Ready for tomorrow!

I haven't posted in the last week, but it hasn't meant that I haven't been busy. Been stamping quite a bit and hope to get everything posted in the next few days now that I'm ready for Halloween. It's been a blast prepping this year. The Halloween costumes were picked out early, which was a good thing (my littlest guy even picked out his own costume all by himself! :) ), and I have been working the last couple of nights on the treat bags for my 3 boys' classrooms. Here is a pic of the treat bags I made.

Since they were all going to the kids, and I had to make a lot of them (I think the grand total was some 52 bags for the 3 classes), I made easy, but still festive tags. Just punched them out on SU Tangerine Tango CS with a Marvy scallop punch (the purple one - so is that mega, maybe?) and used some $1 Michael's stamps. I stamped the images in Palette Hybrid Noir Black and SU Craft White.

We don't usually make it to Mike's, but happened to be in one a couple of weeks ago. We couldn't pass them up. These are fun images and I think dress up the bags just enough to be fun but not over the top since I'm sure the kids are just digging into the bags anway!

Hope the kids all like their treat bags! Happy Halloween! :)

I got it!

I'm getting ready to take off on a business trip for the next couple of days, but I wanted to quickly share the card I made last night before jumping in the black car, which is coming in about 10 minutes. I've off to the Big Easy - it's my first time visiting, and even though it is for work and not vacay, I'm hoping to get some time to explore the city, or at the very least get a chance to have a great meal. ;) We'll see how it goes...

Anyway, back to my card, which again my newest set, Little Guy, from CHF. This one came together quickly once I figured out how I wanted to give this little monster a little background. I was going to leave him a some white background, but then wanted him to pop of the page and look like he was jumping for the ball. I love his bulging eye!

Hope you have a great next couple of days! I hope to get a chance to scrap a few pages soon. I had given myself a loose target of a 2 page layout every weekend, but didn't get a chance to do that the last couple. But on the flip side, I have gotten a chance to make a bunch cards (for no other reason than just because), so I still consider myself successful on the making time for myself to enjoy my hobby overall! {Check the work/life/me time balance box!}

Deets:

Stamps: CHF Little Guy, SU (sentiment); CS: SU Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, PTI Stamper's Select White and BG PP; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Riding Hood Red; Other: Prismas/Gamsol; twine; SU eyelet, crop-o-dile and dimensionals

Cuteasaurous

How cute is this cuteasaurous!? Still playing with this new Kim Hughes set from CHF called, Little Guy, Beate's Weekend Sketch and used the dinosaur, and a scrap of Chatterbox PP (called Tent Stripe) as the starting point. Relatively simple sketch, but I really like how it came out. I think that this card could be used as a baby card or maybe even a toddler's birthday card. I could probably even stamp in a sentiment to make it more personalized to the occasion above and to the left of the dinosaurs as well.

Can't believe it is Sunday already, but it's been another fun weekend so far - so no complaints. It's feeling a bit more like autumn now (I guess it is about time though), but no too chilly. Love that crisp feel to the air at this time of year. My boys are busy as always, but this weekend, I was fortunate to squeeze in some social mom time too. I was out with some friends last night - woohoo. :) Anyway, I'm off to continue on with the day today. Hope you have a great one too!

Deets:

Stamps: CHF Little Guy; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, PP: SU Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Bashful Blue, Chatterbox Tent Stripe; Other: Petite circle nestie, Copics, dimensionals

Hey Dude!

Earlier this week, I got my latest CHF order which included one of Kim Hughes' newest sets, Little Guy. Love this set! It has such fun little boy images which are not too baby-ish, which make them perfect for my boys who feel that they are getting bigger by the moment! Plus I like that these are non-sporty images too (although there is a little baseball image included), which will help to give my boy cards a little variety. This is my first card so far from the set. The 2 aliens crack me up. I put this guy on a skateboard just because, and since it looks like he is waving, it seemed to be well with the sentiment too.

As always, very easy layout with some embossing with the square nestie (loves the touch it adds!). I'm am also channeling a little Paula by coloring on kraft paper. Love how the white really pops. I used to wonder what you were supposed to use a white pencil for (remember, I am so not an artist by nature at all!) And now if I could just color even a fraction as well as she does... oh well, I can wish right?! ;) Maybe it'll happen by osmosis if I continue to check in on her blog daily...

I have also been on a boy card kick (more so that usual) lately, so I have been using lots of big eyelets and buttons for embellishments - they all feel that ribbon is too girly. I'm going to have to switch to girl cards soon - my ribbons are collecting dust sitting in their drawers and jars! LOL.

Oh and by the way, CHF has this monthly drawing called "Keeping the Gallery Beautiful" They (obviously) encourage everyone to post CHF creations in the gallery and every month, they have a raffle and everyone who posts has a chance to win. The prize? - 15% coupon to use in the stores. How cool is that? And what is even cooler is that I WON THIS MONTH! :) I think that there is more than one winner each month. Can't wait to use that coupon. My CHF list is VEERRRYYY LONG and gets longer every time I check out what's in the store and all the amazing creations in that beautiful gallery!

Deets:
Stamps: CHF Little Guy, CS: PTI Kraft, Scenic Route PP, SU Not Quite Navy; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Other: BG button, twine, Dimensionals, Square Nesties and Prismas/Gamsol

A Beate Sketch

It has been one of those weekends where this is the only card that I made - but that's a good thing, as we took every bit of advantage we could of an AMAZING weekend weather-wise. I tell ya, it felt like summer on both Saturday and Sunday. Everyone was even in shorts yesterday! Other than church, running a couple of quick errands to the grocery store and picking out the Halloween costumes, we spent the rest of the days outside. Between the array of Saturday sports, bike time and just playing in the backyard - we might have even gotten a bit tanner this weekend. And I even got in 2 runs this weekend, which was a bonus.

Anyway, so I finally got some time to do Beate's sketch challenge from the weekend and this is what I came up with last night. I am still playing with the Sporty Kids - this is the last of the images that I got and is called Baseball Brian. I really liked the sketch and it lent itself well to this scrap of SU DP from wayyyy back when. I think that this might be from one of the first packages of DP that I had bought. I still might even have a full sheet somewhere.

Deets:

Stamps: IA Sporty Kids and sentiment; Paper: SU DP, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive, PTI Stamper's Select; Ink: SU Craft White, Memento Tuxedo Black; Other: Prismas/Gamsol, Jumbo Eyelet, Dimensionals, Circle and Petite Scallop nesties

Sporty Kids

Quick post for the 2 cards I finished making a couple of nights ago. I actually colored the images at the end of the last week, but only got around to finishing up the cards more recently.

I love these sporty kids images from IA. Fun to color and I can use them A LOT for many occasions in both my cards and scrapbooks (between the 3 boys, we have played all of these sports). I am really enjoying coloring images, whether it be with the Prismas and Gamsol or with the copics.

With the second card below, I was definitely channelling (although no where close as well) a little Paula. She is a wonderful crafter and I love checking out and getting inspired by her blog, Paper Possibilities. I love how she incorporates a background, usually around the waistline, from what I can tell from looking at a ton of here cards (here's to hoping for a little osmosis!), to add more dimension. I tried it out here.

An Eco-Friendly Card

Can you tell this is a card? So I'm going to a friend from HS's shower tomorrow and it has an eco-friendly theme (along with the baby theme, of course!) So I wanted to make a card from myself and a friend that would have some other use after the shower to go along with the gift we are giving her. I had remembered seeing this blog entry on the CLASSroom and this frame and this entry on Carole (wonderful designer from CHF' s blog) and thought it would be something that would work for my "card". The CLASSroom is one of my recent discoveries and I love checking in to see the new tutorials. It is such a wonderful site to learn about new techniques, projects and so many other papercrafting things. It seems like it is basically the educational arm of Ellen Hutson's business (who is seriously an amazing crafter - you gotta see what she can do!). And the site is even cooler because she has a bunch of other crafters who regularly contribute to the blog as well. So the projects are pretty varied, but of such amazing quality all the same.

Anyway, so I made my version of the picture frame. I changed it up a bit from that project, b/c I needed to make sure they could take out my card and put in a pic of their baby when he or she was born. So I made it so that you could slip in the pic on top in between the two chipboard coasters, vs. adhering the pic permanently to the nestie circle. I also colored on the pumpkin with prismas/gamsol to try and give it a little more dimension. Working on that shadowing and highlighting to achieve more depth...

Deets: Stamps: CHF Fall Silhouettes, Four Square; Paper: Wild Asparagus pp, SU Pumpkin Pie, PTI White; Ink: Adirondack Latte, VersaMagic Tea Leaves and Pumpkin Spice; Other: Thin chipboard coasters, Dimensionals, Prismas/Gamsol (on pumpkin), SU button, Nesties Petite Circles, clear sheets, magnet strips.

Boys will be boys

While I don't papercraft well or enough to really have a "style" yet, I suppose, like most people, there are types of images that I gravitate towards. And this collage image is certain isn't the norm for me. I haven't been drawn to the realistic style of images and instead usually go for more the cutesy or cartoony image. So maybe it was a combination of just wanting to try new things and the fact this is a boy image (which I always love) that made me just add one to the shopping cart on the CHF site in my last purchase. I love everything about this little guy: the age (love the post toddler, but still has enough baby in him), the outfit he is wearing and the quote. I love that it has a modern look (via the clothes and shoes), but still has a worn, shabby look.

Since getting back into card making on a steadier basis, I've been trying to work on my coloring skills. This image helped in that the shading was kinda drawn in and gave me guide to follow. I have been trying to think about shading as more than just more or less of the color in an area, but more like other colors and shades of the main color to compliment as well. For example, I tried to incorporate yellow-ish tones that had greenish-ness on the sleeves to show where the light would hit on the areas on the inner part of his arms around the elbows up to the wrist. Still needs a lot of practice, but I'd like to think that there is some progress on this front! I love that this craft stretches other parts of me and my brain... love this switch of gears after a long day of working with numbers and finance.

Deets:

Stamp: Boys will be boys collage; CS: PTI Kraft, SU Riding Hood Red and Crate Paper; Ink: Stazon Timber Brown; Other: Dimensionals, Prismas and Gamsol, BG button, twine