Mymessage card (maybe) similar to fantasy card

So it's late and I couldn't think of any snappy titles. Maybe I'll come up with something better in the morning...

A card I made late this evening for the mymessage challenge over at the Hero Arts Blog. I don’t think it qualifies since I only used one HA stamp {there is no one like you}. I didn’t intend for it to be that way…

I had had so much fun using the dress stamp and some fabric to create a card for the Caardvarks ‘Good Knight Fantasy’ Challenge that I asked my mom to send me remnants of the Duponi silk fabric she used to make my wedding dress. I would like to use this stamp and the silk fabric to make some engagement or wedding (Congratulations!) cards.

I stamped and then tried to emboss on the silk (like my Caardvark submission) but the embossing didn’t really take.

The sentiments and the clock are from one of the Visual Artistry sets by Tim Holtz, which my husband gave me over the weekend. The sweet man walked into Michaels in State College, PA (where he’s a visiting Professor) on our anniversary (since he wasn’t able to be home) and picked out some clear stamp sets he thought I might like. He done good!

Anyway, I guess I got carried away with the Tim Holtz stamps and it wasn’t until I was done that I realized I had only the one little HA stamp, but since I made the card I figured…what the heck, I might as well submit it.

Words/phrases were cut and pasted from these sayings/phrases:

to be all
that is
possible
we must
attempt the
impossible,
to be all
that we
can be,
we must
dream of
being more

and

Live the
Life
You’ve
Imagined.

Thanks for stopping by...

Cozy fire...or...I can’t believe I got this shot!!!

This is what I’ve had going since mid-afternoon. It’s April 15, and in Northern, Virginia, it’s raining and a chilly 42 degrees. We had some left-over wood sitting on our front porch that I really didn’t want to have to bother moving to the carport…so since the weather is cooperating, thought I would burn the wood. Now it’s all gone. But not before my son got to have one last read sitting in front of the fire!

Tomorrow it will be in the high sixties and 72 on Saturday.

Hope you have a nice evening, wherever you live...

Never done before --- “Blog Candy” offering!

Because...

Tomorrow...April 16th...is my wedding anniversary. My wonderful husband and I have been married 15 years!

This August, we’re moving from the Washington, D.C. area to Laramie, Wyoming so my husband can fulfill his dream of being a full time Law Professor. With a limited moving allowance, the aforementioned "wonderful" husband has informed me that...I can’t possibly move/take/haul all of my “stuff.”

I have this extra set of clear stamps that I purchased by mistake (already had the set!) and can’t return (lost the receipt!) and since "I can't possibly take it with me" to Laramie…I thought I’d offer it up as candy because...in some cultures, when someone has a celebration "they" bring cake or little gifts to their friends or to the people they work with.

So…to celebrate the 15 years being married to my darling husband and the many more that are yet to come---I’d like to offer this…

Hopefully you can see everything clearly. Here’s what you get (all in a striped green and blue fabric covered "hat box"...

Set of 12 clear “Dog” stamps by Inkadinkado

Ribbon --- Approximately 6 yards from Michaels, AC Moore, or G-Street Fabrics

Buttons (pink, green, brown and doggie themed)
Yellow flower table confetti (from Bride’s Magazine)
Sheet of baby pink stickers --- Mosaic Tile’s Play

If you like what you see…just leave a little post to say “hi” by midnight, EST Sunday, April 19.

I’ve never done anything like this before…and don’t even know if anyone will stop by to visit or participate, but…even if you’re the only visitor and you like what you see…you win!

(I’m going to try and figure out this random integer thingy…otherwise I’ll have my 12 year old son pull a number out of a hat…how’s that for high tech!!)

Thanks for stopping in...

Papertrey Release Party...

I finally managed to make a Papertrey Ink Release Party! I usually miss them for one reason or another...but not tonight.

Plus, I managed to snag some “product” without getting the “so sorry…temporarily all sold out” message. Now…if I could just manage to make the Blog Hop one of these days…

I Believe…in Caardvark’s Good Knight Fantasy Challenge

[Edited: Never done before...offering some Blog Candy. See this post http://joshuajiraffe.blogspot.com/2009/04/never-done-before-blog-candy-offering.html to see if you like.]

and this is my interpretation on the challenge...

This card ‘evolved’ as I was working on it. My original thought was to have this garland---a favorite left over from the holidays---continue to wrap around the top of the card…but it would have made the card base too large and the card too bulky looking.

Without the garland, however, it looked like it was missing something…thus the ribbon and bling on the final version above.

I used two stamps by Inkadinkado that I have long admired. I found both on sale at AC Moore this week…for 1/3rd the original price! The large base stamp shows a woman sitting at her desk, writing.

The second stamp, which I love, was stamped on red satin fabric. I first ironed on fusible webbing and then stamped with Stazon ink. I cut the dress out and attached it so that it appears that the woman in the background is working…maybe doing laundry… like Cinderella!!! Don’t know if you can see here so here is a close up…

The ‘shawl” is ribbon, and so are the “pearls.” The flower is from a silk bouquet in my living room.

The Believe stamp is from Papertrey Ink’s Believe clear stamp set and I think it works rather well on this card.

I find that I really like how this card turned out!

Thanks for looking…

Me-ow! My-oh! Mymessage Card …

I made for the current Hero Arts “mymessage” challenge. Ironically, it was raining last night when I made this card…and it’s still drizzling this morning.

The "window" is stamped using a HA shadow stamp from a boxed set of 4 stamps. The “windowsill ledge” is a folded scrap of cuttlebugged cardstock.

I used a foil top from my favorite Greek yogurt for the silver “cat-tag”. I’ve been hanging onto these foil tops ‘cause I love to recycle and knew that...one-day...I would be able to re-cycle them into my craft!

While rummaging around in my blue embellishment tray, I found these ‘rain dots’ that I had purchased a while back but never used. (I see now that I probably should have placed one or two under the windowsill ledge.)

Close-ups of the ledge...

another view...

I used a combination of letter sets: All Night Media’s DJ Chunky Clear Alphabet Stamps (My oh); Inkadinkado Cattitude clear stamp set (Meow!); and Martha Stewart Halloween Typeface clear stamps (for the - and !).

The “under the weather” sentiment is by A Muse and the cat ‘out on the ledge’ by Judi-Kins.

This was fun!

Thanks for stopping by...

Beyond Paper Challenge

Been gone for four days and so was rushed this afternoon to try and craft some cards for the Hero Arts Beyond Paper Challenge. I tried to finish my cards before the sun set but I didn’t make it in time…

The windy tree on this card is stamped on muslin that’s been sprayed with Tsukinek Walnut Ink. I’ve been wanting to tea dye muslin for sometime and figured this was the closest I could get to it today. I first ironed fusible webbing to the muslin to give it more body.

This second card is stamped with with muslin that was dyed in berry juice left over from some frozen berries we had for breakfast. I baked it in the microwave to set the color but it’s still not as dark as I would have liked. I fused it to double-sided webbing and stamped it using moonlight white by Brilliance and embossed it…but the embossing doesn’t really show.
I see from my photo that the bow is way too large. It’s frustrating that I somehow miss seeing these things until after…I take the photo.

This card also uses the windy tree stamp and a sentiment from the clear birthday anyone can stamp set on the walnut stained muslin.

I originally planned to make this into a set of tags but didn't have the time so at the last minute decided to turn it into a card…the colors (brown, lavender, lime and dark purple) are much nicer in real life.

While cleaning up earlier today, I emptied a bottle of wine left over from the weekend before and decided to experiment with stamping and embossing on glass…something I’ve never done before.

My stamping is smudged and I had to add a paper label that doesn’t fit snuggly…but it was a fun first attempt!

Thanks for looking...