the extended birthday

which is another way of saying - belated birthday.... sounds nicer though doesn't it? well we always say round here when the cards (and presents if we're lucky) keep arriving after the birthday - that it's been "extended". Don't know bout you but i like to extend my birthday celebration as long as i can - i mean isn't it nice to feel special for a few days? sure.. :-) anyway i'd gotten a little bogged down with having a wicked cold, working and a number of other things and hadn't gotten a card out to one of the nicest girls i know. So i made her this belated birthday card. I drew a piece of cake and the words, stamped on some forks, and used a ricrac die i got from papertrey (i love ricrac). It's a little wacky but I like it - I hope she does too.

Jingle Belles 04

the challenge this week - to use colors: Pink, Dark Pink and Lime Green - and possibly use papers that aren't necessarily Christmas. I looked thru my stash and found some old KI Memories paper - one of which was called "Summer" :-) I used my Stampinup Top Note die and also a Christmas tree die, threw in a few gems, and punched some of the striped paper with a star punch and used some holographic EP to make it sparkle a little. Not totally thrilled with my results but i kinda like it. If you haven't joined in the Jingle Belles challenge yet - give it a try - it's a lot of fun and hey - I've got 4 cards already!

Jingle Belles 03

I'm barely making it in under the wire on this one. The challenge was to use acrylic paint. I use it, but not a lot. So it would be a challenge. I found a stamp I thought I'd like to use (it hasn't seen much use so why not?) It's a Stampington stamp called Berries on Music. I stamped it with Versamark and used a clear EP on some dark olive cardstock. I watered down some celery green acrylic paint and painted that on - the EP resisting the paint. The fact that I painted my cardstock isn't apparent - but trust me when I say the original cardstock color is somewhere between the EP'd image and the resulting bg color. I used some red glitter glue to highlight the berries and a gold paint pen around the edge of the cardstock. I took a piece of Basic Grey Wassail striped paper and brushed on some watered down Cream acrylic paint on the right edge and then machine stitched that on. And finally I added a K&Co sticker to finish it off.
I hope next week's challenge isn't quite so challenging! LOL Have a good week!

Jingle Belles 02

Okay here's my entry for this week - we had to use inchies or twinchies. I opted for a round version of an inchie :-)
I used some great Christmas stickers i had hanging around - isn't that Santa a hoot? the candy canes are also stickers. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the red cardstock bg (the embossing folder has the same swirl pattern as Santa's coat) and swirly blue bg paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly Mini-Deck. And the stamp - Purple Onion Designs - but of course :-) I used versamark and some holographic ep - hard to see here but it has a nice bit o'sparkle. Oh yeah - some Basic Grey snippets i had laying around are what i used to make the candy cane like corners.

Jingle Belles

yes... i know its been a while. i'm posting now to tell you about a fun challenge blog called Jingle Belles. The premise is making one Christmas Card every week so by the time it's December you've got a nice pile of Christmas cards all ready for sending! Sounded good to me - i did not get my cards out this year (and worse yet I bought them! that's how bad things got round here - you heard it right girls.. i bought cards. Eek. with all the fun card making materials i've got here it's almost a sin!) Anyway the challenge for the first week was Something Old Something new.
Everything on this card - with the exception of the Top Note die (which arrived yesterday LOL) -is old... and although its not my favorite creation I was happy to get to use up some stuff AND get a Christmas card made!
I know it's been months since I've posted. That should tell you something. I haven't been making anything. Life has been too busy. That's why this challenge, every week, is something I'm really looking forward to. I'll get my cards made, a little at a time, and I'll get myself back into MAKING THINGS - which is what I love. Why don't you join us over at Jingle Belles?