Gettin’ Sketchy With It

I couldn’t resist the title.  I actually had the privilege of coming up with a sketch for the Rotating Challenge at ScrapZee this week.  I know, some of you will get this early by my putting it on here, but I had to share:

 

Basically it is a card (I used an A2 – 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″) with a triangle taking up just less than half of it (doesn’t matter where), with something large in the center and something small in one corner.  Here are the examples I came up with:

 

As you can see, I did things differently on all of them.  I stamped on the open area on two of them, which doesn’t add to or detract from the sketch, and used the large animal and smaller sentiment.  You can’t see it too well, but the green triangles are embossed with leaves.  The giraffe and the tree (elephant card) are done with gold Perfect Pearls, so they sparkle.

The aqua and white one was done for the Friends of SpeedyTV challenge this week, so I’ll give you a close up of that one.  It is an inspiration challenge with an amazing picture, so I used the colors (as close as I could get) and crinkled my aqua to look like the curtains in the picture.

 

Go check out the challenges!  Well, you’ll have to wait until Wednesday, 3/6/13, for the Sketch challenge, but you can see the other challenges we’ve had.  Thanks for spending some time with me today!

Winter Warm Up

We are ending the winter season and its finally starting to warm up.  I’m sure it is a lot warmer here in Phoenix than it is many other places in the Northern hemisphere, but it’s still cool enough for a nice warm bowl of soup.  Here is a recipe card I made with my husband’s amazing split pea soup recipe.

Sending a recipe card with a favorite recipe is a fun way to encourage a friend.  You are welcome to try my husband’s soup recipe, too.  I never liked split pea soup until he started making it this way.

Check out the MFP SpeedyTV Friends of Speedy TV recipe card challenge this week to get many more fun ideas.

Thanks for spending some time with me today!

Rainy Day Play

On a rainy weekend in Phoenix, you have to play inside.  So, I played with paper this weekend (not that I don’t on sunny weekends, too).  Here is what I made this weekend:

This valentine (another for my husband) is all black paper (Black Onyx by GinaK) with Love stickers (Recollection) on top.  I took a smaller piece of the black paper and embossed it.  This one is being entered in a sketch challenge for MFT this week. 

My Favorite Things is also having their monthly Guest Designer challenge, which is always a sketch that this one is being entered in.  The teapot and cups are cut out using the Die-namics Always Time for Tea set (MFT).  The cups that are embossed on the background piece are from the Signs of Autumn set (GinaK).  I used Broken China (Ranger Distress) ink for both the inking on the background piece and the teapot.  It’s amazing how different it looks used in different ways (I blended it on the background piece). 

This one is also for the MFT Guest Designer challenge this month.  I love both the Wood grain Fence Die-namic and the Sunflower Die-namics that were used on this one.  The butterfly is a metal charm (Making Memories).  Definitely had fun with this one.

This one is for the MFP SpeedyTV Simple Salutations challenge this week, which was to use a flower.  I got the flower box piece from a friend and the two sentiments are from the Winter Crocus 2011 set (MFP Heinrich Collection).  I stamped them with yellow ink, traced over with a fine Zig glue pen, let the glue dry and then used transfer foil on them.  Unfortunately, the “fine” Zig tip was a bit too much, so the words are a bit run together, though you can see it clearly enough in person. 

The layered dog card was made using the MFP Heinrich Collect Fabulous Dogs 2012 set, which I just love.  It is being entered in the MFP SpeedyTV Sketch With a Twist challenge for the week.

The butterfly one is being entered in the MFP Simple Salutations challenge for the week, as well as the MFP Speedy TV Friends of SpeedyTV challenge to use ribbon creatively.  I wove my ribbon through the top layers for the butterfly trail, as well as made a flower out of it.  This one is also being entered in the MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge for the week, though I took liberties with the sketch.

I am just loving the rain this weekend, but was happy to have time to play with paper, too.  Yes, I did go out and get in the rain.

Thanks for spending some time with me!

Recycling the Fun Way

Okay, we recycle most of our “trash”, but sometimes it is fun to reuse things rather than just tossing them in the recycling bin.  Here is a fun example:

The background paper on this was a chunk left from a couple of years ago.  The flower is made from a small wax paper envelope someone gave me some supplies in, and some of the plastic mesh netting that fruit comes in.  I used the Spellbinders Aster Flower Topper die to cut the wax paper pieces and used some scissors to cut the netting into somewhat of a flower shape, then layered the pieces together and attach with a brad.  Add a stamp, some ribbon, a back piece and voila, a fun and pretty tag.  It didn’t take too long, and I reused rather than recycled.  Check out other ways of reusing items in fun ways in the Friends of SpeedyTV challenge this week.

Thanks for spending some time with me today!  If all goes well, I’ll be back with something else in the next day or two.

Heart Fold Card

How do you take a square of paper and wind up with a heart-shaped card?  Follow along, it’s quick, easy and fun.

I started with an 8-1/2″ square of paper, which turns into a 4-1/4″ square card (apx).  If you are using paper that has a pattern on one side, you want the wrong/blank side up.

 

With the wrong/blank/back side up, fold your paper in half from side to side, then unfold.

 

Now, you should have a valley fold going down the center of your paper.  Take both top corners and fold them down along that center fold line.

 

When both corners are folded down, you want to flip your paper over.  The folded point will be at the top.  Now, fold each of the sides to the center line.

 

 

Next you want to take the top point and fold it down so it is on the center line at the bottom and crease.

 

Now, take a pair of scissors and trim off the top two corners along the outside (through all the layers of paper) and then trim off the center corners (just the top layer) to give it the heart shape.

 

You don’t have to be exact, just do it so it looks right to you.  Now, if you open it up, you will see the inside of the card.

 

You can leave the inside as it is, or you can cover it with another piece of paper, either patterned or plain.

Because I used plain card stock for this one, I used stamps and some patterned paper inside to pretty it up.

 

Here is a quick video if you didn’t understand my written instructions (they make sense to me, but I know what I’m doing, so they may not make sense to others).

 

Thanks for spending some time with me today!  Try this, then post your creation on the ScrapZee Forum under Rotation Challenge for the week of 1-16-13 through 1-22-13.  One of the creators who posts there will be randomly chosen for a small prize from me.  I hope to see your work!

Hot Valentine

I wanted this stamp set the first time I saw it.  It is the Hot & Spicy 2012 set from MFP a Heinrich Collection.  So, I finally broke down and purchased it.  This is a Valentine for my husband.  He loves spicy food, so he’ll get a kick out of this one.

 

This is being entered in the Sketch With a Twist Challenge at MFP SpeedyTV this week.  The twist was to use bakers twine, so I used that at the top of my bunch of chilies.  The most difficult part of this was tying the ribbon and all the twine together.  I used a green Glaze pen (Sakura) and a red Stardust pen (Sakura) to add some depth to the image.  All of these images, plus a few more come in the stamp set.  Like I said I love this one.  Well, I’m a Phoenician, which explains the love of chilies.

Thanks for spending some time with me today!

Distressed Flower

Not only the flower is distressed on this one, the paper is torn, the bow is partially melted, is pretty distressed and I de-stressed while distressing.

 

The Tutorial challenge on MFP SpeedyTV this week was to make this fun paper bag flower.  The hardest part was finding a paper bag without printing all over it.  There was also a challenge on StampTV to make a distressed card, so this one fits both.

The bow is made of a “chiffon” ribbon, which curls (melts) when heat is added.  My heat gun was a bit much, or I was too close as it pretty much melted, but I still like the look of it. My grandmother is going to love this one as her favorite color is purple.  The sentiment is stamped in Grape Jelly (Memento) and there are two different shades of purple chalk ink on the flower layers.

Thanks for spending some time with me today.