Love ya

Welcome to my first project in 2011.Kinda late isn't it? Well better late than never I say!!!

This card turned out better than I had hoped. This image is one from Hearts and soul rubber stamps, and I absolutely love it. Coloring it was a challenge, but I decided to break out my newest purchase, Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencils. Oh my gosh! They're the bestest pencils ever...if I could get more colors I would gladly give away my Faber-Castell watercolors. I just didn't find any good skin colors in Derwent. A little color goes a long long way! If you want the best, get these colors..they're no where near Prisma color pencils, but in the watercolor pencils, it can't get better than this. (at least in India).

Isn't this image gorgeous?  When I'd seen this image on Dina's blog 2 yrs ago, I had to have it..though its only the second time that I'm inking it. I used Fabriano Watercolor paper to stamp and color it. This paper holds the water beautifully. There is a learning curve to these colors, and I'm still learning.

I've used a new technique to glue those punched out hearts. I took and embossing stylus, and embossed from the back to create dimension on the hearts. Then added glue and gloss under the hearts so it holds its shape (Thanks for the tip Dina) It doesn't show in this photo but its nice and puffy.

This card uses the sketch from Annabelle Stamps ABSC033 and the colors from Annabelle's Stamps Challenge : Say it In-Red and White.

Also entering it into a couple of more challenges:
Mark's Finest Papers - To use Hearts on your card
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Hearts Theme and Ribbon
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Theme is "Love is in the Air"
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge -To use pencils to color

Butterfly wishes!

This post is a mix of the bad and the good..lets leave the bad for the last...The good part...I won the first ever CraftyJC's challenge! Yay! Sooo excited..and I get to be the DT for the 3rd Challenge..excited and nervous already!Thanks Jaya for this wonderful opportunity.

Just made a card yesterday night..I had seen this card making kit in Hobby ideas and I loved the colors it had..so wanted to make it..first tried with punched out butterflies..nope..then with punched out daisies..nope..then had to turn to this handcut butterfly...yup..worked perfect..The card kit that I had seen had long petaled daisy.
Also used some recycled corrugated sheet. Loved the effect it gave. Started to hoard cartons and boxes after this card...Hubby thinks I've finally lost it..:D

Here's the card

Woo-hoo! It seems blogger has finally fixed the issue..Love the clarity of this pic..good going blogger!!

Yes! I am showing off my new Apron lace Fiskars border punch..its a super toy..and yup..its wanna made me buy some more..any suggestions as to where to buy the cheapest from? 

Just a close up of the card.

Been busy making my scrap book album..long way to go..Its my first attempt and its not easy...Hats off to those who make it seem so effortless.

Now for some bad news, we didn't win in the Paperworks Challenge. It wouldn't have shocked us or upset us so much if the voting process had been clear from the start. The voting process had loopholes, and at the beginning of the voting process we were told, the total votes will count. At the end when we asked them to clarify the votes, the public votes counted only for 50% of the votes..It feels so awful that we stayed up at night till 3 am (some of us really did) to finish the cards since we were fighting with their time zone advantage too and not make to the top 3. Really bummed!

Anyhow, it was a learning process..I love that 4 of us got to share such super camaraderie, send texts in the middle of the night..bite nails waiting for each others cards and loved the encouragement of each team member! Here's a toast to the fab 3 team mates..the best I could ever have! Cheers to you girls!

Photo courtesy -Corbis.com

Supplies:

Fabriano CS, blue and green lightweight CS, pink ribbon-local, pearls-Itsy bitsy, glitter-hobby ideas ice shimmer and blue shimmer, paper flowers - Rak from Heather, Sentiment - Heart and soul rubberstamps, blue ink- Memento Bahama blue.

Friendship Day!

I had kept this post in the draft for so many days, just dying to hit the Publish Post button! But had to be patient, lest people got a whiff of what I was up to!! Been on a card making spree just so that they reached in time for Friendship day on 1st Aug. I'm big on such things, I love giving. I've had a couple of peeps tell me, why waste money on something that will be thrown out a few days later! But its the libran (even though I'm a Libra-Scorpio cusp, I firmly believe that I am a libran :D )  in me, that refuses to give up!! And now finally found a bunch of peeps who know and appreciate the work you put into your gift, its a wonderful feeling when you know the surprise they'll have on their face!! So these goes out to you my favorite peeps! Thanks for being my friends!!

 

These are the fastest and the simplest cards I've made. Made 6 in 2 hours! They're that fast to whip up! And since everything was with measurement, things went like assembly line!! Took this sketch from CAS76 as inspiration. 

I've had this DCWV black and white paper pad sitting for a while, so thought this was the best time to     showcase colors on a black and white background and it worked perfectly!

I did get carried away with faux stitching but I guess its my in-thing for now. For a while it was inchies, then came CAS cards, then faux stitching. I don't think I'll tire out with these though, they're too much fun!! Sorry about the not so great photos, took them fast before sealing the enevelopes at night while watching Criminal minds! I don't like that show too much, wish White collar or Castle was back on, it was fun, this one is gruesome!!

A big Hug to all my other blogger friends. Thank you for stopping by my blog and letting me know that you think of me from time to time. It means a lot!! Thanks for being my friends peeps!!

Card Set

This post might be short. Got a massive headache again! Here's the set of cards I made with the PP I showed you in the last post. I had been wondering how to place the design when Susan's card showed me the way.
Its for H's colleague's birthday coming up later in the month.

Sorry for the bad light, took it late in the evening...its been cloudy all day and the humidity is driving me nuts..no rain yet! Here are some individual pics..

I hope you can spot the bling. Its little gemstones on all the flowers.

This red ribbon gave me the creeps. It took me more than 20 tries to do this knot, and this too was in sheer frustration. Don't know why grosgrain ribbon behaves this way...or maybe I'm just ribbon challenged! Sentiment is from Heart and Soul rubber stamps, and is embossed with clear embossing powder. Doesn't show up too well, maybe coz its superfine emb. powder!

I'm looking for a cute bird stamp. Anyone any links...will be appreciated. But the birdie should be cheap too! something like the bird sticker on the blue happy birthday.

The next card gets inspired from Ayana. Have I told you I love her cards? I have, right! so lets get on to the card. This  is my best and biggest blooper card. The sentiment got stamped upside down. I still went ahead and colored it. will find a way to salvage it or just give it like that to someone who has a sense of humor!

This card is one more example of  needing finishing touches. This card looks great, but for me it is incomplete. So here go some bling and some dots and this is what you get.. ( the bling got smudged a bit. Pls don't judge me on that, bling has a mind of its own) And as I said sorry for the dark photos..

So what do you think? does it complete the card? I think it does...
All right then peeps, good night, off to take a night's rest..


Cast of characters
1st card (blue)
Fabriano cardstock
Heart and soul rubber stamp(happy birthday)
Flowers, (mix of hobby ideas and clear stamps)
ribbon- gift from Sophie Landry
Bird sticker ( hobby ideas)

Red ribbon- Sophie Landry (where are you girl?)
Butterfly sticker-roadside vendor
Gemstones- roadside vendors

Coloring with sharpies, glitter-hobby ideas silver glitter

Butterflies galore! And OLW#8

There were so many things that went wrong with my first card. The butterfly mask worked well, but the image didn't stamp well inside, then the sentiment ... I think I tried to do too much to it. Should have left it at that..anyways, I'm not happy with my first card, which is the entry for Susan's One Layer Wednesday Challenge was to use mask as a background....Loved checking out all the cards for the challenge though...some really superb ones..


And this card is totally inspired by Joan B. Oh how I love her blog, quirky and funny...This is the card that inspired it..well both my cards are inspired by her. So because Susan got inspired by Joan, I went to see her site and then I got inspired by Joan. So a big thank you to you Joan for inspiring!!

I used post it notes to mask the green border which you can barely see, maybe if you squint, you might see it :), butterfly is a mask made when I cut up butterflies for the next card. Tried to get some flourishes stamped inside, but they weren't in the listening mood today..so its a  partial impression.

And then the sentiment..masked the sentiment too close while stamping the flourishes..and the blue ink..what was I thinking..maybe, I wasn't thinking...don't worry, I won't post this atrocity to anyone...I'll have a good time hiding it in my closet though...

Which brings me to my super sweet next card. I finally learnt how to use my sharpies. And they give good results. Absolutely worth the dollar that I spent on it. (it cost me 45 bucks each, literally a dollar). And here is the card from Joan that inspired it. I was sitting around with butterflies in my head and then I saw her posts. What was a poor soul like me to do? I had to be inspired. Without more nonsense, here's the card..

I admit, I got carried away with the bling..but trust me, its not that much. Its just the light. Its insanely gorgeous in real life. The sentiment from Heart and soul rubber stamps was in two lines, stamped it two times to get it in one row.
And there had to be a line below it..as Joan says, butterflies have to be 'grounded'.
The butterflies are images from coloring page, modified on my Photoshop.

This card is for no challenge. Just for my insane pleasure. Because I love butterflies and I love bling and I looove colored butterflies with bling. So this is just for me.

ETA: Well this card does fit into CAS71. So hereby it goes to the CAS71-things that fly!

Hope you like'em too!!

Busy Busy Me

I've been out of the stamping process for a whole week..I've been so darn busy with the ongoing preparations of my engagement. Yup...I'm getting engaged this sunday..I've been busy shopping and spending quality time with my soon to be DH (henceforth will be referred to as S2BDH)
We live in two different states and its tough to spend some time with each other.

Distance will only bring us closer together..Ain't got any pics to show you as yet..will put them up after the 13th.

This was the last card I made and didn't get time to upload it..I got my first PTI set, thanks to Annapurna..She took up my set which I'd put up for SWAP and in exchange I got the Little lady set from PTI...Isn't that great???

Here's the card...

The background was done with a tissue paper, I just scrunched it up and dabbed it in red ink and randomly pounced it on the white CS.
the ribbon is a candy win from Heather..
The sentiment is from Heart and Soul rubber Stamp...the whole sentiment reads...
"God's greatest gift to me... is having you for a friend" I just split it up into two.

On the whole I think it turned out pretty great.

And just to confirm that I still am a bling lover...here' are some pics of my and my engagement saree..
I think I'm going to change the name of my blog to...confessions of a bling addict!!!