Missed It Again

I am cursed when it comes to the Just Add Ink challenge.  I seem to miss it every time!  This week's challenge was Just Add Friendship.  I combined it with this week's sketch at The Sweet Stop.  At least I'm in time for that one!  :)

Supplies:  CS: SU Cherry Cobbler & Not Quite Navy; Stamps:  Unity & Hero Arts; Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black; Dies: Nestabilities; Punches: Woodware; IP: Cuttlebug

I'm continuing to explore my new Unity stamps.  This girl stamp is from their April 2009 Kit of the Month.  I got a great price on a secondhand set (thanks, Diane!).  There's so many images with each set it's going to take me a while to get through them all but I could think of a lot worse ways to spend my time!  :) 

Butterfly Birthday

The challenges for The Sweet Stop and Just Us Girls each have an extra element this week.  The Sweet Stop is a sketch with a spin challenge (Winged Things) and JUGS is a colour challenge with a twist (must be a birthday card).

For this card I busted out my brand new Unity stamps!  (Yes, Emily, I finally caved thanks to you!)  The butterfly and the leopard print background are from the March Kit of the Month.  Love that leopard print!  I have a feeling it will be making many more appearances on my cards.  Can't wait to dig in to the rest of the Unity stamps.  I also won 5 Hero Arts stamps from Moxie Fab and they arrived this week too.  Whoo hoo!  It's felt like my birthday every time I've gone to the post office!  :)   

Supplies: CS: PTI & Bazzill; Stamps: Unity; Inks: VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black, SU Tempting Turquoise; Other: Woodware punch, Nesties dies, PTI IP,  Fiskars decorative scissors

I am so looking forward to the long weekend starting tomorrow!  In Bermuda, Good Friday is a public holiday and it's traditional to eat codfish cakes and hot cross buns and to fly kites.  The kite-flying apparently stemmed from a Sunday School teacher trying to explain Christ's ascension to Heaven to his class - he finally launched a kite with the likeness of Christ on it to illustrate the point.  Not only do we fly kites but we make our own traditional Bermuda kites out of wood, string and tissue paper.  The photo below shows the traditional hexagonal design but there are always plenty of other shapes and designs to be found.  It's quite a sight to see on Good Friday when there hundreds of kites in the air all over the island.

(And no, I did not get around to making a kite this year.  Shame on me!)

Musical Frog

The weather was totally wild today!  This morning was calm but a bit grey and then by 9am there were gale force winds and lashing rains that continued on and off through the early afternoon.  By 6:30pm it was still windy but bright sunshine and not a cloud to be seen.  Crazy.  The hounds hibernated on the sofas ALL DAY!  They didn't venture outside until about 6pm.  They really have a tough life...  They weren't the only ones seeking shelter either.  I came across a huge wolf spider on the bathroom wall this evening!  I haven't seen one in ages and, while I jumped when I saw him, he really was quite beautiful.  Luis was all set to clobber it with his shoe but I rescued him and took him outside.  They eat roaches and flies and stuff so as far as I'm concerned they're good guys (even if they are big and hairy!). 


Today's card is for The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #102.  

I was in the mood for a froggy so I busted out my Penny Black froggy stamps (last seen here).  I paired him with some paper from K & Co and I think he's pretty cute!  Could even work as a guy card I think... 

Getting Back in the Groove

Today was the first significant amount of time I've spent in the Craft Cave since before I went away.  Our vacation was wonderful - everything we had hoped it would be - and for the first time in forever we completely relaxed.  It was bliss.  We were sad to leave our resort but excited to come home and see the hounds.  Unfortunately we only had 3 days with them before we lost Scout and so I was really not in the mood for cards last week.  A friend at work asked me to make some birthday cards for her for this week so I had to get going.  I finally started checking out a few blogs this weekend and trying to get back in the groove.    Thank goodness for some challenges to help clear the cobwebs from the crafty part of my brain!  :)  For this card I used the colours from The Play Date Cafe Challenge #70 and The Sweet Stop Sketch #97.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; PP: Scenic Route; Journaling Tag: Scenic Route; Stamp: The Paper Source; Ink: Plaette Reflection Blue

Does Nestabilities have a star nest?  If so, I need to invest in one because those stars were a pain in the butt to cut out!  Must look into that...

The Sweet Stop 90 & Play Date Cafe

This card is for The Play Date Cafe Challenge and The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #90.  

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Paper: Black Ink green, gold vellum, silver cardstock; Stamps: Hero Arts background stamp & Pop Stems stamp; Ink: Archival Brilliance Platinum Planet, VersaMark; Other: Ranger clear embossing powder, Nestabilities Labels Seventeen, Basic Grey gems, Magic Mesh, dragonfly brad

As usual, not a great pic but you can see the embossed design on the gold background in this shot so I'm going with it.  I wanted to take some pictures outside today but aside from it being another gloomy afternoon it was wild and windy!  Didn't need my cards making like kites and flying away.  :)  I wasn't sure about a sentiment on this card.  I had originally thought I'd put something in the bottom right corner but I didn't really leave myself enough space and I wasn't sure where else to put one.  Thoughts?

Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge 89

2nd Post of the Day!

I pulled out these gorgeous Basic Grey Ambrosia papers today and thought they'd be fun for stacking up for this Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge.  That is, after I got over the fact that they're so pretty that I didn't want to cut them up!  Does this happen to any of you?  Do you find yourself "saving" things (papers, embellishments, etc) for the perfect card?  Sometimes I feel like I can't use something because I might not do it justice.  This is why my supplies build up so much faster than cards get made!  :)

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Ambrosia; Stamp: Cloud 9 sentiment; Ink: SU Basic Grey; Other: BG Ambrosia stickers, BG gems, Martha Steward butterfly punch, Fiskars threading water border punch, Micro Pop Dots

Sweet Stop Challenge 88 & My Learning Curve

My first entry for a Sweet Stop challenge.  I've been checking the sketches out each week for a couple of months now but this is my first attempt:

Supplies:  Card blank:  Handy Hippo;  Card Stock:  Paperbilities;  Patterned Paper: No clue!;  Stamps:  Hero Arts bird, Elzybells sentiment; Ink:  Versafine black & Vintage Photo Distress ink;  Die:  Woodware; Other:  Ikandee twine

I don't love it but I decided to post it anyway and here's why:  
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I often get overwhelmed by too much craft stash to choose from and end up freezing up and not making anything.  My other problem, or maybe it's really part of the same thing, is my fear of screwing up.  I know that there's no right and wrong when it comes to art and creativity but I  have spent my life being crippled by a fear of imperfection.  School was torture for me - the specter of failure was always looming over me.  I was a top student but I certainly never felt like one.  I was always waiting to be "found out" - not as good as people thought.  I haven't done a lot of things in my life because I didn't think I'd "do it right".  I've never been any good at practicing or training at things to improve - if I couldn't do it right the first time I didn't want to do it.  
Recently, I've been working hard to overcome this.  Back in June a friend started dragging me to her rugby club's pre-season fitness sessions.  I have never been fit or sporty - rather I have always been on the chubby side.  I've joined gyms and tried other activities occasionally but never stuck with anything.  I don't know what made me hang in there this time but I did.  At that first session I couldn't run once around the track at the stadium.  When I stopped training in November (due to injury) I could run 2 1/2 miles - on a hilly route no less!  The first time I completed it I was ecstatic.  I had finally set myself a goal, worked towards it and reached it and it felt great.
I am now turning that goal setting to card making.  Instead of not making a card because I don't think I'll be able to execute my vision I am going to just do it.  If it doesn't come out as I had hoped then I'll use it as a learning experience and hopefully the next one will be a little closer to what is in my head.  As with the running I will only get better if I just keep making more cards.  I would love to feel that all my cards are perfect but they won't be no matter what. So I'm going to continue to post cards that I love and also those that I don't love so much.  If nothing else, I want to be able to look back in a few months and see some general improvement in my skills and hopefully that will continue to spur me on to keep learning and experimenting.