bit too large for the tree :) :) :)

well hello and happy-almost-weekend! this being the first friday since the official end of our ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ 2012 xmas-card-making year*, i thought it would be nice to start things off with... ahem... ok, yeah, it's still a christmas card, lol!

 (patterned paper: mme, glitz, love elsie, echo park, dcwv + a bit of packaging from the girls' paperie; mini bingo card: jenni bowlin; dimensional ornament sticker: crate paper; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

because let's face it, this is the time of year the rest of the world is really tuned in to christmas cards, and whilst i have the bulk of mine completed, a few "extras" never ever go amiss, do they? plus there are some excellent challenges out there in which i can enjoy being a player rather than a hostess, which is awfully fun! for example, kimber mcgray's saturday card sketch challenge at two peas is rather awesome this week:

and when paired with the palette at colour q it's even better!

of course, for me, trying to do anything even remotely "clean and simple"... (which, ok, admittedly, this card would not be considered by ANYONE ELSE, but for me, it IS, so just go with me here, for the sake of argument, k?!) ...takes approximately 97 times longer than my usual super-embellished style. don't get me wrong, most of the time, i love having the "collage gene" but when i see the pared down masterpieces other people make, i just occasionally wish it came with an off switch. but in the end, i got there, and if my card certainly cannot be called "minimalist" by anyone, ever, i think it's got a certain low-key charm. :)

speaking of C+S masterpieces, you should check out patrice's blog, the old back porch, where she is constantly pulling off the kind of super-sleek style that makes me sigh! oh yeah, and why not link up with 52-card-pick-up whilst you are there?! ciao, darlings! ♥

*we'll start up again for the 2013 jingle belles season on january 1st, and we'd ♥LOVE♥ for you to join us! in the meantime, there's a sort of "anything christmassy goes" linkfest goin' on over there, with a bit of a prize up for grabs... just sayin'...

here's something you don't see me do very often...

...i've made an entirely ~FLAT~ card!*

 (patterned paper and alpabet stickers: basic grey (+ a few teeny scraps of authentique); star dies: nestabilities; ink: colorbox; pen: copic multiliner; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner)

yeah, i know, i can hardly believe it, either! but i simultaneously fell in love with this week's basic grey card sketch:

and also with the quite fabulously vibrant palette (#159) at colour q:

and that limitation of stash-usage meant that i basically had just paper and stickers to work with, lol, so i went with those! on the other hand, you don't need that much if it's all reallllllllly great, right? luckily there's a TON of color and pattern going on here; plus old skool BG alphas automatically make everything look cool, imo, so i'm pretty happy with the results. not sure i will know how to act when mailing a card that only needs ONE first class stamp... holy moly... what a CONCEPT!!! :) :) :)

*yes, it IS still really me. yes, i can prove it: i have already watched this elebenty zillion times. and that's just TODAY!!! :)

i believe in pink ♥

this is one of my all-time favorite audrey hepburn quotes, and i've used it a few times; no doubt i'll use it a few more in future, as well; but somehow, in october, it takes on even more meaning! the photo is one i clipped from a film magazine and have been saving; the size of it is how this became an 8x10 piece of "wall art" instead of a card, lol... i just sort of scaled everything else to match! (b/c yeah, most of the time, that's how scientific my "process" is!) on the plus side, it means i can link up at my lovely friend carla's new challenge blog, anything but a card, where the current brief is shiny, sparkly, blingy; coincidentally, this is also my personal mantra! :)

i formatted the text of the quote in broderbund's printshop and printed it on an inkjet transparency. in retrospect, i really *WISH* i'd used the entire transparency sheet so that the blank edges would've covered the entire top panel. i really should have gone back and re-printed when i realized my mistake, but it was 11pm and i was just ready to wrap it up. ah well. live and learn, eh audrey?!

(patterned paper: echo park, recollections, silver metallic cardstock: the paper company; gem flourishes: want2scrap; ink jet transparency for ink jet printer: 3m; fonts: bohemian typewriter, susie's hand; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick)

i used this week's lovely and dramatic pink-pink-black-white-grey palette from colour q (#157);

it's difficult to tell from my photograph but on my bottom layer of patterned paper the swirls are light pink and not actually white; whereas the ones on the top layer ARE white. i quite like the way they (and my stragetically clipped pink gem flourishes) all flow together.

speaking of things that are fun and pink and can be as blingy (or non-blingy!) as you like, i heartily invite you to pop in at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and celebrate pink christmas with us! stephanie and i are raising money for the komen fund this fortnight; but also, as we move inexorably closer to the holidays, each card you make now is one less to be stressing over in december, right?! (just sayin!) plus the group dynamic really *IS* inspiring... trust me... more IS merrier, darlings! ♥