Furry Lion and a Scrapling

A few posts ago I talked about finding a cool site that offered a FREE ezine called Sheetloads of Cards....sketches with designer samples...can't get much better than that!  Each month they have a Show Us Your Sheetload contest using the current month's sketch.  So I tried my hand at it, although I only made one of the cards...so much for having extra on hand!  Oh well!  

So I knew I wanted to use the Wild About You set because this was for a 3 year old's birthday.  I also knew I had to break out some of the fluff that I bought a few weeks ago, but have not used.  It was I-know-I-want-t-try-this-stuff kind of purchase...it is so fun by the way...just love the little bit of texture it gives the image!

I happen to have the striped paper (DCWV) on hand, so I decided to make my color scheme around it...problem was that the yellow is not really near any SU! color!  Ugh!  Summer Sun was the closest, but it was too bright, so I inked the lion in Summer Sun and then lightly pressed it on to Creamy Caramel to try and tone it down.  I got pretty close, so I went with it.  The mane and head were pieced together and I added the fluff to the mane of the lion.  So cute!

I kept the strips behind the lion image solid Ruby Red and Pumpkin Pie, but faux stitched them with the zig-zag stitch stamp in the Organic Borders set from SassaFras Lass.  Added the corner punch and greeting tag in Kraft cardstock with a little bit more zig-zag and some antique gold brads.  

For the scrapling card, I used the part leftover from cutting the square card base and my stripes (just like the sketch told me to).  I then added a flower with the center paper-pieced with the striped paper from Blooms N' Stalks (SassaFras Lass).  Added an antique gold brad center and some fluff to my leaves just to carry the same feel of the original card.

Well that is all for me!  My mojo always takes a little hiatus after a big event, so I am still looking for it after my daughter's 1st birthday party...not feelin' any stamping tonight...maybe tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by my engineering world!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Wild About You, Organic Borders (Sassafras Lass), Blooms n' Stalks (Sassafras Lass); Paper - Kraft, Striped Paper (DCWV), Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White; Ink - Summer Sun, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red;  Accessories - Photo Corner Punch, Antique Gold Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Brown Fluff, dimensionals

Bright Bloomin' Mojo

I seriously don't know how people end up with a lot of extra cards...I swear I can barely keep up with the cards I actually want to send out, let alone make extras!  Anyway, as my list is updated for the next month, I am finishing off the cards I need for this month.  A fabulous birthday card for a wonderful friend.  

This card is a duo challenge card like my last one was...love it when I do this.  I feel such a sense of accomplishment because I have done two things at once...talk about multitasking!  So here I used the current (yes I am finally on a current one!) Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge, MOJO87, and a current Color Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, CC219.  So I will say that the color challenge intimated me for a bit...the two bold brights...mostly the Brilliant Blue.  I really wasn't sure I was going to like it, but then it grew on me!  Plus I had these small self-adhesive blue rhinestones...so a little bling made it all better!  So here I used the Eastern Blooms stamp set and tediously colored the two flower stamps with markers to get the pretty multi-colored flower.  I wanted some sort of patterned paper for the background square piece, but I had nothing that would work...so I made my own with a small flower from the Eastern Blooms set.  It was too plain at first so I pierced holes along the edges of it.  Layered the flower on some circle and then a scallop circle nestabilities...the rest of it pretty much speaks for itself.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by my engineering world!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Eastern Blooms, All Year Cheer I; Paper - Brilliant Blue, Rose Red, Only Orange, Whisper White; Ink - Rose Red, Only Orange, Brillant Blue, Rose Red Marker, Only Orange Marker; Accessories - Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Blue Rhinestones (bought at JoAnns in jewelry section), Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, dimensionals

Black & White Doggie Thanks

Wow would you look at me...2 posts in one week.  Say What??  I know pretty crazy for me...even crazier is I actually have two other cards to show beyond this one and after the weekend I will show all of the stuff for my daughter's 1st birthday!  So hold on to your seats!

So in my last post, I told you about the passing of our wonderful dog, Lucy.  Thank you to all that commented their condolences...that is very sweet of you!  Lucy will be missed by us and her furry sibling (our other dog), Alex.  Our Vet office was so very kind to us during the whole process and really did all they could to save her.  They even basically cut the bill for her surgery in half for us...and when you are talking a couple thousand dollars, that is awesome!  So I made this card as a thank you to them for the wonderful care they provided (and provide for our other dog as well).

I went back to a Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge that I missed, MOJO82, and I found a Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, CAS15...so two challenges on one card...woohoo!  The Clean and Simple challenge is basically to create clean and simple cards (for yourself...everyone has their own view of clean and simple), but for this challenge you had to use Black & white plus one Bold Brights color.  So my Bold Brights color is Pink Passion and I used it very sparingly:  around the dog and the base flower embellishment.  The central dog is from an old SAB set, A Little Love, and the group of dogs is from Loads of Love Accessories.  Surprisingly, these are the only two dog stamps I have!  

That is all for now...the card is pretty straightforward.  Thanks for stopping by my engineering world!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - A Little Love, Loads of Love Accessories; Paper - Basic Black, Basic White (Papertrey Ink), B&W DP (Me & My Big Ideas); Ink - Basic Black, Pink Passion; Accessories - Blender Pen, Black Brad, Scallop Edge Punch, Sqaure and Scallop Sqaure Nestabilities, flower embellishments (Making Memories), dimensionals

Lilacs for Lucy

I can't believe it has been almost an entire month since I posted anything!  I am not sure what happened in there, I guess life happened.  I took some time in there to make my daughter's 1st birthday invitations (I will post these after this weekend...hopefully with pictures of her cake!) and then we had a rough week this past week...more on that later.  Before I go there, I will cover the card.

Finally getting back in to the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenges (bummed I missed a contest week in there, but oh well), so I used Mojo Sketch #86 for this card that was completely inspired by my beautiful blooming Lilac bush in my yard.  I love lilacs!  I used the Branch Out set and made a bush with the tree stamp.  i stamped the top of the bush first and then carefully added the ground base...so basically I eliminated part of the trunk.  Then I stamped the splotchy part in a couple shades of purple and a smidge of green...all technical terms there!  For the little branches of lilac blooms, I just colored portions of the tree stamp with a marker to get what I wanted.  Lastly I added some ribbon, a little embossing, and a scalloped edge.  

This card was for friends of ours for their anniversary, but unfortunately seeing the lilacs now make me think of something else entirely.  Not sure how much I have talked about them here, but we have two dogs that were more than just pets to us...pretty much just really furry members of our family.  Unfortunately, we lost one of those dogs last Thursday and we have been dealing with that loss.  Our beloved Lucy was a great dog that could snuggle with the best of them.  She would care for us by licking any wounds we had...sometimes, I wouldn't even know I had cut myself until Lucy would try and take care of me.  We got her about 6 months after we got our first dog, Alex, but they are basically the same age.  She blessed our lives for 8.5 years and left us far too  soon!  She had been slowing down lately and we were attributing it to her back legs (in which she has had surgery on before), so we made an appt. for the vet to take a look at her Thursday morning.  She looked sad and had for a couple of days.  The doctor took a look at her mouth and realized that we were dealing with something more than leg problems.  From an abdomen x-ray, they found a very large (size of softball or grapefruit) tumor on her spleen.  There was a chance that the tumor was not cancerous, so we decided to allow the doctor to operate on Lucy to remove the tumor and her spleen (which she technically did not need).  If the tumor turned out to be benign then this would fix her...if it was malignant, it would buy her some time.  Lucy made it through the surgery and the doctor was pleased with how everything went.  She actually removed around a football size tumor (bigger than we expected) which was about 3-4 lbs.  Lucy woke from surgery and seemed to be doing ok, but then she started having labored breathing a couple hours later and finally drew her last breath.  So all I can say is we will miss you terribly Lucy-Belle!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Branch Out, Everyday Flexible Phrases; Paper - Lovely Lilac, Lavender Lace, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Lovely Lilac, Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery; Accessories - Certainly Celery ribbon, Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder, Ticket Corner Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, dimensionals