Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving is fantastic! 

I don't have a card from me today, but I have one from my cousin Laquisha:

and the first Christmas card of this season from a true sweetie pie, Sandra van Blaricum:

Me? Make a Tag??

It is very rare that I venture out of the card-making zone. It's not that I don't want to, but I really don't know how I can make the things that speak to me that I've seen other people make. One thing I see a lot as I'm out surfing through blogland is the tag. I like tags, but the idea of them is a challenge for me. Well, my lovely teammate Roxann decided that tags would be our challenge this go round at Guylou's Inimitability! No!! :D

How the heck do you photograph these things when they have floppy fibers up top??

I survived and even managed to make a simple tag that works for me.  I used GI's Baby Bear digi and some CTMH Cherry-O papers that had the colors I thought would look nice for a baby tag.

I know a lot of you are good at tag, and I know that some of you are like me and are a bit leery of them. Either way, you should come play along! You might wind up as a GDT and the recipient of some free digis!!Remember, you don't have to use a Guylou's Inimitability digi, but if you do you get an additional entry in the drawing. Plus, G has some freebies floating around if you want to try her digis out! I hope to see you in the challenge. You have until 10 pm EST on June 14 to link up your tag!

Ninjas are Killers!

My father bought me a Ninja (blender/food processor) for Christmas. I just decided to pull it out since I can get lots of fresh fruit for smoothies and it's getting close to the time that I hate being so fluffy - summer. Well, let me just say that the blades on that thing are no joke! I'm sitting here looking like a crazy person with my fingers all bandaged up. I cut myself twice in less than 12 hours. The first time, my thumb kind of grazed the blade as I was washing it. Then, as I was taking the dishes out of the dishwasher today, I went to grab a cup, and the blade went right up into my pinky. It is so not easy to color or type with a bandaged pinky. BUT, I'm making due. I should be back with another card in just a few hours...

In the meantime, here is my card for this week's Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz using Maurine with Tea from MayzyArt and a sentiment from Flourishes.

I had forgotten that my phone's charger works in my camera until I looked at the camera today. Thank goodness because I am tired of looking for the charger! (And of looking at my cell camera's shots...)

And, so you can play along, here's the sketch...

Remember, an entry into any challenge at The Outlawz this month will give you a shot at prizes from Oozak, Jackson's Digital Expressions, Gilli Rubber Stamps, Paper Temptress, and Color Me Creative Classroom! Oh, Outlawz founder Colleen Holmes recently took over Through the Craftroom Door magazine! Her first issue just came out; check it out!

Notecards for the Sketch Challenge!

I swear the weeks seem to go by so quickly! Some days are really long, but the weeks just run by... And now, since it Wednesday yet again, I have a project for Wednesday's Sketch Challenge on The Outlawz!

This week, I decided to make a couple of notecards. As usual, there were mishaps including a bad stamp and smearing ink on a card, but that's just how I do! :D I honestly don't know what I would do if I had a mistake-free card making session!  This week I used some ladies from CTMH's Be Yourself set along with some papers from Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely pad. Colleen sent me the ribbon, and the gems are a mix of Recollections stickers and Crystazzi rhinestones.

If you join us this month, we have a prize for the Sketch Challenge as well as awesome site-wide prizes from Oozak, Paper Temptress, and more! Here is this week's sketch if you'd like to play along:

Challenges: My Craft Spot - Girly Girl, Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Two in One!

So, I didn't post the sketch or my card from last Wednesday, but since you still have until the first Wednesday in July to play along, I'm going to post them with this week's sketch from The Outlawz...

Here's last week's sketch:

And this is the card I made:

 

This is this week's sketch:

And the card I made using it looks like this:

What in the world is wrong with Blogger now? If I didn't know HTML, I don't think I could've added these pics to this post...  :(  Maybe I'll come back to add details, but this coding nonsense has taken up more time than I felt like giving this... Oh, and cut paper then add Stickles! My paper wouldn't lay down enough for me to cut straight...

GDT at The Sisterhood of Crafters!

Can I tell you how excited I am to be one of the guest design team members at The Sisterhood of Crafters this month?! It's an added bonus that the other GDT is Priyanka, someone I actually "know" online!

The first challenge for this month is to create a Father's Day project. You can make a card, LO, gift, whatever as long as it fits the theme. My project happens to be the one I mentioned yesterday that didn't want to stay together. I'm really happy I had to work the day I made it because I probably would have died of embarrassment if it fell apart after I gave it away. (And why would I give away a Father's Day card so early, you ask. Well, the son is going to visit his great grandma for a few weeks and will, unfortunately, miss his daddy's first Father's Day...)  All the pieces seem to be stuck for good now...

This is a pretty simple project - it's an altered composition notebook. I wanted to keep it plain since it's from a man to his son, and the son happens to be less than a year old. I hope the dad likes it. He says he wants to be a writer; I figured, who better to write to than his progeny. (That one's for you, Tracy!) They're a Sr./Jr., hence the squared initials. The rest says, "Notes from Father to Son: volume one." If he ever wants/needs another, it'll be volume two and so on...

The paper covering the notebook is from CTMH's Twitterpatted set, and the ribbon is SU! The letters are by Thickers and are mounted on paper cut with Nestabilities Labels 10. See, easy? 

You can enter your Father's Day project at The Sisterhood of Crafters until June 22. See you there!

New Challenge + Exciting News!

There's a new challenge up at Guylou's Inimitability! My friend and fellow GI DT member Tracy picked the it, and I know you'll love it!  For this challenge, you'll need to used the following color combo from Creative Khaki:

 

AND, as a twist, Tracy has asked that you use an unconventional household object on your card.  You have until 10 p.m. on May 5 to upload your card. Remember, you don't have to use a GI stamp to enter the challenge (but there are freebies all over the place including an adorable wedding digi that's up now on CDAC). Also, if you're chosen as the random winner, you'll receive 2 Guylou's Inimitability digi stamps and an opportunity to be a GDT on a later challenge!  Our GDT for this challenge is my super sweet, South African friend Theresa aka Flatback Pearl! (I've decided I'm going to call her that from now on as she has gifted me a number of times with pearls in all colors and sizes!)  Sounds like a pirate name, right? Seriously...she's a sweetie pie!

Here's my card for the challenge:

 

Caroline is my digi stamp from Guylou's Inimitability, and my unconventional item is a sheet of styrofoam padding. My mom just ordered an exercise machine; I put it together and was looking at all those sheets wondering if I could do something with them. Let me tell you, it's not the easiest product to work with. I tried a Copic marker, Staz-On ink, and regular Colorbox ink AND the blow dryer. I don't know if that flower has dried yet! You might not be able to see them, but there are little black leaves on the side of the flower. Okay... rambling... The stamps behind Caroline are from Hero Arts (Trees, Birds, and Messages) and CTMH (True Friends); the bottom sentiment is by K&Co (Amy Butler Lotus Greeting Stamps). Martha Stewart punch, Spica atyou glitter pen over the sentiment, We R Memory Keepers grommet... Done!

Guylou's Inimitability has new stamps coming soon! So, we're going to have a blog hop May 6 - 8 to showcase them! Because I like you, here's a sneak peek...

See you in the challenge!

I should be Studying...

I just met with someone about a tutoring gig and have to take a four-hour test in a few hours. I'm so past the SAT and GRE right now; I don't know how this is going to work...  :D  Anyway, today is Wednesday! Here's this week's sketch from The Outlawz:

 

And here's my card:

The image is from Mo Manning; it's called What's Cookin' and was only $1. That dollar went to help the people of Japan after the earthquake. If you know me, you know I got everything that was going to help over there... :D  She's been colored with Copics. I tried doing a technique on the pot that my friend Arielle taught us in her group on CDAC (Wax Fruit Co.). I was rushing though and did it from memory. Hope I did you some justice, AG!  That strip of paper is from CTMH's Cherry-O pack that I got from my buddy Ruby. (Hope you're okay!) Those brads in the corner were from ebay, but you can get some from Eyelet Outlet. Really cute things there!  I'll be back later (after the dreaded test) to see if I can find some challenges!


You should get over to The Outlawz and find at least one challenge from April to enter. SCACD is giving a $25 gift certificate, Oozak.com is giving a Copic Airbrush System away, and there's also a challenge for people who have never entered a challenge on the site! You don't want to miss out!

Not My Norm...

Hey!! It's Wednesday aka Sketch Challenge Day at The Outlawz! I have a mini story to share before I show you my card. Last week, I finally uploaded a card from November onto Split Coast Stampers. Well, they featured my card on their Facebook wall. I don't have FB and couldn't figure out why this card had, like, a thousand views in a day. Luckily, I wrote to some of the ladies who commented on my card, and they let me know what the deal was. I was way too excited. I was also inspired to make another card that didn't have coloring on it. (I love to color so this is hard for me!)

But okay, here's the sketch...

And here's my card:

For this card I used Urban Prarie papers from Basic Grey, a Marvy Uchida punch, a CTMH stamp from the True Friends set, scoreboard and the Swirling Lace punch by MS, Crystazzi flatback crystals, Offray Ribbon, Queen & Co pearls, a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in white, and Glossy Accents. I also had to color some of the stamp in with a Copic Multiliner...

I hope that you'll come play in the sketch challenge at The Outlawz!

Love you, Dad!!