Triple Play Valentines Day

What do you do when you can't get a plan for this year's Christmas cards? Make a Valentines Day one, of course! This one came literally "came to me" this morning.

The best thing about this card is it can be entered in all of the following challenges:

Mojo Monday (2nd Challenge Card)
OWH Valentine Love
Heart2Heart Metal Mania
Divas by Design - Metal
One Stop Craft Challenge - 3
You Had Me at Craft - Anything
Make it Monday - Anything

All paper and stamps are CTMH. I used some old and some new. The bear is OLD, but he's still one of my all-time favorites. Current stamps are from Just the Ticket and Love Live. The paper is also discontinued CTMH: Vintage Travel.

The metal pieces are from CTMH. The one holding the tickets and heart is called Foundry and is still current. The hinge is discontinued. The Baker's twine (Cherry Cobbler) and the embossing folder are both from Stampin' Up!

I colored with Copics and used Momento Rich Cocoa to stamp the bear and sponge all the edges.

I wish the pictures did this justice. I haven't loaded Picasa on my new laptop yet, so I don't have the ability to fix the photos much. He's really cute in person.

Well, even though I haven't solved my Christmas card dilemma (see earlier post), at least I got something done that makes me smile.

In other news, I can't seem to turn my internal editor off, so my writing is proceeding at a snail's pace. Terribly demotivating. But...I have finished through the first half of chapter 12. When I do get my internal editor turned off, the writing is sloppy. Also terribly demotivating. What was I thinking? Oh well, time to get back to work. Chapter 12b, here I come!

Until next time,
Becca

Christmas Mojo

I am having a terrible time trying to decide on a Christmas card this year. I make about 75 cards each year, and usually do an assembly line type of process. Not happenin' so far. As a result, I am up way too late, spent way too much time on this card for Mojo Monday, and am way too tired to be typing. Please forgive any weirdness.

Almost all supplies are CTMH. The colors are Aspen Green. Ponderosa Pine, and Vineyard Berry. Stamps used are Love Life, December Word Puzzle, and the solid image stamps that come with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

I did not have sparkles to match the Vineyard Berry color, so I used my B25 Copic (dk. blue) to color over red sparkles. Love that feature of Copics.

The embossing folder is from Stampin' Up!

Okay...I'm off to bed now. Maybe I'll dream up the perfect Christmas card and be ready to roll in the morning.

Until next time,
Becca

A Cricut Kind of Fall

Did I say I thought I was going to have fun with my CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge? Yeah, baby!

The 6 scalloped circles were cut at 3.75", the doily ones out of Autumn Terracotta and the solid out of Sunflower. I glued the doily over the solid, folded them in half, and adhered them together.

I thought I would get all fancy and sponge the edges of the pumpkin, but once I got the Autumn Terracotta over the Sunflower, it didn't seem to need any more help.  I rolled up a 1"x 12" piece of Cocoa cardstock to make the stem and used liquid glass to adhere both the leaf and stem to the pumpkin.

The leaf is actually green stamped on Sunflower; it didn't photograph well.

Then, you  must do something with the leftover piece of frilly Autumn Terracotta, right?

I bought these little accent pieces at a garage sale, so can't tell you where to go get them. Aren't they adorable?

The leaves are rolled. The Chocolate one uses the second generation technique, then the edges were re-rolled in more Chocolate. The green is Olive rolled in New England Ivy, and the orange is Sorbet rolled heavily in Autumn Terracotta and then rolled again just on the edges in Chocolate.

Love how these turned out, so I'm entering them in the Heart 2 Heart Autumn/Halloween Challenge.

I am not a CTMH consultant, but I am completely sold on their products.  I have owned my Cricut for a couple years now. Since I purchased my Art Philosophy cartridge, I have used it more in the last two months than the last two years combined. I'll say it again...Yeah, baby!

Until next time,
Becca

Live From...My New Laptop!

My new laptop arrived today. I am working on trying to get it updated with all the whatnots and whizbangs necessary to turn it into my crafty brain. I plan to keep the old laptop as my writing brain. Hopefully the old one perks up once I relieve it of picture duty.

In the meantime, I am working on a few things to share once I get this thing figured out. It has about 8 times the storage space as my old workhorse, which my son assured me had more space than I would ever need and is now busting at the seams.

In writing news, I have cleared out a space in the "overflow" room and made it my office. I've been getting my hinney in there on a regular basis. Yay for me! But, wow, does it feel like every word is being pulled through a needle. Hope that changes as I get further along. I have finished the first eleven chapters as well as the last one. At least I know where I'm going with it now!

Until next time,
Becca

Give Thanks

Today's card is all about Thanksgiving. Several people have encouraged me recently to continue this writing journey. After struggling with whether or not I want to invest 10 years on the off chance I might get published, I determined I need to finish this race.

Today's card is entered in two challenges:
Mojo Monday #211
Heart2Heart: It's in the Numbers

In order to give my background a little extra dimension, I ran it through my Cuttlebug and then lightly sponged it with Chocolate ink. I also sponged the edges of my background paper.

All supplies are CTMH except the Cuttlebug. The paper is called "Olivia" and was released last year. The pumpkin is actually from one of the sets included in the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. It's the present. (My origianal thought was to turn it upside down and use it as a flower, but then I "saw" the pumpkin in it and just colored it with Copics.) Pretty proud of myself for that one.

The calendar stamp set has also been retired by CTMH. I used scallop edged scissors to trim around the calendar simply because I was too lazy to figure out measurements to cut it with my Cricut. The scalloped circles were cut with the Cricut at 1.75" (white) and 2" (Cocoa). I used the "Connections" set to stamp the circle border behind the pumpkin and then used the chisel edge of Copic YG03 to give it that touch of green.

Encouraging people should be thanked...at least that's my philosophy.

Until next time,
Becca

Wicked Mojo

I usually do not make Halloween cards, but I have fallen in love with the CTMH "Wicked" set and have been playing with it almost non-stop.

This card is entered in Mojo Monday #210. The flower is made from three scrunched up cupcake holders I found at Michaels. I then scraped the edges across Orange and Pear ink pads. I had to squeeze it down pretty tight to make it small enough for the proportions of this card, but I think it's such a fun technique. I have been exercising great restraint (stop laughing) by not buying every single fun colored cupcake liner.

 I drew the eyeballs using a white gel pen. The black topper was cut with my CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut, the orange was hand cut.

Once again, I have used the white, pleated ribbon I got from Hobby Lobby but I ran my Pear ink pad over the top of it. In retrospect, I think it might have been better to use a re-inker and color the whole ribbon one solid color. What do you think?

Speaking of that ribbon, I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday and they didn't have any more of it. Yikes! It has (quite obviously) become my "go to" accessory, and I'm not sure what I will do if I can't find it again.

Until next time,

Becca

Happy Birthday to Me Ma

Several years ago a friend told me she sent a birthday card to her mother on her own birthday. Well, today is my birthday so I decided to send my mom, who is also a breast cancer survivor, a card. It's an added bonus that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

This card is entered in the Heart 2 Heart sketch challenge this week.

All supplies except the white, pleated ribbon and accent pearls are CTMH. I used the "Kiss and Twist" technique on the stamped ribbon using a snowflake which happened to be sitting on my desk. The center panel was cut with the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. Oh yeah...having fun with that!

If you follow my blog, you will recognize that white, pleated ribbon from my last post. I will be back at Hobby Lobby tomorrow so...hmm...think I might need to get some more! What the heck, the day after my birthday still counts for me to buy myself a present. Right?

With the left overs of the center panel cuts, I made the following card for my sister-in-law who has a birthday next week.

The close up here shows you the black roses in a little better detail. I used a ton (and I do mean a TON) of liquid glass to hold the black roses onto the crocheted flowers and then to attach them all to the paper. I hope it holds up in the mail.

Again, all supplies are from CTMH. This is the "Wicked" set plus the swirly from "Pair-A-Phrase", both freebies when I purchased my Art Philosophy in August. I hope she doesn't look to witchy. My sister-in-law loves her jewelry, so the inside says, "Have a BLING Birthday!"
Until next time,
Becca