and a 3rd and final attempt . . .

to incorporate chocolate into a card design.

I've come to the conclusion that brown is not a favourite colour of mine. I love what others can do with it, but me? not so much.

I like the clean & simple lines of this design. My first attempt was using Copic markers to colour the holly, but that failed miserably (the ink bled fiercely outside the lines) so I reprinted the design and pulled out my Prismacolour crayons. I liked this much much much better. The holly berries are coloured with the Spica Glitter pen - oh, I sure do love those markers!!

This may be the design that I actually use for my Christmas cards this year... still trying to decide on that though. If I do use this design, I will move the sentiment a bit - I feel it's currently sitting a little too much to the left.

I don't know that I'll get to much more cardmaking this week... we'll see about that too. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful day/evening/night!!

blessings,

a second attempt. . .

in working with the color challenge on the stamping forum. For this attempt, I used white cardstock layered on a chocolate panel.

Then I changed the digital image:
- found a dingbat font that I could use for flourishes
- found a script font that I liked better (used it only for the "M")
- changed the colour of the sentiment & flourishes to red
- increased the opacity of the evergreen branches; they stand out a little more now

In using the white cardstock I didn't think the distressed edges looked all that great, so I kept the lines a little cleaner.

I managed to match the ribbon (SU baroque burgundy) & added a pop of colour with the gold ribbon & gold brads.

I like it a little better, but I'm still not sold. Any suggestions?

a challenge. . .

was issued this week on one of the forums that I frequent - to use chocolate. That could be as ink, paper, or.. the real deal.

In deciding not to bring that kind of temptation into our home I was left with paper & ink.

I spent some time browsing the galleries looking for colour combinations and decided on a Christmas theme, with brown & green. I had a design in mind and began looking for brushes to use in my photo editing program. My search was unsuccessful; I began to try to create my own. Fortunately, my daughter was home and showed me just how easy this was!!

My sentiment and all graphics are computer generated. After printing the main panel, I sponged the edges with chocolate ink. In my attempt to add distressing to the edges, I made a major oops. Like all good crafters know, when that happens you just add that to the design LOL

Ribbon purchased from the fabric store & dollar stores, a punched edge panel and a button from my MIL brought the finishing touch.

I'm still not sure I like it. Maybe it's because all the colours are muted? Maybe I need something a little different in the corner? I'm not sure. What do you think?

If I have time today after work and before getting ready for my daughter's family birthday dinner, I'll head back to my desk and see if I can create attempt #2.

in our home . . .

a Harry Potter fan is celebrating her birthday today.

I was able to download a free image a while ago from Bugaboo Stamps. Jodi has a complete set of Har Repotter digital images available for purchase. What fun for anyone who has been bitten by the Harry Potter bug LOL

Together with inspiration from this card, I created one with sage advice from the Gentle One for my daughter. I hope she likes it.

Used a bunch of copic markers (I have no idea which ones as I had them all out & didn't remember to take note of which ones I actually used... oops. )

Took the piece outside to burn the edges... my hands still smell of smoke!! Misted the top & bottom edges with water and, using a straw, curled the edges. The ribbon is from a wedding reception that I attended at the beginning of the month. The silver paper is actually just a piece of tin foil cut to size :-)

We won't actually celebrate her birthday as a family until Friday, but she will receive her gift (and card) from us tonight as the gift is time sensitive.

It's been too long . . .

since I've really taken a day to make cards.

Although yesterday was World Card Making Day, I didn't have opportunity to actually work on any cards or participate in any of the many challenges that were posted. However, one challenge on SCS Flybabies was to make a card that says, "Thank You" on it. What a great challenge!! and perfectly fitting for what I needed!!

In light of that, I worked on a card today - my Mom wanted a ThankYou card for friends who ... well, my folks were blessed by these friends in a remarkable way.

I spent most of yesterday evening looking for inspiration... and found Vintaged Serenity. The basic layout is CASEd, but I used a "thank you" collage in place of the serenity poem.


I also worked on a digital design that my folks can use as a "change of address" card. The postal system here has cards available, but they're really boring. I thought that this picture of an empty room was a great place to start. I assembled just this one card today.

Now that I know what supplies I need, they are all gathered & ready for me to take down to my folks. The plan is for me to leave tomorrow and spend the next few days there with them. I hope to have time in the evenings to assemble these - the goal is to have them all done before it's time for me to come back home.

It's been great to be back in my stamping space. I hope I can get there again before too long!!