For the Dads

Nothing like creating my Father's Day cards at the last minutue (which seems to be how I am creating lately). Since my DH is a wonderful daddy and I have a daddy of my own, I thought I would show you what I created for both of them. Both are rather simple as they are simple guys.
For the first card I, CASED Jaclyn's card over at CAS-sual Fridays for thier challenge. Since it wasn't "colorful" by my standards, I added some stitching to help break up the greys. The small star stamp is from PTI's Take a Bough and the sentiment stamp is an old one from Stampin' Up.


Challenges for the first card:
CAS-ual Fridays: color blocking
Colour Create: Blue, Grey, White
Southern Girls Challenge: Anything Goes


The second card uses Verve's Protector two stamp set and some wonderful SEI paper from YMH called Windsor. I stamped the word in grey and then cut out to be palaced over the mat that I clear embossed the collage onto vanilla c/s and then used Distress Ink's Antique Linen, Old Paper, and Pumice Stone to get the words to pop a little more. I added a little Pumice Stone to the SEI paper as well as I don't tend to do "clean" mats often. I love that YMH is now selling Distress Inks (and more). The twill at the bottom was folded over and slipped through a ribbon buckle.

Gold and Brown plus a little orange

Here's my card for todays YMH post. Once I get some more time I plan on doing some altered projects, but it looks like it's going to have to wait until at least November. I used some of my new Tattered Angles products: HayRide Glimmer Glam, Peach Delight and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist, and the bird is from the Nature Glimmer Chips collection. The paper is from SEI's Windsor collection. I love how the paper have the metallic gold look to it. A simple post for a simple card :)


Challenges used:

Stamp Simply - use some sort of metal feel to the project

Creative Inspiration - sketch

SCS HYCC - card inspired by someplace you walk (the bird because of hearing them while I walk to and from and card, gold for my school's colors and orange for the few trees that are starting to turn colors that I see around my home).

Crazy 4 Challenges - Fall/Autumn inspired

Sabby Blue Bird

I am so glad to be in my craft room right now (even though it looks like a tornado has hit it). Beginning of a new school year is always hetic and challengeing and this year is no exception. A has really been enjoying his Pre-K school and teacher (still find it funny that his teacher lives on our street), but he is a boy of few words. I don't get much from him in the way of words, but his face lights up when we talk about it. One of the biggest change for us is the getting up early part as it makes for a long day. Everyone has been coming home tired and after the boys go to bed DH and I have just been hanging out in our room watching tv/playing on the laptops. I really want to change some of that as I do miss my books and my craft room has been feeling neglated. I also miss talking to my DH and not just being in the room with him yet do different things. Don't get me wrong, it nice just being around him but it feels as though that's all we do - no real conversation. It's time to get my body and mind into gear and start acting on the changes I want to see. My problem is finding the time to do it all and so this is something I really should be praying about and listening to His answer.

Anyways, let's get down to business: the project ya'll are here to see. LOL. It's my day at Your Memories Here and I've created a cute little card for ya'll. I thought I would try my hand at the whole Shabby Chic style again. YMH has this beautiful shimmery paper called Lovebirds by SEI that has birdcages, birds, and keys on one side while the back side is a solid copper color (both sides shimmer). I paired up the paper with some cream lace found at YMH and some Maya Road chipboard cut outs that I've had for awhile but haven't really used. The base of the card is PTI's vanilla c/s with their Background Basics: Text Style stamped in Antique Linen Distress Ink and sponged on the edges with PTI's Tea Duo ink set. I then dry rubbed some Adirondack's Pearl paint to give it a little something extra when light hit. Next I punched the scallop boarder from some coral cardstock as a base for the cream lace. I raised the SEI paper on pop dots so the lace would cause any bumps underneath it.

The banch got a coat of Walnut Stain Distress Crackle Paint and then once dried I rubbed in some of the Pearl paint. My sweet little blue bird was base painted with a coral pink and then covered with Broken China Distress Crackle Paint. I love how the pink just peeks through the cracks. As a bonus, I put the paint on thick is some parts and thin in others so that I could get a variation of crack sizes. LOVE this stuff! For the eye I used a light blue rhinestone from Prima that also came from YMH.

I had lots of fun with this card and it came together surprisingly fast (got love using the heat gun on the paints to quicken their drying time, lol). I think that maybe, just maybe, I'm getting the hang of this Shabby Chic thing :)

Challenges used:

clean and simple - scketch (I flipped the sketch)

A spoon full of sugar - animals

My Time to Craft - jeweled (the eye for my bird)

Fab 'n' Funky - anything goes

Fresh Brewed - use brown

If the shoe fits - color challenge

Now for a bit of crafting honesty. Besides work overload, there is another reason why I haven't been crafting as much. The room has gotten so messy that I really just can't stand to be in here for more than a few minutes at a time. It overwhelms me to the point where I don't even want to clean. I get so caught up in creating and getting the ideas from head to paper that I don't clean up after myself. This is something I really need to adjust as it stiffles my mojo and makes it hard not only in finding things but in getting around too. Here are pictures to prove this (guess I really do need to clean). I'm not the only one with this problem right? How do ya'll keep your space clean?