WOYWW #142 and a wonky birthday card

It's What's on Your Workspace Wednesday again and I have not one but two desks to show you. One is located in the post below this one. It shows you what my real studio looks like. Up to now, I've only shown you the satellite space that is actually my sitting room, but no more. I'm taking the bull by the horns and I'm determined to start cleaning up the real space enough so that I can craft in here.

Today is just a close-up of the cleaned up desk and I have to say, I'm starting to put things that I use often on here and it's been pleasant making today's card. A friend's birthday is tomorrow and, ahem, I quickly put a card together so that it wouldn't be too late. Lol. I used the same idea as a recent Valentine card. This time I used some Wonky Square Nestabilities to create the opening for the floating piece. I stretched myself a little with the design. I wanted to make another card for the...

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that's about to end so I had to think of a way to make a birthday cake from the PS stamps I own. (I also used a paper with hearts as that was my inspiration.) I settled on an image that is supposed to be the decoration on an Easter egg. Then the candles were made using a paintbrush in the same set, Spring Fling. (The HB greeting comes from Party Posse.)To hang the image I used the brown twine that Kim ties around the stamp sets in your order. Crafty frugal, huh? Lol.

The inside is meant to make my old friend feel better.... it says: The more the candles, the more the wishes.

Do check out Julia's WOYWW blog for lots of fun desks to visit this week!

*smile*

What's On Tap Tuesday and hello again!

Sorry about the hiatus. It was a whirlwind week of preparing for and then going on a Mid-Atlantic college road trip. Ds#2 is starting to think about prospective schools, so we went off to check out a few. I've come back wishing I could go through college again myself. So much to learn!

Therefore this post is of my desk last week when I thought I'd have time to share it with you. Better late than never. Up to now, I've usually shared my satellite desk in all its chaotic glory but since I cleared out of the sitting room, I'm back to facing the real studio. And this picture doesn't even capture it all. Believe it or not, this is after I cleared a work area on the desk. I'm determined to cull through the mess soon.

On the desk are a bunch of acrylic blocks I picked up in the dollar bin because I had a brainstorm idea about how I'd like to have my Paper Smooches Alphadot stamps more readily available for custom sentiment making. I put the clear stamps in the four corners of each block and will store them that way in a little plastic box on the desk. I wish I could say it worked well but I'm not sure yet. It's kinda cumbersome to just ink up the little corner of each letter when I'm creating a sentiment, but I'll keep trying it out.

I used this method when I made my hubby's birthday card. The flaps use embossed heart punches as handles for opening. The double-sided paper works well with this design.

I used Paper Smooches Party Posse and Chubby Chum Pals for the cat and bear images and I'll be submitting it to the latest Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge. Oh! Did I tell you that my last card won the  last SPARKS challenge? Woo hoo!

Thanks for coming by. I hope to get back to creating now that our trip is over. Have a great Tuesday!

Paper Smooches and a challenge....

*** For WOYWW post, see below ***

Time just slipped away from me and I forgot that Paper Smooches latest SPARKS challenge was ending today, so instead of attacking my mountain of paperwork, I took a little time out to create a card. The inspiration photo was a pretty mix of teal and mint which brought to mind a K&Co pad I have called Lotus by Amy Butler. And when I was recently browsing my local discount store, I found a set of accompanying buttons for that same line. Serendipity....

I used four Paper Smooches sets on this card: Party Posse (ewe), Boob Tubes (TV & heart), Vogue Abode (vase) and Alphadot (to create my loopy sentiment). The fern came from a Stampin Up punch.

Hope this made you smile! Have a great day....

What's on Your Workspace Weds (WOYWW) #140

First, the location of my workspace moved... this is what the satellite studio looks like when it needs to be cleaned up for a Superbowl party... *smile*

Second, wanting to let DH enjoy the look of a clean sitting room a little longer, I used the kitchen counter when I wanted to start cutting scraps into more feasible sizes to fit in a 5x7 box. (Saw a post where the woman cut them into 6x6 squares but that's too extreme a limitation for this scrapcollector. Lol.)

Third, I woke up inspired this morning. I decided to make a nice hot omelet for DS before he drove himself off to school at the crack of dawn so while he was enjoying it, I did a little blog hopping and found a cute valentine card on Wanda's blog today. I had to try my hand at it immediately, so as soon as DS left, I dug up some supplies and played around with circles and papers. (The paper is red, not orange, Leslie... Lol.) What you don't see are the stamps sets I used: Chubby Chum Pals and Party Posse by Paper Smooches.

Finally, I got a result that pleased me. Instead of jump rings (too labor intensive for this early in the morning), I used twine. I tried a new banner look, too. You know that you can make the tail just by cutting a slit in the middle of the strip then cutting the angles in from the side, right? Love that. With a little inking and double scoring I was able to pop it off the base. Love that, too.

The image is on the back and front of the circle so it can be enjoyed inside the card as it swings. Here's the inside:

Hope you enjoyed this installment of What's on Your Workspace Weds. For more fun, check out Julia's blog today.

*smile*

WOTT, WOYWW and an achey breaky celebration

What's on Tap Tuesday (WOTT) and What's on Your Workspace Weds (WOYWW) merge this week into one post since it's already late on Tuesday here. (Check out Julia's blog with the link above if you like checking out other crafters' desks.)

The celebration part has to do with the fact that, although I procrastinated on getting my Sketchbook Project  2012 done, it has been completed, postmarked at the last possible moment and is on its way to its future home in Brooklyn, NY. The center of my desk shows a number of mini book pages (24 to be exact). I use magazine pictures and stamps to create little scenes for the book. I don't sketch. Luckily, that's not required. Unlike last year, I won't be doing daily posts of the pages in the book (because I didn't have time to photograph them all) but I will let you know when the digitized version is online and offer you the link so you can see if for yourself, if you'd like.

The achey breaky part comes from having fallen twice in two days, bruising the same knee and the same finger each time! These were tennis related but I'm suspecting that my shoes have worn down. It probably didn't help that my sketchbook-making-mania lasted until 2am. Nothing like strenuous activity on 4-1/2 hrs of sleep. Lol. Ah, but my sketchbook is done and mailed. That is sweet. *smile*

Thanks for coming by. If you're wondering about the card on the right side of my desk. I made it awhile back and it's out because it needs to get mailed tomorrow.

What's up on your desk, pray tell?

A teenager, a baby and a valentine....

Wow, that sounds dire, doesn't it? Yikes, I didn't mean it to! Lol. They're just the themes of the three cards I recently made.

Ds #2 had a Sweet 16 party to go to and I had to dash out a quick card. I tweaked the tutorial in my sidebar and came up with a quicker version by simply using a pretty background paper as the card base instead of as the matting. Used the party girl from My Favorite Things' Cheers stamp set and their doily die along with Paper Smooches Alphadot set for my custom sentiment.

We have a bris to go to tomorrow (it's always short notice because the ceremony is 8 days after the baby is born...), so I whipped up another tri-shutter card. This time I followed the regular directions because I wanted a sturdier card base and a little more pizzazz. I like how the patterned paper looks chopped up like that. The baby image is from a retired Stampin Up set called Very Punny. I masked off the sentiment on the stamp and made my own with Lawn Fawn's Sophie's Sentiments. Don't you just love that Fleur de Lis Rectangle die? It's one of Spellbinders' Nestabilities.

Lastly, I'm still cranking out valentine cards for this drive and I came up with this one when I got the February Paper Smooches sets in the mail the other day. (I signed up for their year long membership: 3 new sets each month.) The image I used was meant more for an Spring theme but a silly Valentine sentiment just popped into my warped mind so I had to go with it! Lol.

Crafty tip #63 (or so): Scrap paper can work well as a mat, so sometimes save your good paper! This was the mat for the gingham paper on the front of my card.

Thanks for dropping by.... Now to get psyched to do an entire sketchbook project in 3 days.... wish me luck. *smile*

What's On Your Workspace Weds. and more Valentines...

Hello-o-o-o,

Time to show what's on the desk this winter Wednesday. Well, my deadline to get these Valentines in for the card drive (see more info HERE) is the end of the month, so I'm chugging along. I got very ambitious this weekend when I stamped a number of Paper Smooches (PS) cuties with the intention of making a card featuring each. While hubby watched his football games, I sat beside him coloring away with my Copics. Then, on Monday, I built a nice fire and sat and cut them all out. A fire compliments a foggy, rainy winter day, don't you think?

So that's why you see piles of cut up colored animals on my desk and last week's pile of Valentine appropriate papers.

I've told myself that if I'm going to make a card for each, they're going to have to start being clean and simple. Of course, I came to that conclusion after I made last week's hamster card and this next dragon card. Not the easiest, but they are sweet. This dragon started out as a dinosaur from PS's Party Posse set. I made him some wings and the fire that he's breathing (intending no harm). I used circles for the boulders. "Warm and fuzzy" and "wishes" come in the same set, but I needed "Valentine" so I stamped it with PS's Alphadots. It is so cool that you can create any word you want with their cute font this way. Those butterflies were needed for balance so I took them from a Unity KOTM called Picture Perfect.

Now starts the clean and simple. I've been hoarding this cute canvas ribbon with the print already on it for some time. I thought it went well with a bear offering a hug. *smile* He's from PS's Chubby Chum Pals and the paper is 7 Gypsies.

This silly duck is from the same set as the bear. I embossed the heart he's leaning on, gave him a little heart to hold and stamped the saying with Alphadots again. I couldn't resist this silly sentiment.

Well, I've got a few more animals to work with. But that's for another day.....
Thanks for visiting! If you'd like to see more workspaces, grab yourself a beverage and check out Julia's blog!
*smile*