Friends With Flair - the Quick Version

Hey there peeps. This is a quick, down and dirty post. Kind of like my card. This is the last week of school before finals and so I thought I'd see how quickly I could pull off a decent looking card. I can do a really cruddy card in no time flat, but one that I wouldn't be horrified to send out? Well...that's another story! So in comes Sheetload of Cards. I've used their sketches before. They really are quick, especially if you're need to make a, er, sheetload.

Anyway. Just one, but I needed to make a birthday card. I pulled out one of the new {ippity} sets (and yes, you can buy them from me - just drop me a pm, email or a comment and we'll talk) and I think I even pulled off a fairly masculine card! What do you think?In case you're wondering, yes, that's a Basic Grey Indian Summer paper pad in the background. I took a second photo with the card and the paper, but I didn't like it and it's late, so I'm heading to bed. I have to be in class in less than 8 hours.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the wonderful Unity friends - you can find the full list on the Unity blog!

My First Softpencil Thursday!!

Hi everyone! I am SO super excited! I have been asked to join the Softpencil Design Team!! This is just amazing. I love Elizabeth's designs. I think they're just so adorable! Because I love them so much, I wanted to make sure I did a really good job on my first challenge, fever and nausea be darned!

This week we're working with calendar images. How appropriate for the end of the year, don't you think? I got to work with Spreading Fairy Dust, which I think is going to be perfect for my younger two girls. Our challenge was to use at least 2 layers. Well, I think I managed that!

I've double matted the calendar itself and then I did some paper piecing and layering within the image. I wanted it to be more dimensional - and I wanted to prove that just because it's a digital image, doesn't mean you can't paper piece! You CAN!! And no, I didn't print on patterned paper!!

I did a little cropping of the image, duplicated it onto a secondary file so that I could print just the fairy or just the house (actually, I printed 4 extra fairies and 2 extra houses, since I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with them and I wanted extra in case of mistakes - not that I ever make mistakes or anything...) and then I cut out the parts that I wanted out of the DP and traced them with black ink (I used my Copic multiliner, but any fine lined marker would work) and that was all there was to it! I also popped up one of her wings for extra dimension.Here's a close-up so you can better see the dimension and the stickles. The colour is actually nearly identical to the first photo, but you can't see the stickles in it at all, so here you go. The background is shimmery chalk from Pebbles.

Go check out the rest of the design team and the main blog. There are eight new members of the team today! I still can't believe I'm one of them!! Yes, I'm giddy. I think I'm allowed!

Kerry
Cathy
Tracey
Ashley
Cat Darling
Jodi
Lisa
Mia
Tenia
April
Leanne
Carole
Annette
Guest Designers for December
Poppet
Dawn

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon. I'll be posting blog candy this weekend in honour of hitting 100 followers!

AiFactory Tuesday - Digipaper Challenge

Hi Everyone!! I bet you guys all thought I'd dropped off the face of the planet. Well, not quite, but it sure felt that way! My computer was giving me grief, the youngest one was sick, Thanksgiving, school - you know the drill. I'm starting to feel like that lovely quote "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."

In any case, this is the first time I've used actual printed digi-paper on a card. My first few ideas weren't working like I wanted them to. I think I was over-thinking things again. I tend to do that, especially when I'm stressed out. So then I remembered that I'd seen this week's Clean & Simple challenge over at SCS. It was to rework a card of your own. I chose this card. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with that card at all. In fact, a couple people have favourited it. So I thought, why not let the digital paper be the star this time?

This is what I came up with.

As you can see, the paper is a subdued stripe in a light, sage green. I added some snowflakes and stamped the word "peace" into the corner, using the same ink and embossing powder as I used on the original card. The dimensions are the same, too. As Jen Buck would say EPLS.

Now it's your turn! You have until Monday, December 7, at Midnight! Post your challenge links to the AiFactory Challenge Blog and if you post to online galleries, please use the tag AIF014.

Oh, you want to know what you can win this week?? Your very own set of AiFactory Digital Papers. While you're checking those out, take a peek around. Mia has extended the Cyber Monday sale through Saturday, December 5!! Everything in the shop is 50% off!!

We'd also love it if you'd head around to see what the rest of the DT has to share. Thanks and have an awesome day!

Angie
De
Erin
Fink
Kerry
Lola
AiFactory Challenge Blog (Link Posts HERE)

Shout Out to Limelight

This is just a drive-by posting, but I really want to give a shout out to Mandy at Limelight Papercrafts. There are people in the crafting world who go out of their way to give good service and who really care. Mandy is one of them.

She's also really talented and has an awesome design team. You can check out the Limelight blog here.

So Mandy, thanks for being you.

Friends with Sheetloads of Flair

Hello and happy Friday! I hope everyone out there in blogland is having better weather than we are. It's just rainy and yucky here - but my mom is on her way up and that makes it all better!

Did you guys see the fantabulous Donna Downey set that Unity released yesterday? Yup, that's right. I said fantabulous. That's the word you have to use when discussing anything and Donna Downey! That is one awesome lady! It's called The Artist in You, and it's on sale this weekend! If you haven't visted her blog before, you are seriously missing out!

So I took it a little on the easy side and went for a Christmas card. I used the sketch from this month's Sheetload of Cards. This is only a photo of one of them, but I did make more. The big branch from Christmas Bough stamp fits perfectly. It's stamped in a combination of Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks. The sentiment is Fired Brick. The lovely striped patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Wassail collection. The ribbon is from work. It's leftover from the chocolate making biz.

Check out the Unity blog for a full list of peeps participating today. Spread the love around.

Multiple Challenges R Us

Hello everyone! My mojo took a slight vacation, but I think it may be back? This card is for several challenges and a swap-bot swap.

First of all, Etsy Inspired Challenge #61. JaredKS's Fine Art Nature Photography is the shop for the week. I was inspired by this photo of a magnolia blossom. I just love the pinks!

Next was the Whimsical Ink Saturday Challenge posted by Ashley, which was to use a butterfly. Lorali is a butterfly mermaid. Got that one! In fact, I've had Lorali coloured for days. It was just the rest that was stumping me.

Enter the Paper Makeup Stamps Release Challenge from this past weekend. It's a recipe challenge.
foundation: use textured cardstock (prism, bazzill, or embossed);
blush: use the color pink;
eyes: use the color black (like mascara);
lips: use something shimmery/shiney (like lip gloss)

I'm covered! My core'dinations paper is definitely textured. Then I embossed it with the divine swirls Cuttlebug folder and sanded over the top for some added dimension. The card was pink before I even started anything else, so check that one off, too. Oh, and because I was colouring with Copics, I used Tuxedo Black Memento ink. That's three...and to finish her off, I added some sparkles with Spica markers, which I adore.It was the sketch challenge from Just Us Girls Week 6 that was my lifesaver. The little butterflies are also Queen Kat and come from one of the monthly kits. I just don't remember which one off the top of my head.

And lastly, for the first time, I managed to pull off a Pile it On challenge! This week's was to use a leaf or leaves. The flower in Lorali's hair - has two leaves.

Whew! I hope the person I'll be sending this to likes it. It's not going to be an easy one to send away.

AiFactory Tuesday - Challenge #11

Good morning everybody! It's time for AiFactory Tuesday! This week it's Live Free with Brads and Eyelets! We're challenging everyone to use one of the freebie images in the AiFactory store and to incorporate brads and/or eyelets into the design. The design team is doing it Splitcoast Stampers CAS38 style, so we're keeping it clean and simple this week.

I chose the snowflake scatter brushes. Bet you'd never have guessed! It took a little bit of playing around, since I'm not quite used to playing around with different brush styles just yet, but I got the snowflakes to show up in the sizes I wanted, changed their colour - several times, actually, until I was happy with how they appeared. Then I printed them out, chose the ones I wanted, and used a circle punch to cut out the few that I wanted. I CASE'd this card. My sentiment is a traditional rubber stamp by Karen Lockhart, but the snowflakes? All digital, baby! Oh, and how do you like my new card stand? It's my Unity A handle. I couldn't find my card stand the other night and couldn't get the card I was trying to photograph to stay put. This worked brilliantly! Why not, right?

Okay, so the gory details. You have until midnight next Monday (11/16) to play along. This week we are requiring that you use a freebie from the AiFactory Store. It should also include brads or eyelets and be Clean & Simple. We don't ask for much, do we? Don't worry. I know you can do it!

This week, someone will win the Christmas Decoration Tree digi stamp! So get cracking, okay?? Don't forget to link your project to the challenge blog. When posting to online galleries, please use AIF011, aifactory and CAS38.

Now it's time to head over and see what the rest of the team has for you to see!

Angie
De
Erin
Fink
Kerry
Lola
AiFactory Challenge Blog (Link Posts HERE)

Growing in Unity Winner!

ACK! I almost forgot to post this! It's been sitting on my desktop since Sunday night.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2009-11-8 23:28:32 UTC

So, by my count, the winner is...

Monika in VA said...

Love that 'tree'! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week!

November 2, 2009 8:37 PM

Monika, drop Eryn an email with your choice of Unity single!! Congrats and thank you for the sweet comments!!