Joyful Living

We're Moving!

Yep, you read that correctly.  My blog is moving.  My new blog home is D28Studios.blogspot.com.

I've enjoyed my time here at Typepad and it has been a wonderful home.  But  the time has come to move on.  After looking at all the nifty things that other people's blogs were doing, I knew it was time to pack it in and look for a new home.

So please join me at my new blog home D28Studios.blogspot.com.  My new blog home is named after my Etsy shop so that if you're joining me from Etsy, everything will look a little more cohesive.

Well, on to new adventure at the new blog!

Miss You!

Hi All!  I just wanted to put up a quick post today to say that I'm still around.  

As the summer winds down, attorneys are back to work, which means so am I!    So I have been SWAMPED with work, which is good because it means more money for crafting goodies.  But it's also a bad thing because I have absolutely no time to craft anything.  :(  My craft room sits empty beckoning to me, but, sigh, I cannot answer its call at the moment.  (Wipe away a small glistening tear.)  But my brain is cooking up some wonderful projects I want to tackle for the fall and upcoming holidays.

A few parting thoughts...

1.  Have you checked out Paper Crafts Magazine?  They are one of my mostest favorite magazines ever!  You can check out their website here.  Plus, if you've ever dreamt of being published, this is your big chance!  They are accepting submissions for their March/April 2013 issue.  Check out all the juicy details here!  I have submitted a few things to them.  I haven't been published yet.  But who knows, maybe someday soon!

2.  Paper Crafts Magazine puts out some special edition issues every so often.    Their latest edition is the  Card Design Handbook, and they have been generous enough to provide the Glossary of Design section of the magazine as a free download.  You can read more about the Glossary of Design and get your free copy here.  It's a great resource, so be sure to check it out.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Fabric Challenge

Last Friday Francesca challenged us to create a card using the colors in this fun fabric:

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely stink at color challenges.  I don't know what it is about a color challenge, but they just seem to stump me.   I end up spending countless hours staring at my stash lost and confused.

I find that a lot of color challenges are geared towards Stampin Up colors, and I'm not familiar with them.  So Bexx was kind enough to send me a Color Coach, and a lot of other goodies (thanks Bexx!) and that made this challenge a little easier.

With the Color Coach in hand, I was able to sift through my stash to come up with this Cosmo Cricket paper and Echo Park stickers.  Definitely a different feel than the inspiration fabric, but the colors are all there!

This is such a proud moment for me!  This is pretty much the first color challenge I have ever completed!  So thank you to Francesca for this fun challenge!

London Calling

Hello. I just wanted to pop in and share a cute little British inspired card I put together. I have had a "Keep Calm and Carry On" stamp for quite some time, but haven't had a chance to use it. So when I saw Paper Craft Magazine's August Gallery Challenge and Bexx's London Calling challenge, I knew I had to play along!

Here's what I came up with:

To make the card, I fussy cut all of the triangles and stripes to create my Union Jack background.  I heat embossed the keep calm stamp onto the red background and matted it in white and blue.

Well, thanks for stopping by today!

In Love with Lovely Layers

Not quite sure what I did wrong, but some how I didn't save and schedule this post as I had thought.  So here I am trying to rewrite it.  I had some clever thing written about finishing the 100 in 1oo challenge on the same day the Olympics finished.  I have my moments, but it seems as though that moment has passed.

So enough with the whining already.  Let's get to the cards!  I just wanted to share some cards I made using Papertrey Ink's Lovely Layers stamps and dies.

Project 98:

I love that the stamp set includes a large and a small fully assembled image that you can use to quickly put together backgrounds.  I used the small one in the card above.  The set also comes with stamps and a die for each individual layer so that you can build your own images.  I used the individual layer stamps and dies to create the the pink, green, and yellow flowers.  I didn't have matching Summer Sunrise card stock, so I inked the edges of a white card base.

Project 99:

For this card I used both the large and small fully assembled images to create the background.   The images were super easy to line up thanks to the viens in the leaves.

Project 100:

For this last card I die cut the largest layer out of the card front and stamped the rest of the layers on the inside of the card.

And that makes 100!  I am officially done with the 100 in 100 Challenge!  This has been such a wonderful experience, and I've met so many wonderful and talented ladies.  I feel so lucky to have been a part of this challenge and I look forward to focusing on the Card-a-Day Blog group!  Thanks for stopping by today.

A Little Nerdy

I love Saturdays, especially lazy summer Saturdays.  California is in the middle of a heatwave and we've been threatened with rolling black outs if we don't conserve energy.  So far we've been lucky and we haven't lost power.  Thank goodness, because I wouldn't know what to do without our air conditioner!

Well, I just wanted to share three cards I put together using this cute stamp set from Unity Stamp Co.

It's called Talk Nerdy (and it's on sale right now for $3.29!).

So here's what I came up with.

Project 95:

I made this one for Split Coast Stamper's Try a New Technique 388, Triple Stamping/Seamless Tiers.

Project 96:

Project 97:

So did you notice that I didn't use any DSP for this set of cards?!?!  I needed a break from all the DSP I've been using.  I was really trying to put a dent in my DSP stash, so I've been concentrating on making cards that used DSP.  But I tell you, there's nothing that can replace getting a little inky!

Well, tomorrow will be my last day of the 100 in 100 challenge.  I can't believe it's coming to an end.  So join me tomorrow to celebrate the end of this challenge!  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

First Push Towards the Finish

I can't believe how time flies!  I know it's been quite a number of days since I've posted anything (more than a week, eek!), but I hope to be back on track!

Today I just wanted to share a BUNCH of cards that I've made using Authentique's Lively collection.  So here we go!

Project 89:

This card was a bit of an oops!  I forgot to attach the ribbon on the floral paper before attaching everything to the card.  So I dusted off the old Crop-A-Dile and set an eyelet on the side of the card to thread the ribbon through.  I'm not quite sure how I like it though.

Project 90:

I used my Sizzix cupcake die to create the little cupcake.  I added the green frosting on top using a Versamark Ink marker and embossing powder.  There was so much going on with this particular card that I decided to leave it sentimentless.  

Project 91:

Not too much to say about this one.  Other than I think that the solid green half of this card needs a wee bit of texture.   So I really need to invest in some impression plates/embossing folders because I didn't have one that worked.

Project 92:

I love the quote on this sticker, so I knew I wanted to make a card that would showcase it.

Project 93:

Just a quick and simple little card.  This is definitely one of my go-to sketches to show off pretty paper.

Project 94:

Just another simple card.  I love this Big & Bold Wishes stamp set from Papertrey Ink.  It's so versatile and I love that the sentiments can really hold their own on a card.

So I have to say that as much as I loved this collection in the store, I just couldn't get it work well on my cards.  I used the big 12 by 12 sheets instead of purchasing the 6 by 6 pad, so the bigger scale of the patterns was definitely a little more challenging to work with.  

So my question to you is:  Do you have preference of paper size when working with designer paper, or does it even matter?  Just curious to know what your thoughts are!

Thanks for stopping by and only six more projects to go!

Projects 84 through 88

I am so excited!  I found out yesterday, through the comments on my blog post, that I was one of the winners for Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger!  I had somehow missed MFW's post announcing the winners, but finding out through the comments sure was a fun way to find out!  So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of their  kind comments. 

I haven't had a lot of crafty time lately, but I still managed to put together a few quick cards, and I'm really hoping to finish off the 100 in 100 challenge very soon so I can focus on the Card a Day group.  There's still time to participate in both, so be sure to check out the Splitcoast Stampers threads for each.  This is the 100 in 100 Challenge.  This is the Card a Day Blog group.

Anyway, here we go, so hang on to your hats!

Project 84:

I made this card for the Split Coast Stampers Seeing Double Challenge.  The challenge was to make a card with two focal points.

Project 85:

Project 86:

Project 87:

Project 88:

All of these cards were created using DCWV Lemon Flower Stack and Papertrey Ink's Rosie Posie stamp set.

 

A Whimsical Birthday Card

Birthday cards are not something that I find myself making very often.  In fact the only reason I have made birthday cards at all lately is because I had those cute Martha Stewart chipboard stickers.  I know, it's strange.

Well, I wanted to think outside the box and try and make a card that was a little different than I usually make.  So I turned to the birthday genre and those same Martha Stewart stickers.  Here's what I came up with:

I love all things bright and cheery, and the gray card base really makes the pink and turquoise pop!

 Well, that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Hooked on Hexagons Challenge

Can you believe it's Monday again?!?!  Where does the weekend go? 

Anyways today is the last day to play along with Moxie Fab World's Hooked on Hexagons challenge.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with the hexagons, so I started out by using Papertrey Ink's Hexagon Die to cut a bunch of white hexagons.  I played around with them for a bit and noticed that they made quite a cute flower.  

I stamped several of the white hexagons with the the Happy Hexagon stamp set using Harvest Gold and Summer Sunrise ink.  I glued the stamped hexagon to scrap cardstock and trimmed around them to make a bunch of cute, colorful hexagon flowers.  I added a contrasting color center that I popped up and offset to create some interest.

For the sentiment rectangle I used PTI's Rosie Posie and Happy Hexagons to create the colorful background.

And finally, I didn't want to leave the background just plain white, so I used the same PTI hexagon die and some craft foam to create a dry-embossed hexagon background.

Well, I am totally hexagoned out!  But there's still time for you to play along too! 

Thanks for stopping in today and happy crafting!

 

I created little hexagon flowers using Papertrey Ink's Happy Hexagon stamps and Hexagon die.  I poped up and offset the center of each flower.