Daily Special - Anything But Cards - Purse Card by Paper Bouquet

Technically this is a card but it's a purse card so it is sort of an "Anything But Cards" card. I'm not doing a tutorial on this purse card because I didn't create the template and it's too large to scan a pattern.

It's a template that my stampin' buddy Gabby at Handmade Cards With Love sent to me a few weeks ago. It's a template by Deja view. Handmade Cards with Love is a card making group that I'm part of. It's a really small group but we're looking for new members. Small groups are nice because you really get to know the people on the group site. It's similar to the concept of "friends" versus "acquaintances".

Anyway, I love this template! The stamp sets used to create this purse card were "Big Bloom" and "Everyday Flexible Phrases". I cut the flowers out and layered them. The scrapbook paper is by DCWV.

The purse has an attached card that is inside the purse. I used the same stamp set on the inside and again, cut the flowers out and layered them. I doodled the bee myself. The piercings at the bottom were created with Craft Tool Kit and the ribbon is by Basic Basic.

On a personal note:

I had a really great start this morning. Got up and brought the kids to school and my hubby and I ate breakfast at Mimi's. . .by the way the Asparagus Omelet was yummy. It's seasonal so you should try it before they stop serving it. After breakfast, we wanted to head to Barnes & Nobles but unfortunately, they were still closed. Sheesh don't anything open before 9 am?

So. . .we decided to head to Lowes because well, it was the only store open. . . I bought 6 pots of flower plants and planted them this morning. Yay! I think once they bloom they'll look beautiful. I've decided to plant 6 plants each week until I am satisfied with the way the yard looks. We hired a landscaper to do our yard and they did a great job but I felt our backyard needed more color.

I'm sort of acting like I'm a retired person and I'm not even close to retirement age. If I act like I'm retired now, what am I going to do when I'm actually at retirement age? I'll be like "well, I've been there, done that so now what?" Ha!

Until later. . .

Random Card - The Bling-Bling Card

I know. . .you're like "what is she doing"? Ha! If you read my previous post, well. . .this was my "mistake" card and I couldn't help but continue to fix it. Unfortunately, I still don't think I accomplished it. Instead, I added more bling to hopefully cover up the flaws. Isn't that how it is with life. . .we buy a lot of blings, flashy cars, designer clothes. . .to sort of cover up what we feel are our flaws or inadequacies. Well, in this case it's art imitating life . When we want to cover up flaws on a card, we add more embellishment in hopes that no one will notice the mistakes.

Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.

Daily Special - Technique Day - Oops, I Made A Mistake and I Needed to Cover It Up Technique

Today's Daily Special is Technique Day and the technique is called "Oops I Made A Mistake and I Needed to Cover It Up". Haha! Just kidding. . .it's not a real technique. It was one of those days. . . I really hate wasting material and especially, starting over. If I've worked on something, even for 10 minutes. . .well, 10 minutes is 10 minutes. If I make a mistake, I refuse to waste the 10 minutes I spent creating the mistake. . .I'll add, change, do something - anything to fix it. Well this was the case with the 1st card below. The second card came out fine, it's the first one that I'm talking about.

I stamped the "Bodacious Bouquet" image on to scrapbook paper but the color was a bit too light so I decided to use a marker to outline the image. Well, after drinking coffee, my hand was a bit shaky and my outline looked terrible. To cover the shaky outline, I applied Crystal Effects which usually works to cover up mistakes but it didn't in this case. My application of the Crystal Effects unfortunately was shaky too. Ugghhhh!! So to cover that up, I applied micro beads which made it worse because well the beads where shaky looking too. Annoying, annoying, ANNOYING! So what the heck, while I was at it. . .I decided to cover up the whole flower with Crystal Effects. I was hoping for some miracle. . .well, it didn't work.

Because I worked so hard to fix it, I decided to keep it. Just to end my misery, I pasted the images on a beautiful DP by K&Co, tied a ribbon, and decided not to do anything else to it. Like I said, it's one of those days.

On the bright side, the second card came out the way I wanted it. Both cards were made with the "Bodacious Bouquet" and K&Co Scrapbook paper. This is the last two cards I'll be making with this set until I come across the set again on some other day. . .which may not be until next year! Ha! I'm on my "B" sets right now and I still have the rest of the alphabet to cover.

I created a sketch for only the 2nd card because there's nothing much to the first card.

Until later.. . . .

Random Card - Bodacious Bouquet Again

Do you think the product used to make a card is what makes a card beautiful? I sometimes wonder about that. I think it's a fine line between the creativity of an individual and the product used to create the cards and projects.

I mean with some products, you can't make an ugly card or project with them. You know what I mean. . . .

Stampin Up "Bodacious Bouquet" is one of those stamp sets that no matter what you do, the card comes out great. Bodacious Bouquet is by far one my favorite stamp sets.

I stamped the images on to K&Co DP (designer paper) using Rose Red classic ink like I did on the card I previously posted. I cut the flowers and leaves out and mounted them using dimensionals. Some of the leaves were not cut out but instead stamped directly on to the background. I wanted to give the flower arrangement some depth.

Stamping Tip:

When creating flower arrangements such as the one shown on the card. . .stamp some images on to the background itself and on another cardstock, stamp the same images and cut them and mount them over the stamped background. The contrast between the 3D images against the recessed images will give the arrangement the depth needed to create a true 3D appearance.

Random Card - Bodacious Bouquet Card

Hi Everyone! It's a good day today. No more moodiness! Ha! I made this card last night. . .again, while watching Dancing With the Stars. I did the same thing the other night. . .I made a few cards while watching the show. I posted the cards on my Card Inspired Blog Site. Speaking of my Card Inspired Blog Site. . .I posted a tutorial on how to create a "Basic Post-it Note Holder". Check out Card Inspired when you have the time!

I've received a few emails from readers saying that they can't print more than one page of my tutorials, especially if they are MAC users. My husband told me that there may be several reasons: 1. the MAC users may be using a MAC browser rather than Internet Explorer and you will need to download IE and use that browser - the other reasons he gave me were too complicated for me to understand and let alone explain to you. Honestly, I don't know how to fix your problem.

To my readers: Can you let me know if you can't print the tutorials. I need to know how wide spread the problem is and let me know if you are using a regular PC or MAC. I will call Yahoo tech support and find out why you can't print.

All my tutorials are created on a Yahoo webpage and they link to my Website.

I didn't link my website to my blogs because I need to update the website. I haven't had the time to update it so I removed the link. I'll add the link once I can get my act together.

Anyway, the stamp sets used to create this card was from the "Bodacious Bouquet" and "Cute Converse" sets. I stamped the flower images using Rose Red and Mauve Mist classic ink on to DP by K&Co Peabody Scrap Pad. I think Mauve Mist is retired but my stamp pad is still super juicy so I'm still able to use it.

I stamped the image 3 times and cut out the images then layered them on to one another. The rhinestone center is by "Darice". . .I bought a pack of these colored rhinestones at JoAnn and they're great embellishments for flowers. I actually bought them a while ago with the intentions of using them but completely forgot I had them. A container fell off my desk last night and the package spilled out of the container and I realized I had forgotten I had them.

Daily Special - Retired Set Revival - Gentler Times and Cute Converse

This layout is a slight adaption of SCS Sketch Challenge 121. I really liked the layout but I wanted to change it a bit so the layout below is what I came up with. I haven't been on SCS for so long. I want to try out the challenges and maybe tomorrow I'll do another adaptation of a SCS sketch.

The card design is sort of atypical of my norm. . .I tend to gravitate towards bright, bold colors and this one is sort of romantic and whimsical. I really like the romantic style but because I'm so accustomed to vibrant colors, I have the tendency to look at subtle colors as "bland".

The stamp sets that I'm reviving are "Gentler Times" and "Cute Converse" which are both retired. I haven't used "Gentler Times" for over a year. I pulled it out of the garage the other day and decided to use it.

I, initially, messed up the rose images. I watercolored it and the watercolor brush began to wash out the image. I changed the medium to pastel and a blender pen but because the paper was already wet, the cardstock started to peel off and this worsened the wash out appearance. Ughhhh! To fix that problem, I filled in color with markers but the markers left an obvious demarcation between the washed out colors and the bold marker colors. Again, ughhhhhhh! I was not about to give up so to dull the marker colors, I applied Crystal Effects. If that didn't work, I was going to start over.

When the Crystal Effects dried. . .yay!! I actually liked the end result so I kept it and finished up the card. I guess the lesson learned. . .don't give up - keep trying until there's no option but to start over.

The designer paper is by K&Company Peabody Scrap Pad. I love the K&Company DP. . .Michael sells different stacks of K&Co DP and the price is a lot more reasonable than Basic Grey and other designer papers. With the coupon, a stack of 36 double sided paper ends up to be approximately $7. The papers are thick - almost cardstock quality so you can actually use the designer paper as a card base if you want.

Hey. . .5 more days for the X-Fest concert with 30 Seconds to Mars, the Used, and the other bands! Whoohoo! Can't wait!

Random Cards - Fiskar Embossing Template

Well I was productive this morning and was able to stamp these two cards. I found that when I'm upset about something, I'm more productive. I stamp when I'm happy but I'm more focused when I'm upset. Are you that way?


If you read my previous post, I was in a bad mood. When I'm not happy. . .well, everyone knows it at home. . .not because I make a lot of noise, it's more the opposite. . .I don't want to talk to anyone and I avoid everyone like the plague. My husband feeling a bit "concerned" asked me if I wanted to go out to lunch. . .well, food can get me out of any funk. He knew that was a good way to get me out of under this "black cloud" I'm under. Ha! Typically, he tells me he's too busy to go out to lunch and here he is asking me if I want to eat out. Okay. . .


Stamping Tip:


The embossed background above (although you can't really see it) was created using the old Fiskar embossing templates. I used it through the die cut machine. . . I have a Zip e-mate (same type of machine as Cuttlebug, Big Shot, etc) To use these embossing templates, you will need to mist the cardstock with water and sandwich your cardstock between the template and rubber mat. These templates are really cheap. . .approximately, $12.99 for about 10 designs. I'll do a short tutorial to show you what I did. I'll post it maybe tomorrow. You can also use brass stencils to create embossed images - plastic stencils work too.

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Another Stamping Tip:

Card #2

Have you ever used the spectrum type of stamp pads? They're great with multi-image stamps such as the flowers in the "Love it" stamp set. I wanted to create different colored flowers without having to color each flower individually and the Spectrum stamp pads are great for this purpose. I then took a sponge dauber and dabbed the similar colors on to the "white" areas of the white cardstock. Sponge dauber have become my best friends lately. . .they're great to use when you want to color different parts of your image or cardstock. They're great for shading as well.

Random Cards - Cuttlebug and a Little Bit of Venting

Good morning Everyone. . .I made these cards last night before I went to bed. I decided to use my Cuttlebug because I don't use them often enough. The stamps used are from the Hostess Set "Love it". I have a few more stamps to use from this set before I put this puppy. away.

Nothing special was done to create this card. . .if anything, with the first card I stamped and cut out the flowers and folded them forward a little to give them a 3D appearance. The color combo used was Cameo Coral, Cranberry Crisp and Certainly Celery. I used the Fiskar "Cloud" scissors to create the scallop edge, the scrapbook paper is from DCWV and the ribbon is from "Dashes, Dots & Checks".

How was your Mother's Day? Well mine started off good but it got sort of interesting in a not so good way. It was a subtle transformation, less so in action, but more so in implication. Are you the disciplinarian or the rule enforcer in the family? Just curious if you are. Well I am. . .I make sure the kids do their homework, I make sure they study for their tests, I restrict video game time, I make sure their chores are done and their rooms are cleaned, etc., etc. We have certain values and rules and I make sure they are followed. My husband and I agree on these values and rules but I'm the only one that reinforces them and my husband being the pushover, undermines them sometimes.

Anyway. . .to make a long story short, I'm sometimes seen as the "mean" parent and I don't think my kids understand the effort it takes to reinforce these rules. . . to have to remind them of these values and rules, to keep track of their progress in school, yadah, yadah, yadah. Without this structure, life would be chaotic. If given a choice, I would love to not have to reinforce anything.

Well, my husband. . .being a pushover that he is. . .will let my son play video games for hours even if the rule is 2 hours a week. My son used to be a major video game addict and he would play in lieu of doing his homework. I stopped that behavior by limiting the video game play to two hours a week. Well. . .the whole weekend I saw him playing on the video game for hours. . .I told him that he exceeded his time and he said "well, dad said I could play". . . .and play, and play, and play. He has an AP exam on Tuesday and he did not study for it this weekend because he was busy playing video games. I'm tired of being the "ogre" so I slinked off into my craft room and decided to ignore the whole situation. Thank goodness for rubber stamping otherwise I would have been upset for the whole weekend.

There are other issues of this sort of thing that I won't go into but that's what is ticking me off right now. I'm sorry to vent considering this is a rubber stamping blog site but I'm a bit annoyed right now. I needed to get it off my chest before it festers and I'll be pissed off for the rest of the day.

Other than a few disappointments. . .Mother's Day went well. We BBQ'd and watched "Babel" on DVD. Ummmmm, that was a pretty depressing movie. I can't say I recommend it. It ended on a good note, thank goodness or I would have been completely depressed.

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!!