Under the wire…

I’m just squeaking by today in a couple of ways. First, tomorrow is my dad’s birthday so I decided I’d better make a card for him!! You know me—the ultimate procrastinator. I’m also squeaking by using said card for the Gingersnap Creations GC39 Color Challenge—Metallics (the deadline is tomorrow). First, let me say that the picture sucks! I’ll try to post a better one tomorrow when I have natural light. I also noticed that the whole thing has kind of slid down a bit—guess I’d better fix that, too!!

Let me just say that EVERYTHING on this card is metallic! The base of the card is Stampin’ Up! Brushed Gold cardstock—it’s also used as a mat. The other layers are metallic bronze and metallic copper. I bought these papers right after Christmas at Marco’s, but didn’t realize until I got home that they were text weight and not cardstock. So, for this card I’ve mounted the papers onto cardstock to give them some weight. The rearmost layer is the bronze with Rock Candy crackle paint and then gold metallic rub-on massaged into the cracks. The next bronze layer was run through the Cuttlebug with the distressed stripe embossing folder, and then I rubbed some of the gold rub-on onto the raised areas. The image is from the Artistic Outpost “The Outpost” set. I embossed with copper metallic embossing powder on the copper metallic paper. The coppers didn’t match real well, so I took some of the metallic rub-on stuff—this time in a brown color—and rubbed all over the whole thing to blend everything together. I wanted to do some sort of funky embellishing, so I stitched a random mixture of copper and gold seed beads around the bottom gold mat using copper craft wire. It was finished off with a Tim Holtz thingy. Whew! It doesn’t look that special considering all that work, does it??  Oh well—my dad will like it. He is probably the biggest fan of my cards—he loves to get them.

Another Valentine…

Have you figured out yet that I love to make Valentines? I guess it’s kind of silly—a 50 year old woman giving Valentines to all her friends and family—but it’s so much fun!!! It makes me feel like a kid again. Don’t you remember being in grade school and cutting a hole in the top of a shoe box, decorating it, and taking it to school to be your Valentine mailbox? I guess part of me has never grown up!!!

So—here’s another Valentine I made last night. I’m loving the Artistic Outpost Geek is Chic set—this is my second Valentine using it!

Of course, the inside sentiment is the “I {heart} nerds” stamp! Let me know what you think.

I’m off to make one or two more Valentines today in between doing laundry! Oh—and if you wondered, my nephew liked his sock monkey birthday card!

***EDIT***
I forgot to mention—the card sketch I used is from Splitcoaststampers—SC252.

Snow day…

Well. Those of you who live in the Cincinnati area know it’s been snowing non-stop all day. I took the weather forecast as an excuse for a vacation day. I was going to work from home but nothing came up, so instead of working I played!!!!

Have you played with any of the stamps from Artistic Outpost? I’ve admired these stamps forever, and finally ordered a couple of sets awhile back. I work with engineers every day, so the Geek is Chic set has always appealed to me. What a better set to use for a special Valentine? (Yes, I’m still making them!)
I wanted to do another hanging—this one incorporates lots of grunge paper flowers and Tim Holtz Idea-ology tidbits. I’m pleased with how it turned out! Here’s the front:


The Idea-ology Muse Token didn’t quite make it into the photo (the thing hanging down in the lower right corner). It says, “Knowledge.” Of course, the Einstein stamp is from the Artistic Outpost set.

Here’s the “secret message” on the back, also from the Artistic Outpost set:


Hope you like it! The whole hanging was inspired by Wendy Vecchi’s work, and uses several of her stamps.

Looks like the snow is beginning to taper off—guess I should go shovel…….     1-2-3-4-5…..   OK, that urge has passed!!

I hope something I’ve shared here today inspires you to go make some Valentines. If not, check back this weekend—I should have one or two more!!!

Stay safe!

Organizing and a question…

I haven’t created anything today, but I did go to Archiver’s to see what was on sale! I was going to go to JoAnn’s, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby, too, but I spent enough at Archiver’s to make up for missing the other ones! I’ve been sitting here for the last hour or so trying to decide if I should start on some Valentine’s, but instead I’m going to work on that never ending task, organizing stamps. Do your stamps seem to multiply when you’re not looking, too? I swear—they’re worse than rabbits!!!

So here’s a question for you—when you have sets of stamps, do you break them up or keep them together?? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I made the decision awhile ago to go to CD case storage for unmounted stamps. However, some manufacturers, like Oxford Impressions or Artistic Outpost, put lots of stamps in a set—more than will fit a CD case. In these instances, do you split your sets or keep them together in some alternate type of storage? I know—this is the age-old question for stampers, but I would love to hear how you handle it! Oh—and while I’m organizing the stamps, I’m actually going to clean them (gasp!).   

I hope to get started on Valentines and a birthday card tomorrow, but until then, have you seen the video tutorial for this card? I got this stamp today—definitely see some of these for next Christmas!