Wags 'n Whiskers Sketch challenge

I've been dying to ink up Wags 'n Whiskers stamps and took a look at their Sketch challenge (ending today!) and decided to play. I've OD'ed a bit on pastels with Spring and Easter and all so I wanted to do something bold and primary. The papers are 2 sides of the same Scenic Route paper, and the reverse side of a Cosmo Cricket Early Bird which looked pretty boyish. The adorable stamp is Hey Grandma from the Wee Ones release which is one of the cutest ever(I guess I always say that, but the stamps are ADORABLE)! It's available from Stamp and Create and at the moment it's even ON SALE! The border punch is ANOTHER EKSuccess that I hadn't used yet and digging through my embellie stash I came across this hand paper clip which seemed perfect with the stamp. I added an Alpha Bead sentiment and popped the image. I really enjoyed working with Tina's fabulous sketch. If you own any Wags'nWhiskers Stamps you have until tonight to play along. Loads of fun and you may just win one of their fabulous stamps!

I take my photos on top of my dryer in the laundry room with a table cloth over the appliances. I had to share the space with Jezebel this morning but I guess she approved.

Very Merry Tags for Spring -.cut file available

The DT at Custom Crops was given a challenge this week to use Very Merry Tags for a Spring/Easter project. I really love the bird tag and thought it would be perfect for a Springy card. The color scheme is inspired by the pretty colors in ths Basic Grey paper from the Kioshi line. (I'm really partial to plaids and checks). I used Calligraphy Collection for the word "Spring" and welded the letters in DS. The shadow for the tag is done with Plantin Schoolbook wince there are no shadows on the cart. It's really quite simple but I do love the way it turned out. I think I may make 3 more for the other Seasons and perhaps frame them as wall art. There are many more pix and a free .cut file available HERE. Sorry for the short post but we're planning a road trip to go look for garden urns and I've got to get moving. Looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 12

What, no Cuttlebug Spot? Well, we had the week off for Easter vacation so I managed to do my Bah! Humbug! card early and the challenge this week was (conveniently) embossing! I had purchased this Crafts-Too Christmas Tree folder from Custom Crops after Christmas (actually after finding the Bah! Humbug! site so I knew I'd be using it) and decided to break it out for the first time. I embossed it in 2 shades of green (the lighter shade was embossed first with Swiss dots, and although the second embossing sort of smooshes them a bit, you can still see them slightly. Then I cut the layers out. Because the tree is a bit whimsical (rather than elegant) I had a bit of trouble finding paper, but remembered how well some of the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper worked for certain Christmas themes so I went with that. I used several of the Cuttlebug borders (Frills, Just My Type, and Organic Flourish) within the stripes of the pattern because you really never know how printed paper will emboss. All in all I was pretty pleased, except for the top red striped embossing where the paper cracked a bit. To disguise this, I pulled out my Prisma pencils (instead of my Copics which I was afraid would bleed too much) and covered most of the offending cracks. Notice I skipped the embossing on that last red striped area. LOL

The layers were popped at the bottom edges for dimension and I used red and gold pearls (the gold ones were colored with my Copics) to decorate.

The sentiment was cut from the Season's Greetings Cuttlebug Folder. I had actually planned on using the Merry Christmas from the same folder and even had it all cut out, but I managed to misplace it with all of the crap on my desk and I really need to get out and get some EXERCISE so I used Merry & Bright instead. Oh, and BTW, that IS a peelie border, and it's actually dark green rather than black like it looks in the photo. LOVE those peelies!

BBTB2 New Arrival Challenge

Happy Monday! Hope everyone's Easter was fantastic! In Napa the downpour was torrential and the drive home kinda scary but the food, as always, was fabulous although we both about exploded (4 courses almost did us in, are we getting old?) Anyway, I had managed to finish this week's BBTB2 challenge in advance (for once) and had a great time with it. Dear Carla chose the baby in the sling from the New Arrival cartridge and I immediately thought of "Rock a Bye Baby".

I had just gotten the Straight from the Nest cartridge and was dying to use it (sooo many cute trees) so I designed a shaped front card using George for the rounded square on the back and rounded rectangle to anchor the tree trunk. The "baby blocks" at the bottom are also from New Arrival. This tree had fabulous layers and allowed me to use eyelets and a brad so that the baby could actually rock.

The fabulous papers are (again) from Nana's Nursery and Heidi Grace. See the baby rocking?

I spelled out "Rock a Bye" using Alpha Beads. They really come in handy. Then it was just blue pearl eyes and the 3 on the sling and I was done. Be sure to stop by BBTB2 to see the fabulous creations by the rest of my DT sisters and we'd love it if you'd play along. Remember also, if you'd like to be a part of the team, you have until the end of the week to upload your best work HERE to be considered. Good luck to you all!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Jezebel was beside herself this morning because she didn't have an Easter card for Daddy. Mommy and Hello Kitty Greetings to the rescue using the card feature at 7 1/2 which I hardly EVER use. I got the whole thing done and showed it to her and she said "No, Mommy, the Easter Bunny is FUZZY and I want to be SPARKLY!" Not wanting to disappoint (although I wished she'd mentioned it earlier) I cut more layers, ran them throught the Xyron and added the flocking and glitter. "Much better", she said.

Sort of had to wing it on the inside because I need to go beautify for Easter brunch, but she was happy and that's all that matters. Sure wish the weather were nicer since we're off to Auberge du Soleil in Napa and it's threatening rain. BooHoo! Here's wishing you all a very Happy Easter no matter what the weather in your neck of the woods. (Another BooHoo, MSU lost yesterday to Butler. Just 3 of their missed free throws would have done it but it was not to be. I'll be drowning my sorrows in chocolate today.)

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

Honestly, I have no idea why I bought the Superman cart except for the fact it was on a SUPER sale from Custom Crops at the time and the Clark Kent head (with the horn rimmed glasses sort of reminded me of pictures of DH when he was in high school. LOL) Then I saw what I thought was a hilarious downloadable printable sentiment from the Cutting Cafe called "Kind of a BIG DEAL". The look on this guy's face here really made me think he thought he really was a BIG deal (we all know the type, don't we?) so I couldn't resist making this card. Besides, the current challenge at Cards for Men was HUMOR so I thought this filled the bill. The sentiment is colored with my Copics and I used the Stars folder from last summer's Cuttlebug release, the sort of Bricks folder from an exclusive Oh My Craft's release, and the Stripes from a QuicKutz folder.

Inside I cut the Superman logo shape and made a computer generated sentiment. Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe so see the LOADS of new designs from Regina! Now I'm off to get some housework done before MY TEAM (MICHIGAN STATE) plays Butler in the Final Four. I can hardly contain myself!

GO STATE!

Oh Alice Chapter 6 and Blog Hop Winner!

TGIF! I finally finished this week's Oh Alice! challenge card and although it didn't turn out as I envisioned,I did manage to use the fine print as the challenge asks. I ended up finding the text from "Alice" on the internet and copied page 1 in a cool font on my computer. I printed it first on some of the Nusery Rhyme Paper from Prima which just so happens to have Alice images all over it. Then I printed it again on plain white.

The quote that caught my eye first was "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" so I took out my Nesties Labels 7 and cut out the book and page and lined it up over the background so you could still read the fine print (after inking with TH Distress Inks). The placement of the quote dictated the layout (which is kind of weird but what can you do?) The little metal flower at the top is Tim Holtz Metal Foliage.

The page goes on about the White Rabbit and his watch so I found this classic image from The Graphics Fairy and colored it with my Copics. The watch face is also TH and I used his game spinners for hands. The left hand side looked a little bare so I twisted the bookmark to the side and attached it under the mat. If you look closely you can see Alice following the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole on the printed paper.

Thanks for hanging in there. Now for the big announcement. Drumroll please!..... the winner of $30 gift certificate to Custom Crops Chosen by a Random number generator (that I can't manage to copy and paste for the life of me ) is #105, (please note that comment #75 was deleted by the author so that made a total of 109 posts instead of 110.)

MY TIME SCRAPPER!

My Time Scrapper said...
"What a cute Idea and I just love the colors that you used in this project! Thanks for sharing!"

CONGRATULATIONS Nicki! Please email me at dlmundinger (at)yahoo(dot) com to arrange for your prize.

Bah Humbug Challenge # 11 - Peel-Offs

This week at Bah!Humbug! the challenge is peelies, which I personally love! Maybe it's because they're not so readily available in the US so I've had to rely primarily on my friends across the pond. But at the recent Expo there was a booth FILLED with peelies and I managed to spend $50 there. I'm particularly fond on them for embossed cards where just a tiny sentiment, corner, or border adds that little special something. On these two cards I used that fun double embossing technique that I've been enjoying so much. For details click HERE for Nilda's video on The Cuttlebug Spot. These were a bit more challenging because I used my Spellbinders Create a Flake instead of a regular Nestie or Label but I LOVE how it came out. The embossing folder is the limited edition Snowflakes folder I got at Custom Crops. The cards are matted in the palest blue foil (which of course didn't photograph anything like the true color. It's even paler than the icy blue background I used for the photo) and aren't those delicate snowflake peelies GORGEOUS! (wish I'd bought a ton more of those!) The "Season's Greetings" was a gift (I think from Izzy Wheadon from the Cricut mb (Hugs, Izzy!) and the "peace" is a Stampendous peelie (one of the few manufacturers in the US). BTW, today is my dear friend Margie's 50th birthday so why not pop over to her BLOG and wish her a happy day?

The Cuttlebug Spot Color Challenge (with a stamp)

This week on The Cuttlebug Spot we were asked to used ONLY the TCS colors of pink, green, black and white AND we were to include a stamp which could be an image or sentiment. Since those colors make me think of Easter (and it's less than a week away) I decided to use this adorable bunny I got from my friend Marlene during a Digi Shack Blog Hop.

Isn't he the cutest? Thanks so much Marlene! The eggs are cut with my Nesties and cuttled with the Argyle folder. I used an EK Success punch for the wavy landscape and embossed with Swiss Dots and the flower folder that comes with the Cuttlebug With Thanks card making combo. The bunnies and grass at the bottom are a MS border punch. The most exciting thing for me on this card is that I actually hand stamped the "hippity hoppity" sentiment on the card without screwing it up. WooHoo! a FIRST! Gotta love those $1 stamps from M's, eh?

The layers are popped as usual, including that bunny which was a bit of a challenge to fussy cut. My DT sisters did a fabulous job with this challenge so don't miss their fabulous takes HERE and our wonderful Sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, is offering a $50.00 gift certificate for the lucky randomly chosen participant this week.

BBTB2 Paisley Purse Cut and Blog Hop

I can't believe it's the last Monday of the month and time for another BBTB2 Blog Hop! This week we're featuring any of the cute purse cuts from the Paisley cartridge chosen by our fabulously talented DT sister Lori Warner. Hopefully you've come from Lori's BLOG which is the beginning of our fabulous hop! Instead of a card this time I decided to use my BIA and make a shopping notepad (or it could be a mini album). I just happened to be talking to my friend Margie on the phone while designing this project and I was complaining that I didn't have all of the layers I wanted and she suggested using the tab feature (shift of the card feature) to get the layer I was looking for and that did the trick. THANKS MARGIE, couldn't have done it without you! I added a mini gel pen attached with a curled ribbon. If you're interested in how that's done, I've explained it in an article for another project HERE.

Inside are pages to jot down your shopping wish list. The title here was welded in Design Studio using one of the Hannah Montana fonts.

Here is the dimensional view. I used mini magnets sandwiched between the popped layers of both the purse body and flap for closure. Now for the good part. Leave a comment here for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate from Custom Crops, to be randomly chosen on Friday, April 2nd and hop on next to my dear and wonderfully creative friend Carole's blog. BTW, there's still time to try out for the BBTB2 design team. The entries so far are fabulous and I can't wait to see who will be joining us. Also, check out the BBTB2's current contest. The winner will be chose on Friday, April 2nd.

WE WON!

Sorry no card. I could barely get my DT cards done because I've been busy supporting my Alma Mater, Michigan State, in the NCAA basketball tournament and WE WON!!!!!! Yea Spartans!

GO STATE!!!!!

on to the final FOUR!

Oh Alice Challenge 4 and 5

Okay, so today you get a 2fer. Meaning 2 challenges for the price of one. I really didn't intend it to be, but I think it's gonna turn out that way. 2 weeks ago the Oh Alice! Chapter 4 challenge was a beautiful sketch by DT member Pam Varnell. However, there wasn't a specific deadline (for me, that's death because I'm such a procrastinator). I fully intended to do it but it was a busy week last week sooo... Anyway, this week the Chapter 5 challenge is to use a caterpiller or BUTTERFLY on your card. Now I do have a caterpiller image that I've even colored for this week's challenge, but I seem to have lost it under the piles of crap I have laying all over this craft room so in the interest of time, I'm submitting this card for BOTH of the challenges. If I manage to find the image in time and can whip out another card I will. The sweet, innocent Alice image is from Mo Manning called Alice in pencil. I first saw it on my friend Barb's blog (she always has the coolest stuff) and of course I rushed right over and bought it. The sentiment is from Sassy Studio Designs. DP is from that gorgeous Heidi Grace stack I've been using lately and the frame is cut on my Cricut from the Sentimentals cartridge (first time using it! woohoo!) The BUTTERFLIES are a MS punch (honestly I feel like I'm cheating but I could have used my Cuttlebug Spot card with butterflies but I like to keep it "Alice" related)

Here's the dimensional view. the card is 6 x 6. The round aperture is cut with my Nesties, I embossed the frame with Swiss dots, and added a few adhesive pearls. I really love how soft the whole effect is.