Soft Pencil Wednesday?????

I absolutely can't wait until it is 2010! I have had one of those weeks when nothing seems to go right, and it didn't end with my crafting either. First, I guess that I got thrown off by the holiday this week, and posting for Soft Pencil a day earlier than usual. I colored the image last night, loved what I did, then when I went to put it on a card or anything else, I went completely blank! Every time that I sat down to do something with it today, blank again! Our challenge was to make it sparkle, anything goes! So, when someone turns me loose with a challenge of sparkling, I go nuts. I love anything that sparkles. So, I decided to put everything in my stash that sparkled on my craft table to see what inspired me, and this simple layout is what I came up with:

Please excuse the photo quality today, that was one of the things that I couldn't get right even after photo editing it. Then, if you notice, the photo editing software "gremlins" ate part of my watermark. Just Pitiful! So, Elizabeth over at Soft Pencil Designs.....please forgive me if my design is not up to its usual quality, I promise next week will be better. I have faith!

Ok, what do you think? Too much Sparkle? I just couldn't stop! The two blue panels are sparkle card stock from The Paper Company. The snow falling is Sticky gems from Michael's, along with the snowflake centers. The snow that the cute little critters are standing on is Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, and the White part of the snowman is painted with SU shimmer paint! It s hard to tell from my photo, but the mouse, little boy, and snowman were cut out, and popped up with foam dimensional dots. The rest of the coloring was done with Stampin Up ink refills and blender pens. The snowflake embellishments were made with a Martha Stewart Punch.

Is this the cutest winter image ever? I am thinking that it may get used on a winter scrapbook page as well. Go on over to the Soft Pencil Designs Logo on my side bar, click on it and that will take you to their blog and store. Keep checking back here, the other Design Team members blogs (see sidebar links), and the Soft Pencil Blog, as Elizabeth is working on some new images for all us.

Until next time, stay safe, healthy and happy.......................Blessings, Lisa

Easy Cards with Big Shot Dies

Hello! Wow, what a busy Christmas season that was! I have been tired for days! Of course this dismal, cold cloudy Ohio winter weather doesn't help much. The fact that my daughter is off school until next Monday doesn't help much either. Whoever thinks that having only one child is easy, is seriously wrong. Only children seem to require alooooooooooooooooooooot of attention. If I hear......"I'm bored" one more time this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet, she just got brand new toys and Nintendo DS games for Christmas. Go figure...

Anyways, you have absolutely no idea how glad that I am to be back to paper crafting and blogging! I am a hopeless addict, I admit it! Today I am showing you some cards that were inspired by a card that I saw on Jana Millen's blog. The particular post can be found by clicking here, and here, and here. You get the point! To check out her other posts, click on her blog header from one of those links that I just provided. The first one below was made with Stampin Up's /Sizzix Bigz die cut called "Beautiful Butterflies". I ran the butterfly through my cuttlebug with my Swiss Dots Embossing folder, then I used my SU 2-way glue pen on the edges so that I could apply some of Stampin Up's pretty glitter. I think I chose one from the Cosmo Glitter Stack in the main catalog. I added some sticky pearls from Michael's and hand drew some antennas, stamped a greeting and voila, all done. The nice thing about that beautiful butterflies die cut, is that there are four different sized and shaped butterflies on it. When I get some cards made with the other shapes, I will post them.

Supplies: Card stock ~ SU Kraft, Bashful Blue; Ink ~ SU Basic Black


The next card is the same layout, but I used a different die-cut. I used The SU/Sizzix Daisies #2 die-cut, and the Buttons #5 Sizzlet die-cut for the flower center. There are three different sizes on the Daisies #2 die, the one on my card is the medium sized flower. I decided these cards would be a great way to use up some of the patterned paper that I have had laying around for years. I have daisy and butterfly craziness all over my craft table. If you do the same, save the cute little circles that get cut out from the center of the daisies, I am going to show you what you can do with those on another day.

Supplies: Card stock ~ SU Kraft, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry; Ink ~ SU Basic Black; Stamps ~ Sentiment is from SU Sincere Salutations set The last photo is of my sweet mini dachshund, Brandy. She was sleeping, when I took the photo, I hate waking her. My mother-in-law got her that cute bandanna thing that is on her collar for Christmas at a craft show. She looks so sporty in it that I just had to show it. Sorry I couldn't catch her awake. She is 15 1/2 years old, so she sleeps alot! It was made with material with my college almamater on it...The University of Cincinnati Bearcats! Is she cute sleeping under those blankets or what?

Ok, now that I have bored you to sleep, I shall sign off and go do some more crafting.

Until next time...................................Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday - Mandala

Hello, it is another Soft Pencil Thursday. This is one of my favorite days of the week. This week we were asked to design something other than a card, with one of the Mandala digi stamps. I was assigned to my favorite Mandala digi that Elizabeth has in her store, it is called Eternal Flight. I swear that she must have ESP or something. Thanks Elizabeth, I had a blast coloring it. In fact, I had so much fun, I made two projects with it. I was so glad to have time to do that, so that you all can see their versatility.

For the first project, I altered a composition notebook. I decided that the image would be perfect for that purpose and I made it my prayer journal. This way, I can make notes when I am reading if I don't understand something, or if a particular verse or two stands out more than usual. Plus, I must confess (yes the pun is intended) that I thought that it might inspire me to read the good book more often.

I used Stampin Up markers and ink refills to color/water color the image. Here are the colors that I used: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, and a combination of Brilliant Blue and Lovely Lilac to create the violet color on the butterflies. The fancy trim on the book binding was made with my new favorite Martha Stewart border punch, called Lattice. The ribbon, which serves as a book mark is retired SU Delphinium Grosgrain. Oh, how I will miss it when I run out of it! The butterfly accents were also made with a Martha Stewart Punch called "Butterfly Trio". I cut out my circles with my Creative Memories cutting system. The tutorial on how to put this whole project together can be found in the resources section of the Splitcoast Stampers website which you can find if you click here. See below for a close up photo of the Mandala.

The second project I made is a decorative element for my dining area that will hang on a shelf made for me by my grandfather. I got the idea to make this when I was browsing the dollar spot at Michael's craft store. I found a package of chipboard type coasters with different designs on them. I thought round....Mandala, gotta see what I can do with it. So, I printed the image out small until I came up with the size that I wanted. Yes, it took several tries. Oh well, it's only ink. I then, cut the image out with one of my Circle Nestibilities Di-cut, colored it with some coordinating colors to match my dining room, then mounted it on a slightly larger circle. Next, I traced the outline of the coaster onto some Bashful Blue CS, and cut it out. I applied all of this together with snail adhesive. The final touch was to punch a hole in the top and add an eyelet with my Crop-a-dile. I love that tool! Then, of course a loop to hang it with and a bow for decoration. The ribbon used by the way is Stampin Up Navy Grosgrain 1/4". The first photo below is a close up of the final project.

This next photo is just to show you what I started out with. The coaster that I altered is obviously on the right.

This final photo is one of the whole shelf that I am hanging the decoration on, it is over on the far right side.

I hope you enjoyed what I showed you today, and I hope you go visit the blogs of the other DT members, as they may have a different Mandala than I did and different projects. I know I can't wait to go browse them! As always, you will find links to their blogs over on my sidebar, and also a link to the Soft Pencil Designs Store.

Before I go, I just want to apologize for only posting one time over the past week. I am so incredibly busy getting ready for Christmas. I will try to post more between now and Christmas.

Until next time........................ Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday

It is Soft Pencil Thursday! I had so much fun coloring this weeks digi image. If you haven't tried them yet, you should! They are inexpensive, you get them delivered to your inbox quickly, and there are so many cute ones out there. Elizabeth, owner of Soft Pencil Designs, has some of the cutest digi images on the web! I have a link to her blog and store over on my sidebar. Go visit her, and have fun. She even has a free image for you to try on her blog. Ok, onward......We were asked to use our favorite Christmas colors with the image of the week, so the photo below is what I came up with.

The image is called: "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I printed it out kind of big, so I grabbed a fancy envelope that I had in my stash (I got a variety of fancy envelopes in a package at Big Lots Discount Store), and made the card larger than usual to fit in it. I had a couple of extra "Michu & his Christmas Tree" images colored, so I added that to the front of the envelope with some snail adhesive. Michu looks so cute peeking out from behind the tree. I printed the Image out onto some Watercolor Paper, and got to work with my Stampin Up Ink refills, and my blender pens. After I was done with the colored portions of the image, I used a small paint brush, a steady hand and some SU white shimmer paint on the snowy ground around the people, animals and house. Then, I thought, more sparkle. You know how I love sparkle! I used some white/iridescent chunky glitter on the snow only below the peeps and animals. The image, and its mat were cut out with some of my square Nestibilities and Cuttlebug. The sentiment was typed by me in Microsoft Word and printed out. The poinsettia and leaves are Prima, and the finishing touch of the sticky gems are from Michael's. Below is a close up of the shimmer paint and glitter for you to enjoy.



Ok, I was having so much fun water coloring, I made a book marker and thought I would add it to my post today. The image is called "Michu Flies a Kite". I used the usual supplies to color the image. I then mounted it on some Stampin Up Night of Navy card stock, and punched a border around it with an EK Success border punch. The ribbon is from my retired stash of SU ribbon.
I hope you enjoyed today's projects, and will give Soft Pencil Designs a try yourself!

Until next time............Blessings, Lisa

Purple Snowflakes?

I know, that sounds really strange. However, I was feeling inspired by purple the other night. I know, imagine that! Me, and purple? So I put together a couple of cards with Stampin Up's "Serene Snowflakes" stamp set and some purple ink and card stock. The first card is actually a layout from the Clean and Simple blog. The layout number is CAS FTL69. There is a link to their blog on my sidebar, and on their sidebar, is a link to all of their card sketches! I used SU Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink, and the sentiment is from Stampin Up's "Sincere Salutations" stamp set.

This next card is also a card layout from the Clean and Simple blog. It is layout CAS FTL65. Again I used "Serene Snowflakes", but the greeting is from SU's "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set. Also again I used Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink and card stock. I punched out the sentiment with Stampin Up's Modern Label Punch, and added some self adhesive purple metal embellishments. Of course the scalloped borders were made with Stampin Up's Scallop Border Punch.

That's all for today. Take care, and until next time...............Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday

Hello. Today is Soft Pencil Thursday, which means I have some for you to see that I created with an image from Soft Pencil Designs. Elizabeth sent me one of her images with a calendar attached to it. So, I decided to make myself a self standing desk calendar with it. Since I made it for myself, yes you guessed it, it had to be purple. It has to match my craft room after all!
So, here is it is in all it's purpleness:

The image is called "Thinking of 2010". Since it was a kitty image, I had to make her look like my kitty, Mittens, so I colored her Gray leaving her paws white. I used my Stampin Up markers to color her. I created a sort of mask around the calendar by placing post it notes around it, so that I could sponge some Amethyst ink lightly inside the calendar parameter. I printed out the image two times, so that I could cut out the cloud and sponge it with some Bashful blue ink. I then, ran my basic Black marker around the cloud edges to darken them up a little bit. The cloud bubbles were tapped lightly with the same color marker, they were way to tiny to cut out. For the finishing touches, I added some small purple sticky gems to the kitty's collar, and some Prima Flowers with sticky gem centers. I almost forgot to tell you that I created the absolutely fabulous border around the calendar with one of the new Martha Stewart around the page punches. It is called Lattice, and it is border punch, and a coordinating corner punch. It takes some getting used to, so practice on some scraps of paper first if you buy some.

Now, how does it stand up, you ask? Simple, I placed a card stock kick stand to the back. This is why I use Stampin Up card stock, because it is very thick, heavyweight card stock. I used something called Terrifically Tacky tape, to attach the kick stand. You could also simply stand it on a plate stand as well if you prefer. Another cute idea would be to place it an an altered clipboard. What a great gift idea that would be. Don't forget to check the other Design Team members to see what they came up with this week. There are links to their blogs over on my side bar. Check them out! Also, check out the photo below to see the stand for the calendar.

Until next time........................... Blessings, Lisa

Shelli Gardner from Stampin Up..

is going to be on the Today show on Friday December 4th! I just thought all of you Stampin Up fans would want to know this! I can't wait to see what she is going to talk about!

I will be back soon with a card! Blessings, Lisa