Valentine's Day Banner

I have been thinking about creating a fun banner for quite awhile, then when I saw the January/February issue of PaperCrafts magazine with Cath Edvalson's "moxie fab" article Celebrating Banners kicked me into full gear. ("Moxie Fab" is Cath's term "for something truly original, amazingly inspirational, or uber cool.") I do not tend to do much other papercrafting than cards and small scrapbook pages, so this new format has been a fun change for me. (Click on the pics for more detail.)

I have also been deliberating which banner stamp set(s) I would like for "uber cool" birthday cards this year. Papertrey Ink has one called It's a Celebration. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post in the comments.

The project was not very time consuming. I used simple supplies. Nothing complicated at all. I made three banners and hung them together. One for each of the two most important guys in my life, Mitch and Liam, and one for myself. It's pretty snazzy looking in contrast to our house in midst of the remodel.

Supplies
Stamps: Bella Toile (SU)
Ink: Memento Black
Paper: Raspberry Fizz, PTI White
Accessories: White grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities - hearts, Pink Glitter Chipboard Thickers

Always a Happy Heart

Just a quick post on my way to bed. I finished this card yesterday for SCS Color Challenge 202.

Night!

Supplies
Stamps: A Happy Heart (SU), Heart Pattern (PTI)
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Regal Rose
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla, Sugared DP (Basic Grey)
Accessories: Rose Grosgrain Ribbon, Fabric Flowers (Joann), Pearls (Hero Arts), Nestabilities – Labels 1, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Frosted Lace Stickles, Copper Brads (Making Memories), Paper Piercing Tool

Crazy Week & Copic Craze

What a long a crazy week we have had! Two hour delays on Monday and Tuesday, early dismissal on Wednesday, Thursday through Saturday AM OMEA (Ohio Music Education Association) Professional Development Conference, hanging out with Jeff's family on Saturday afternoon and evening and finally some time at home on Sunday after church....oh yeah, and SNOW!

Convention was so different for me this year. I went to a few interesting sessions, but didn't have much that really that impressed me. (I'm so difficult.) I enjoyed very much finding music materials for early childhood - infant through toddler - since I and many of my friends have children at this age. I have been disappointed with the lack of opportunity in this area for young children when it comes to classes offered, so I purchased a curriculum written by John H. Feierabend entitled First Steps in Music for Infants and Toddlers, which is a collection of 20 years of research on the part of the author to find childrens' music which is in danger of being lost to the ages. ( Folksongs, nursery rhymes, etc.) The curriculum consists of an instruction guide, CD's and motor skill specific books for particular activities and songs. I also purchased some super cute jazz story books, which include equally adorable jazz CD's with genre appropriate pieces of music based on standards. (Louis Lion, Duck Ellington, Charlie Bird, Ella Elephant) VERY COOL! I'll stop here with this, but if you have any questions concerning any of these materials feel free to leave me a comment and I will get back with you.

Onto the copic craze...I was finally bitten by the copic (CO-pic) bug. I decided to at least try the copics since they seem to be all the rage lately. I kept telling myself that I couldn't justify the $$$ I would be spending considering that I have watercolor pencils, gamsol, colored pencils, watercolors, sparkling H2o's and the entire collection of SU markers for coloring. I hate to color. It always tends to look...crappy and juvenile. (With that said, I love Liam's coloring. lol!)

Due to the extensive selection of markers and the need to coordinate colors for the best coloring and shading options, I decided to cut my time and stress by ordering the preselected Riley set of Ciao Copics from Hanna Stamps and a couple of Riley stamps to experiment. This set was specifically designed to be used with the adorable Riley moose stamps with browns, tans, grays and a pink. Perfect!

Riley and his markers arrived while I was away at my conference...incidentally, the temps got down to -19 F this week with even lower wicked wind chills. I was slightly nervous that my markers would be in bad shape when I finally got to them. No problem at all. A little cold but perfectly fluid. I just got a chance to sit down and play with them today. OMG! I used to hate to color...I love it! Everything simply looks better. It is more vibrate, even and rich. There is definitely a learning curve involved here, but with experimentation and Copic product specialist Marianne's blog (I Like Markers) I think this will be an absolutely wonderful upgrade to my stamping.

Here is a pic of my first copic colored card. I am sure I will look back on this and laugh or gag someday, but at this point, I am pretty darn happy. This Riley is usually sporting a shamrock on his hat and a stout in his hand, but in lue of Valentine's Day I used the heart from an alphabet set to fit the upcoming holiday a bit better.

Update: Kristi Ferro, owner of Hanna Stamps, featured this card on her blog on today. To use a quote by Julie HRR, "....THUD!" I would also like to give a shout out to Kristi for her wonderful personal customer service. I had a question and it was answered promptly and professionally.

Supplies
Stamps: Riley (Hanna Stamps), Heart Prints (PTI), In the Loop Alphabet (SU)
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Kitchen (Amuse), White, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Stardust Gel Pen, White Gel Pen, Threading Water Punch, Nestabilities, Word Window Punch, Copics, Silver Thread, Heart Eyelets

Snow Fun

On Monday night after Mitch and I went to bed we heard a thump against the upstairs bathroom window followed soon after by a similar thump on the patio door downstairs. Mitch decided to get up and check our mysterious thump. Mitch
called me downstairs to see his discovery, which was a tiny,
so cute, auburn colored owl. It was sitting on our back deck, rather stunned from hitting the windows I assume, in the snow. Absolutely gorgeous! He/she was a saw-whet owl, which is a pretty small owl about the size of a little soccer ball...a little bit larger than a softball. The photo is by Bob Jacksy from Northwest Ohio Nature. I wasn't quick enough to grab my camera and his photo is very similar to what our little friend looked like.

My other pic for today is a photo of Liam and Mitch sledding in all of the lovely snow we have gotten in the past few days. I am betting that I will have some more winter photos tomorrow given all of the snow we are getting from our current winter storm warning. My car is setting a bit wonky in the driveway because I couldn't make it up the driveway all the way. ;)

Happy Sledding!

Liam is starting to have fun.

Liam & Daddy after sledding.

A Glitter Challenge...

Anyone who knows me knows that I {heart} using glitter on my cards and projects, so when I saw the tacky glitter technique SCS challenge I had to try it! This gave me the opportunity to use some retired SU berry razzle glitter to go with my new fave Raspberry Fizz PTI cardstock as well as my heart-shaped nesties.

I have three (now two) different widths of tacky tape, which allowed me to really have some fun with this challenge even though I used simple straight lines. The main panel used berry razzle glitter and the base was edged in dazzling diamonds.

My main goal in this design (besides the obvious tacky glitter challenge) was to make a cookie that reminded me of my mom's Valentine frosted sugar cookies with cinnamon hearts. I am salivating just thinking about them. I sponged pink pirouette ink on the main heart and stamped hearts in Raspberry Fizz, then glazed the entire heart with crystal effects. I used the heart die to cut a piece of acetate to stamp the sentiment and layer to the heart.

Supplies
Stamps: Heart Sentiments (PTI); Birds, Trees and Messages ( Hero Arts)
Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Noir, Pink Pirouette, Stazon Black
Paper: White, Raspberry Fizz
Accessories: Transparency, Crystal Effects, Tacky Tape, Dazzling Diamonds, Berry Razzle

A Happy Heart

Just got this set from my most current stamp club order and I am totally loving it. I used up some scraps from a few projects that I am currently working on to make this card. I know there is a lot between now and Valentine's Day, but I couldn't resist.

This card is a gift to DH for everything that he has done for me in the past few weeks since my surgery. It was been so frustrating for me not being able to do as much as I would have liked. I spent all day working on this one just to get it the way I wanted it for him. It's never too soon to send a card to someone you love. ;)

A note...I used Crystal Effects on the heart, which was directly stamped on SU Whisper White and as it dried it crinkled and puckered quite a bit. I am thinking that a thicker cardstock would be much more benefincial when using this technique. Lesson learned. I have used it before on smaller items with no problem, but I assume it was the size of the area covered and the weight of the paper that played a role in the issue I had.

Supplies
Stamps: A Happy Heart (SU), Heart Prints (PTI)
Ink: Raspberry Fizz (PTI), Palette Noir
Paper: White, Raspberry Fizz
Assessories: Baubles, MS Punch, Cuttlebug Polka Dots, White Gel Pen, Crystal Effects, Spellbinders Tag and Scallop Circle, Sakura Stardust Gel Pen (Clear)