bring us some (metaphorical) figgy pudding!

we are celebrating all the yummy treats of the holiday season this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so a card with any type of festive food on it will qualify, from xmas pudding, to gingerbread, to a roasted turkey, candy canes... or even a plate of cookies for santa, like i have here:

patterned paper: carta bella, bella blvd, stampin' up and the stripey layer is a digi collection from echo park, i think; santa and cocoa cut from doodlebug and american crafts journal cards, respectively; dear santa card: pebbles; border stickers: fancy pants and crate; cookie plate is a basic grey tag with a crate paper doily sticker on top; cookie brads: eyelet outlet; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

my cookies are eyelet outlet cookie brads, which are on currently sale in the EO store, a fact which i fear means they are on their way to being discontinued. so i'm especially glad i stocked up on them in the booth at expo over the summer!

all of the other bits and bobs are from different sources. the cocoa and santa were each part of larger journal cards, from two different companies, but i couldn't find stickers the right size, so i had to fussycut them. i was excited to see that julee tilman's awesome mojo monday sketch challenge is back, fortnightly now, and it's being held on her personal blog, poetic artistry. don't you love the sketch? (ok, yes, i might've got slightly carried away with the scallop border section lol!) 

be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see stephanie's amazing card, then start planning your own food-centric holiday masterpiece! btw, did i mention there's a little prize to commemorate our last official themed prompt of the 2018 season?! just sayin'... 

layers upon layers

this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are celebrating the official beginning of summer by being, "all bundled up" obviously, lol! no, you needn't grab a cardi... (tho actually here in NJ it's been cool enough that even i, queen of t-shirts-in-winter, wore a jacket the other day?! unheard of!) ...we just want to see holiday cards with three or more layers! do i even have to tell you that i went with the "or more" option? nah. didn't think so. ;)

scanned and resized vintage pc from my collection, printed on canon medium glossy photo paper, trimmed and distressed on the edges; golden doily and seambinding from my stash; patterned papers: glitz design, pion, photoplay, october afternoon; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, so, a familiar look from me --torn layers of paper-- but, this time instead of vintage paper, i've used all ordinary store-bought patterned papers, in neutral tones, so that the colors of my (scanned and slightly scaled down) vintage postcard would really pop. seeing as how i did have to scan and crop it, here's a closeup of the card in question, which is addressed to mr. herbert gerwerd, from will, and postmarked philadelphia, pa, december 23, 1907! you are welcome to print and use this in your own creations, if you'd like to: 

i was inspired by the current --and alas, final-- mojo monday sketch, though in the end, despite test-driving a number of pretty ingredients for the role of the cool vertical strips, my card wound up feeling finished without them. meanwhile i send a heartfelt, "farewell and thank you" to julee tilman for 500 amazing sketches over the course of nearly ten years?! mojo monday will definitely be missed, but i'm looking forward to what is next for that talented lady! 

stephanie also has a beautiful layery creation for your delight... why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check it out, darlings?!

trees, trees and also trees (some of them plaid)

i'm not sure how it happened, but i wound up with fewer holiday cards than i actually need this year, so i'll be making and posting a couple more over the next week or so, as i finish up. one of the things i do in this sort of situation is look through my stash and choose a card or two i especially enjoyed making, and sort of, well... CASE myself, lol. this time i saw these fun colorburst trees from january, and thought, "yep! that'll work!" so i made a few more in a similar vein:

one of the reasons i chose this design is that i knew i had a bunch of the same "ingredients" left. by which i mean panels of watercolor paper on which i'd either used up some pre-mixed colorburst, or tried experiments in tinted modeling paste, or blended colors that didn't quite work or... well, something. one way and another, i often end up with panels like these; ones which, for whatever reason, were not quiiiiiiiiiiite right at the time i made them, but were too pretty to toss away. i never worry about that, though, because i know that they'll be perfect for *SOMETHING*, sometime.  For example, the blue ones make really good sky... add a torn strip of white glitter paper and you have the background of a faux polaroid landscape, such as the one all three of these cards make use of! Diecut some tiny trees from the green panels et voila! it's a winter wonderland! :)

this card might be my favorite of the group, because it uses two of my "glorious experiment" panels, a bit of leftover plaid from the "warm and cozy" mittens card a few weeks ago, and a cyanotype landscape from an old christmas ideals magazine that matched perfectly!

this one's got more little trees, a snowflakey ideals page, the last few snowflake rub-ons in an ancient packet, and a very dark and stormy emboss-resist colorburst panel that really was resist-able... till now!

and finally, i got to use up one of my other hand-painted plaid panels, a few more trees, a scrap of peacock blue cardstock, and a very blendy, aurora borealis sky that was a much-too-wet attempt at a watercolor globe this summer! it just goes to show that there are no BAD colorburst paintings, just ones we haven't found the right use for yet!!! :)

the current mojo monday sketch (#477) is rather fab, so i used it without much variation on all three cards:

and the theme for just us girls week #372 is "christmas tree" so i'm definitely on point for that one:

i hope you'll be inspired to look at some of your crafty "mistakes" with new eyes, and find a way to give them new life! ♥♥♥

building a better mandala

or, at least, building a different mandala; since i quite liked the one from my SOS card earlier this week on which i used my spellbinders' "blossom two" dies as the scalloppy layers in the mandala. but i thought of a new way to combine store-bought card-making supplies with my own hand-drawn and hand-painted bits, so (quite immodestly!) i like it even better. first i'll show the card and then i'll essplain:

patterned paper: glitz design, k and co; mandala built on strathmore watercolor paper and painted with koi paints, with a layer of copic marker swirls and sharpie white paint pen accents; xs black outlining pen: faber castell pitt; border punches: recollections, ek success; rhinestones: heidi swapp, martha stewart; pearl accent (recolored blue with a copic marker): k and co; chalk ink: colorbox; adheisves: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

ok, so, do you see the sliver glitter paper outlines? there are two: one's at the very center, surrounding the blue gem; the second is close to the outer edge. those outlines are actually a couple of the offcuts from blossom- shapes i used on the first card. i trimmed neatly around the edges so i'd just have a sort of blossom- or mandala-shaped border. i didn't realize until i sat down to write this how hard it'd be to explain, so instead of writing more, why don't i just show you?

in case you're thinking, "hey lauren, since these are nestabilities, couldn't you just use the two closest sizes to get a similar effect with much less effort?" well yes, though, as you can see in the shot above, it does make a much fatter outline; also i like the idea that the version featuring hand-cutting means this technique could be used with ANY kind of die. (so yeah... you'll be seeing this again, darlings!)

anyway, after i had outlines i liked, i glued them to a square of watercolor paper, and filled the interior with watercolors, markers, circles punched from scraps of patterned paper, and some sticky-back bling. then i outlined everything with a super-fine-point black permanent pen. et voila!

i was inspired by the current mojo monday (#381) sketch for my layout, tho i did slide the mandala over to the side AND made a wide (rather than tall) card, but it's still an awesome sketch as i'm sure you'll agree:

i hope everyone has enjoyed a lovely weekend. we had snow yesterday, we expect more snow tonight, and my mom is coming to stay for a few days, so i'm looking forward to a busy week, spent largely indoors. whatever you're doing this week i hope it's ♥FUN♥ and if you encounter some nasty weather, i hope you stay warm and safe! xoxo

classic basic grey still looks fab, doesn't it?

at least it does to me. the sultry line was a particular fave (all that pink!) and i still love it, actually; plus i seriously doubt that anyone will ever make "solid" colored papers that i like more than the artfully distressed looking bg ones. so there. to celebrate still having such goodness in my stash, i broke out a bunch of it to make a giftbag which holds niece madeline's birthday presents. see?

(patterned paper: basic grey, recollections, making memories, anna griffin, creative imaginations, girls' paperie; chipboard letters: kay and co; butterfly die: quickutz; border punches: recollections; doily from my stash; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i used the current mojo monday sketch (#345) pretty darned faithfully for once; assuming you can get past the part where the role of the circles is being played by butterflies, instead. po-tay-to, po-tah-to! :)

maddie's actual (10th!) birthday was yesterday, and her family party is on saturday, to which we are really looking forward. it is rumored that a full complement of nieces and nephews will be in attendance, which becomes less of a "gimmee" as they grow up and develop social lives and schedules of their own. life has certainly changed over the course of the past ten years and it's both scary and exciting to think how much more dramatically it will change in the next ten. yikes! meanwhile,

happy birthday 

♥MADELINE♥ 

and many more!!!

knitting mojo!

here in the northeast we got slammed with more snow this week, and boy was grateful that i could stay indoors through the worst of it! luckily, lovely husband jeff, who HAD TO be at work, was clever enough to have booked a "just in case" hotel room near his plant the night before, and he rode out the storm safely, as well. so in the end, what 8" of white stuff meant to me was an extra day, all on my own, playin' with paper. there are definitely worse fates! :)

(almost everything here is vintage ephemera, including those gorgeous graphed letters i cut from a needlepoint how-to; the crocheted flower illustrations from an old yarncraft book; and that fabulous doll in her glorious 1979's KNITTED trouser suit! the exceptions being a crate paper fabric brad, some dymo label, core'dinations cardstock, and colorbox inks.) 

i made this yarn-themed card for a knitting friend, using loads of off-cuts and leftovers from a new crop of small knitting journals i've been working on, very similar to the mini sewing journals i made last fall. i'm hoping to list the new yarn ones in my etsy shop this weekend!

i used this week's mojo monday sketch (#329) for my layout, rotating it ninety degrees to the left so my stunning-knitwear-clad beauty would be facing into the card!

another fab thing that happened during the snowstorm is that i found a really great local guy to plow our driveway! ordinarily, jeff gets home early enough to do it, but it certainly is nice to know that in a pinch, there's a trustworthy and affordable option that does not involve my already creaky back and a big heavy shovel. thank heavens for friendly entrepreneurs, am i right, darlings?! ♥♥♥

still shapin' up over here!

or, more accurately, over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ where we've eschewed the ordinary rectangular or square card for something more exotic, and the reader's gallery is already pretty FAB♥U♥LOUS!!! speaking (most immodestly!) of cool cards, here's mine:

(patterned paper: pink paislee, basic grey, sei, making memories; die cut ornaments: crate paper; chipboard word: my mind's eye; rub-on sentiment: tpc studio; ink: color box; circle punch: ek success; deco scissors + gems: michaels; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

i was pretty excited that it's mojo monday's "round or square" week, and immediately chose "round" of course! i had to flip the sketch horizontally at the last minute when it turned out i just could not quiiiiiiite fit my two ornaments over the tall "Ch" at the beginning of "Christmas", but i think it works pretty well.

And now why not jump on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ where miss stephanie has also prepared a fabulous new card for your delight?!

may your cards be merry and bright!

because this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are celebrating the warmer, brighter, sunnier days by making cards with super strong colors, we've even got an inspiration photo to get you thinking, see?

don't worry, you needn't use ALL of those colors; actually you can use any shades you like... just make them BRIGHT! want to see what i made? (be a sport and say, "yes" here, ok?otherwise the rest of my post will fall a bit flat. ta v much!)

(patterned paper: autumn leaves, my mind's eye, echo park, creative imaginations, doodlebug, love elsie; stars, frame, border sticker: mme "merry and bright" collection, of course!; glitter flamingo sticker: meri meri; star trim: making memories; adhesives: staple brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

for some reason the first thing i thought of was flamingos. then i kind of second-guessed myself and thought i should do something that was more obviously like that fabulous inspiration wreath. but then i third-guessed myself and decided i should go with my first instinct, afterall. so i did. in the last few years one of my favorite holiday color combos has been hot pink and bright green; since this seemed to fit the prompt, and also to complement the flamingo idea rather well, i didn't even bother to second-guess that idea, i just got right to work! :) i found the ancient rhonna farrer xmas paper with the "merry and bright" sentiment almost immediately; i added in  a few other embellies just to round off the design; ran the whole thing through the sewing machine and voila! another card for the december pile!

of course i'm linking up with patrice at 52-card-pickup; but also, i used this week's mojo monday sketch for my layout:

and now pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease jump over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ with me, because i just cannot wait for you to see stephanie's totally AWESOME card!!!

the last xmas cards of 2012

actually, they are not christmas cards as such, but money enclosures, which we're giving our eldest niece and nephew; so i wanted them to be the same and yet different! and they are, see?

(patterned paper--mostly scraps: echo park, basic grey, sei, mme; kraft cardstock: hobby lobby; ink: colorbox; ribbon: making memories: pen for faux stitching: copic multiliner; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

for the layout i used the current mojo monday sketch, which i think you'll agree is quite fabulous...

...i even included the little bow.  in my version, it's the thing that holds the flap closed, so the money will stay in! :)

i happened to have a couple of very cool stripey airmail envelopes that i thought would be perfect for these; they're either vintage or vintage-style, i'm not sure which, but it doesn't particularly matter to me, they are just FUN! i also had some boxes of xmas candy, so i stuffed everything into store-bought bags (wouldja believe 50 cents at target??!) which i personalized with alphabet stickers. et voila!

we are now officially ready for our day trip to maryland for an early "christmas" with jeff's family. can everybody pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease cross their fingers that it will not snow today on the I-95 corridor? ta v much! ciao, darlings! ♥

best witches for a happy halloween!

i was too lazy to take a photo of the inside of my card, but i wanted to make sure i told you the *FAB* sentiment i used on what is, for me, a very rare halloween card. i don't know WHY i seldom make them, i quite like halloween, and i love all the goth imagery and colors and things, but somehow between my family's over-abundance of autumn birthdays and the fact that halloween tends to fall in the space where christmas card and project production steps into high gear, it just never seems to happen. but this week's challenge at shopping our stash is trick or treat AND i stumbled across this adorable richard scarry illustration in one of my falling-apart booksale books, so i was doubly inspired! just in case you are not keen on the holiday aspect, the alternate route for this challenge is to make a card which features candy, cupcakes, or any other "treat" item on it... so it really is trick OR treat! cool, no?!

(vintage richard scarry illustration from a damaged library-used-book-sale-aquired children's book; patterned paper: authentique; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

another thing that tipped the scales for me in favor of a halloween card this week is that i have a fabulous (but neglected) authentique paper pad that miss stephanie gave me a while back, which is in the black, creamy/yellowy and orange tones that so artful challenges (where my lovely and vivacious blogging friend electra is on the dt!) would like to see for their harvest moon challenge; you don't actually need to have a MOON in your project for that; in fact it doesn't have to even be halloween-themed, butas soon as i have a witch on a broom, i immediately want to position her in front of a big full moon, so i was more than halfway there already! :)

i used last week's mojo monday sketch, even though it IS last week's mojo monday sketch, because for one thing, i just LOVED the sketch itself; but also, that lovely large circle element is just PERFECT for the aforementioned witch-enhancing moon, don't you think?

i'm also linking up with the autumn/halloween challenge at challenge up your life and the time to get spooky challenge at card makin' mamas so i send a hearty "HELLO" to the lovely ladies on those sites!

speaking of lovely ladies, there's a whole gorgeous bunch of 'em at SOS and they've ALL made utterly fabulous things they'd like to show you this week, so why not hop over and visit them now? it's well worth the trip, i promise you!

inspired by... mojo*!

i'm always blown away when people are able to combine a whole bunch of challenges in one project, that seems to me to be quite a talent; i'm pretty sure if you can do that, you are probably also great at games like bridge and chess where you not only need to remember every move that has been made by every player, but you should also be thinking and strategizing a few steps AHEAD. for some reason, i just cannot do that. in fact, when i try to stuff too many elements into my head at once, it's like my brain gets overloaded and calls for a "fire drill" scenario, in which all of my ideas form a straight line, march quickly and quietly out of the building, and stand about in the courtyard until a guy from the fire department calls, "all clear"! 

but sometimes i can manage two or three... like, say, a color challenge, a manufacturer and a required technique; or, in this case, a photo inspiration and a sketch:

 (patterned paper: amy tangerine, recollections, heidi swapp, prima, pink paislee; die cut cake: pink paislee; pearl frame: want2scrap; florals: prima; brads: my mind's eye; ribbon: creative imaginations; heart dies: cuttlebug; circle punch: ek success; pin: little yellow bicycle; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono tape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

the photo inspiration is, of course, from the lovely laurel seabrook, i ♥LOVE♥ the photos she chooses, i love the projects she makes from them, and i love the way she delights in the diversity of the entries which come in. here is inspired by #34 ... admit it, you feel happier just looking at the photo, don't you?!

the sketch is from mojo monday (#252); once again, a site i really like, because i find the sketches to be consistently wonderful: not too spare, but also not so detailed that you can't carve out your own unique take. i especially like that the last monday of the month is "round or square", it usually reminds me that i haven't made a round card in a while, which means it's time!

speaking of time, i have finished my ICADs, and am looking forward to showing off the last few-- and my completed album-- just as soon as i have a few minutes to photo those babies. ciao for now, darlings! ♥

*yes, i know, my titles lately have been the embodiment of "lackluster"... but if i just sat here and waited for a great one we'd all get really, really bored, so i'm rollin' with it, k?  :)