All Is Vanity...And Really Creepy!

Welcome to the Studio!

I've been MIA again and I apologize for that.  Things got a little worrisome with Hurricane Issac rearing his ugly head.  My dad, who lives near the Mississippi Gulf Coast, couldn't decide if he wanted to evacuate or not.  Lucky for him (and us) Issac only dumped a ton of rain on his area.  You'd think after Katrina he'd have learned his lesson...swimming out a second story loft window and riding out that hurricane on a party barge with a tarp thrown over his head.  It took us over a week to find him that time!

Well, now for some crafting fun.  I just love Halloween.  {Any holiday that involves begging for candy can't be all bad.}  I've always been intrigued with the painting by Charles Allan Gilbert, All is Vanity.  It's fascinating in an eerie sort of way.  As I sat at my scrap desk yesterday, I thought it might make a cool "embellishment" on a Halloween card.

My card is based on the Mojo Monday Sketch 257, as seen here...

I found the awesome black and orange ribbon at Micheal's.  It's totally Halloween-y and makes me think of spiders.  It also tied great with my peg bow maker.  I used a Spellbinders die as a mat for my picture.  I also incorporated some black webbing that I ordered from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  The pumpkin is Jolee's Boutique.  The "Happy Halloween" is from Justrite Stamps, as well as the banner die.  The punched border is from Martha Stewart and was one of the recent T.J. Max $3.99 finds.  I'm not sure if the picture shows this, but I used Black Magic Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels on the fancy diecut circle.  And the paper is Echo Park's Apothecary Emporium.

Here is a close-up shot of the creepy image.  You can actually see that it's a woman sitting at a vanity looking at her reflection...or is it?

Other Challenges I'm entering:
Make it Monday - Anything Goes...not a challenge, just an awesome place to inspire and be inspired!
Alota Rubber Stamps - Challenge 90, Halloween
Ladybug Crafts - Anything Goes, First Challenge!
Challenges 4 Everybody - Challenge #2, Anything Goes

Check out these challenge blogs for more inspiration!  And until next time, Scrap Sassy!

Happy "Molly-days"

Welcome to the Studio!

I know the title of this post doesn't make much sense to most people, so let me explain...
Molly was my Scottie.  I was blessed to have her in my life for 15 years, and lots & lots of Christmases.  I even had a "Molly" tree bedecked with white twinkle lights, plaid ribbons, red & green glass ornaments, and a Scottie Angel on top.  That began on Molly's very first Christmas and I've always sang "Happy Molly-days" around the house during the Christmas season.

I'm wanting to get a jumpstart on my Christmas cards this year - I didn't send hardly any out last year...ugh!  I was poking around on the internet as I'm prone to do and found a digi stamp site called Delicious Doodles.  They have some awesome stamps.  There is something for everyone, whether you're looking for a Scottie, a vampire dude, fairies or flowers, they have it.  My other inspiration for this card came from Creatively Candace.  I totally LOVE her card!  I used papers from the same collection on my Scottie card.

I also used a sketch from Dawny P. at Pink Piggy Wiggy.  I modified it a bit so it could be a 5x7 instead of square and did a bit of rotating for my Scottie in a stocking.

And you can't forget the inside of the card...



I'm going to be entering this card in two challenges this week.  One is  for the Delicious Doodles, The Challenges.  I found their challenge site while shopping for digi stamps.  I just love their stuff.  The current challenge is a 1, 2, 3 recipe.  I used one (1) Delicious Doodles digi image; two (2) pattern papers, and three (3) diecut items, sentiment tag, doily oval, and border OR three sparkling red holly berries.  I know it's kind of a stretch with the berries being on the inside and all.  I'm just in it for the fun, but do love those blog badges and comments;)

The second challenge I'll be entering this card in is the Love To Create Challenge Blog.  Challenge #21 is Anything Goes.  They have new challenges every Monday.

My Supply List:
Cardstock:  black textured, Recollections; Cherry Cobbler & Old Olive, Stampin Up
Pattern Paper:  Echo Park, Season's Greetings 6x6
Digi Stamp:  Delicious Doodles, Scottie in a Stocking
Stamps:  Christmas Love, CTMH
Ink:  Black, CTMH; Old Olive, Stampin Up
Seam Binding:  Really Reasonable Ribbon
Dies:  Nesting Doily Ovals, Lifestyle Crafts
Punches:  Modern Label & Word Window, Stampin Up;  border punch, Fiskars
Sketch:  Dawny P., Pink Piggy Wiggy
Other:  Stickles, Christmas Red
            watercolor paper and watercolor pencils
            Watercolor Crayons, Stampin Up

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon!  Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

In A Witchy Mood

Welcome to the Studio!

I know summer is just beginning, but I'm ready for fall.  It's my favorite season!  So much wonderful stuff is in the fall, pumpkin patches, leaves changing, that crisp, coolness in the air, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving...I could go on for hours.  I just totally love autumn.  So just to keep my fall yearnings in check, I decided to play along with Forever Night Challenges Freaking Friday #41 and make this witchy, delightfully wicked, halloween card.  The card is based on Sweet Sunday Sketch #161.  I've used that sketch twice already this week.  It's so versatile for these elongated stamps.  I'll be sharing my other card soon.  It's still in the works on my scrap desk;)

And I just love that wicked animal print flower.  I didn't have any seam binding to match - EEK!  So I had to make my own.  I started with ivory seam binding and added it to some water with a drop of black CTMH reinker.  It gave me kind of the gray I wanted, so then I spritzed it with Sassy Shimmer Spritz (my homemade version of Glimmer Mist) in silver.  It came out great, a little glitzy, a little blotchy, and perfectly shabby.  And check out my gossamer-winged bat on my tag.

And you can never forget the inside of your card...

Wanna make your own "Sassy Shimmer Spritz"?  It's easy.  Here's the easiest recipe:
Mist bottle (find those at Wal-mart in the travel size section)
Water
Pearl Acrylic Paint
Water-based stamp pad reinker

All you do is fill the mister bottle approximately 3/4 of the way with water.  Add a few drops of the pearl paint and shake to mix.  Then slowly add reinker until you get the color you want.  Keep in mind that it looks a lot darker in the bottle than it will when it's sprayed, so get some scrap paper out and spritz until you get the color you want.

Recipe #2:
Mist Bottle
Water
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (not Pearl-Ex)*
Water-based stamp pad reinker

I prefer to add the Perfect Pearls first, normally about a 1/4 tsp for a 2 or 3 oz. bottle.  I think add a little water and mix it around to stop the Perfect Pearls from becoming perfect clumps.  Then I begin adding reinker until I acheive the color I want.  I like the way the pearls look better than the paint, plus you can mix and match all kinds of different colors of pearls and reinkers.  If you'd like your spritz to have a more opaque or whitewash finish, just add a few drops of plain acrylic paint in white (for whitewash) or a coordinating shade.

*My reason for insisting on Perfect Pearls is because they have a binder already mixed in with the pearly stuff.  Pearl-Ex requires the extra step of adding a binding agent (gum of arabic, found in the paint section of your local craft store).  Just add about ten to fifteen drops from a pipette into your bottle with the Pearl-Ex and swirl around before adding other ingredients.

Supply List:
Cardstock:  CTMH, Grey Flannel;  Black textured, Recollections/Micheals
Pattern Paper:  Echo Park Apothecary Emporium 6x6
Inks:  CTMH Grey Wool, Sunset, & Black;  Versamark
Embossing Powder:  A La Mode, Detail Black by Hampton Art
Flower:  Prima
Seam Binding:  Really Reasonable Ribbon, dyed by me
Stamps:  CTMH Wicked and Mischief Workshop on the Go stamp set
Sketch:  Sweet Sunday #161
Challenges Entered:  Sweet Sunday #161 and Forever Night Challenges

Hope you enjoyed your visit.  Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

GHWI and Crafty Boots Challenges

Welcome to the Studio!

Today I'd like to share a feminine, girly card.  Don't get me wrong, we all love the guys in our lives, but it can get a little dull sometimes if you don't have flowers, bows, and bling.  And with that in mind, I gleaned a little inspiration from two separate challenges to get my creative juices following in the right direction after all the guy cards over the last few weeks.  The first challenge is from Ippity's challenge blog, Get Hippity With Ippity.  The challenge over there is flower and a leaf.  The second challenge is from Crafty Boots and it's Bowtastic!

My card is an A2 size and I used the Echo Park For the Record paper pack.  I so totally LOVE  that paper!  I can't get enough of it.  The sentiment, Happy Birthday, is from Justrite Stamps and stamped in CTMH Black ink.  The border punch (both inside and out) is from Fiskars.  The flower is the SU five petal punch.  I inked the edges with CTMH Honey ink.  For the leaf, I used a punch from Marvy Uchida.  I inked the edges with a very old SU Garden Green stamp pad.  I also used light blue seam binding and my handy-dandy peg bow maker (a small one).   

For the inside of my card, I decorated it with some pattern paper from the same paper pack.  I used a Marvy Uchida punch for the mini five petal flower and I just did a freehand cut on the little leaf.  I still need to add a card verse, but wanted to share the inside as well.

Father's Day & Mojo Monday 243

Welcome to the Studio!

I'm still working a few more Father's Day cards.  Here's one I made for a friend's son-in-law.  The paper is from the This & That Charming Collection.  It's a great paper pack for guy cards.  I also used Honey cardstock from CTMH.  The dad with children is from the Silhouette store.  I downloaded it and changed the format to .mtc so I could cut it out with my KnK Zing.  The sentiment is from Justrite Stamps and stamped with SU Chocolate Chip ink and cut out with the SU Decorative Label punch.

Now, on to the important stuff...
I created this card using a sketch from Mojo Monday.  I totally love their sketches, and as most of you regular readers know, I'm definitely a sketch girl.  I was able to go clean and simple with this card without it looking plain, thanks to the plaid pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

Thinking of You…In Yellow & Blue

Welcome to the Studio!

If you’re visiting from the Card A Day Blog, thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you come back again soon. If you haven’t been to the Card A Day Blog, please stop by over there. There are a bunch of talented designers who can’t wait to share their ideas and techniques
with you.

The theme for the week is: Thinking of You. It’s nice to let someone know that they’ve been on your mind. It can make a person feel special, loved, or in times of strife, make them feel like they are not alone. Here’s a clean and simple card based on Mojo Monday Sketch #233.


And here's my card...

This card is 6.5x5. The base is out of one of those value packs of card blanks from the chain craft stores. The pattern paper is MME Lush collection in navy. The yellow polka dot is from Echo
Park, Dots & Stripes collection. The two blue panels are cut at 3x4.75. The center piece is cut at
5x3.5. I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the strip on the side. I then stamped my sentiment tag in CTMH Outdoor Denim. The stamp is Stampin Up, Four Frames. I then used SU Teeny Tiny Wishes and Lucky Limeade to stamp “Thinking of You.” The flower is several layers. The navy blue flowers are misc. silk flowers and the green flower is from Prima. The
yellow rhinestone brad in the center is from Making Memories.

I had so much fun with this sketch that I decided to make another card. I love the Wisteria Wonder color from Stampin Up and thought I’d make a lavender birthday card. I love the wisteria and the yellow together. The flower I made used Spellbinders dies and Heartfelt Creations Innoscents stamp.

Hello, Baby!

Welcome to the Studio!

If you’re visiting from the Card A Day Blog, thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you come back again soon. If you haven’t been to the Card A Day Blog, please stop by over there. We have a
whole host of designers who are happy to share their ideas and techniques with you.

The theme for the week is babies and the celebration of their birth. They are sweet, innocent,
adorable, little poop machines and we can’t help but coo and make silly noises whenever one is nearby. I feel the same way about the four-legged furbaby variety as well.

For this card, I simply cut an 8.5x11 piece of CTMH ivory cardstock in half lengthwise, which give me an A2 size card. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the sides of the pink paper and attached it to the card base. Since I didn’t have anywhere to hide my “ribbon bits,” I just trimmed the brown grosgrain off even with the edges of the card base. To stop the ribbon from unraveling
or coming loose, I put Scor-Tape on the edge of the card base to adhere the ribbon.

Next, I just kind of “eyeballed” it and cut two rectangles out of ivory and pink pattern paper and green patterned paper. I matted those with Chocolate cardstock from Close To My Heart. I tucked those two pieces in underneath my brown grosgrain ribbon.

For the sentiment, I used the SU Teeny, Tiny Wishes set. It’s an expensive set, but it’s worth every penny. I find myself going to this one over and over again. It’s quite handy to have, especially when you’re making cards in a hurry sometimes. I stamped “hello, baby” in dark brown chalk ink onto a scrap of the pink background paper. I then used the decorative label punch and punched only a portion of it out so I could make the little tab. I then tucked that in behind my brown grosgrain ribbon.

I tied a double bow with my handy-dandy peg bow maker and
attached it with glue dots.

For the inside...

I basically cleaned my desk off. I took all the little pieces I had left and used them to decorate the inside. I used the same border punch on the inside of the card, just punching the top and
bottom of the green pattern paper instead of the left and right sides. I stamped the verse on a leftover piece of pink with dark brown chalk ink.

I hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time, Scrap Sassy!

PS
Happy Birthday, Julia!
Your goodie box will be there by the end of the week!

Love is in the Air

Welcome to the Studio!
If you’re visiting from the Card A Day Blog, thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you come back again soon. If you haven’t been to the Card A Day Blog, please stop by over there. We have a whole host of designers who are happy to share their ideas and techniques with you.

The theme for the week is, of course, Valentine’s Day. I recently got a new 6x6 paper pad from Echo Park, Truly Yours. I’m totally loving me some EP. I fell in love with the EP For the Record collection and just can’t get enough Echo Park now.



For this card, I simply cut an 8.5x11 piece of paper in half lengthwise. You will get two A2 sized card blanks. That makes it really easy and economical, especially if you have to make a lot of cards. I used Make The Cut and my Zing to cut the shaped pink grid paper. To get the shape I wanted, I welded a rectangle and nested shape similar to some of the Spellbinders shapes. I inked the edges with Memento Tuxedo Black. I normally use either CTMH or SU ink, but since everything is packed up for my January Card Class today, I had to make due with what was still in my scraproom at home. I used a Fiskars scallop border punch to punch the edges of the two square pieces. They are cut the same size, approximately 3x4. And since I just got some new stamps from Verve, I couldn’t wait to use them. I stamped the frame in CTMH Tulip ink and the "love you" in Memento, Tuxedo Black. I added pink seam binding and used my handy peg bow maker. It’s like having an extra set of hands. (I'll have some photos of it up on the blog soon.) I used two Fiskars corner punches to make my wrought iron looking hearts on the top corner. I thought it needed a little extra bling, so I cut – yes, cut – a piece off of a larger swirly pearly bling. It is kind of hard to see in the photo, but it really needs to be there;)

My Supply List:
Cardstock: White, Recollections
Patterned paper: Echo Park, Truly Yours
Stamps: Verve, Swirling Hearts
Ink: Memento, Tuxedo Black and CTMH, Tulip
Punches: Fiskars
Ribbon: Pink seam binding
Bling: Want 2 Scrap
Adhesive: ATG Gun, in pink; Score Tape; Glue Dots

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, Scrap Sassy!