Homemade Designer Paper

Every two weeks we have a challenge at Butternut Sage Designs.  This is our morning chat group, and we are still waiting for you to come join us in our chat.  So what are you waiting for, we are a fun bunch.  Just go to the Butternut Sage link above, click on the right where it says "chat room" and come chat with us. 

One of the many things we do in this group is challenge one another to accomplish new and/or interesting techniques.  This time the challenge is to create our own designer paper and use it for a one layer card.  Whew, easier said than done!

What I was going for here was the kind of designer paper you find with one corner having some sort of extra design, either a flourish of flowers, or perhaps a house, birdhouse, or some type of object.  I started by streaking my Very Vanilla cardstock with River Rock and So Saffron to give it some background.  I just used my ink pads directly on the paper.   (River Rock in person looks rather green and was softer than the other greens.)  Then I did my flourish from Everything Eleanor and added leaves from the French Foliage stamps.  French Foliage is such a beautiful set, and since it is the only current leaves set I have, I'm using it a lot right now.  Hope you aren't sick of it yet, because I have a couple more cards to show you.

I hope you like my new cardstock.  Tomorrow I'll try to come back with one of the Halloween cards I did today, and perhaps one or two more vacation pictures.

Until next time..............

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Spooky Googly Eyes

Yesterday I had so much fun crafting all day with friends (thanks, Buffy, for having us).   I managed to work on, and complete, 6 card kits that I want to use on Tuesday for a one-on-one class I have scheduled with a customer/friend.  My card today is one of the kits.  I hope my posting does not ruin the surprise for her, as I know she reads my blog.  Then again, perhaps it will excite her to hardly be able to wait until Tuesday -- I hope so. 

I have been on a roll using the Googly Ghouls stamps and the Designer Kit (Pg 27 of mini).   Love, love, love these crazy characters.  I believe this will be one of the cards for a grandson.  I know my grands will like these fun characters.  And just look at those googly eyes peeking from the BOOOO.  I have to hurry and get more eyes, because I'm using them fast!  I have another really cute card using these stamps and eyes, but I got my inspiration from another blogger and I need to go back and find out who it is so I can give her credit. 

Do you want to see a couple more vacation pictures?  If  not, just skip them, you won't hurt my feelings.  These were taken in Vienna.  Vienna is such a beautiful city.  The more we saw, the more impressed we were. 

 This picture is of the Kursalon, which is a concert hall, gardens, and monuments, all focused on great composers.  My husband said he took me to Vienna to get me some culture.  I think he forgot that during my piano playing days I played Mozart, Strauss, Chopin and many others.  We really enjoyed the Vienna Symphony Orchestra while there.  We had dinner outdoors and then the concert inside in the gorgeous concert hall, what a beautiful evening.  Yum!

I won't give you any history lesson on Mozart or Strauss.  Suffice it to say that in Vienna there are a lot of places dedicated to their favorite composers.  This is Johann Strauss, and what a beautiful monument.  It is part of the Kursalon gardens.  Look at that gold -- plated, not solid.  At least I don't think it is solid.  I couldn't chip any off so I'm not sure! 

This one I just had to add because it so fascinated me.  I never saw a hidden TV before.  At first we could not find the TV.  You can see all the mirrors with the room reflection, right?  The TV is embedded behind the mirror.  You can't see it when it is off, but turn it on and this is what you see.  It just "floats" in the middle of the mirror!  Doesn't take much to fascinate me.  The European hotels were superb.




So that is another little portion of our vacation.  Vienna is so gorgeous.  Tomorrow I'll show you one or two more and then move on to something else.  Thanks for visiting me today. 

Happy Crafting............

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Ghouls and Goblins

I worked a little more yesterday on some Halloween treats for the grandkids.  I love these little bags.  They are soooooo easy and sooooooo much fun.    My husband laughed and asked me where I got them.  Duh, when I make something, where else would I get the supplies?!?  He especially likes the one-eyed mummy with the googly eyed spider.   I don't have the real Halloween candy yet for these bags.  If I had Halloween candy this early, it would be eaten before the big day.  Right now there are a few stale M&Ms in there -- yikes, stale?

I think the grands are going to get a kick out of these.  You really need to get this Ghoulish Googlies Bundle.  The stamps are adorable and the kit to make the bags makes it so easy to assemble.  Only problem I see, is there aren't enough in one package.  I have only 10 bags but lots of little cards and eyes.  I am going to have to order another package.  At $7.95 that isn't so bad.

And here are 2 more vacation pictures.  These were taken in Prague.

 
 This picture is taken from the Charles bridge and is of the Royal Palace on the hill.  We did not walk UP to that palace, we took a hop on/hop off bus.  However, we did walk DOWN from the palace.  My husband and I always walk a lot on vacation.  Which is  probably why I lost 8 lbs and he lost 9 lbs.  Ugh, he won, he lost the most!  The river is not the Danube yet, I'll get to that later.  This river is the Vltava and the boat is a sighseeing boat -- which we did take one day. 

And for my Australian friends, you will probably recognize this didgeridoo.  This fellow was on holiday from Australia, travelling around Europe.  A very interesting guy.  He set up his equipment in the Old Town Square and proceeded to entrance the tourists with his many instruments -- at least he entranced me.  I loved to listen.  We sat for quite a while with our Cokes and sore feet.  Another thing we usually do a  lot on vacation -- have coffee or Coke, people watch, and rest for a bit. 



 Hope you are having a wonderful day.  I'm headed off to craft with my friends.  Nothing better than friends, ink and paper, and nothing to do but create for a couple hours!

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

MDS2 Playtime

I'm excited today to show you what I have been working on.  I am not yet "creating" just "working."  I still have a long way to go before I know half of what there is to know about MDS2, but yesterday my upline gave a class on MDS2 and we created this card using some of the new features.  If you don't yet have MDS2, hurry and get it.  There are so many nice, new, features to play with.  And if you don't have a Stampin'Up! demonstrator and need to know how to get your own MDS2 software, I can help you with that, just give me a shout.  My e-mail address is on the right.

To start we used a format already in the software, but then manipulated and added and changed in order to make this card our own.  I did a lot of coloring of the skaters using the paintbrush and all the colors (don't look at my mistakes).  I had fun.  I outlined the shirts, skirt, pants, etc. with a darker color and then colored in the clothing with a slightly lighter color.  This gave the clothing more depth.  I still need to learn a more steady hand, and I want to play more with the painting option and colors, sizing, and more embellishments.  I also have to learn printing, but I am started, and for me that is 90% of the battle.  If you have MDS2, let me know how you are doing and how you like it.  Would love to hear your comments.

And now, on to 2 pictures of my trip.  On our vacation we started in Prague, continued by train to Vienna, and then continued by river cruise ship on the Danube River to Budapest.   These 2 pictures were taken in Prague.

 This daytime picture is where we stayed in Prague.  I would say our hotel is the white building with the red roof, but most of the biuldings are white or cream with red.  Our hotel is pretty much right in the middle.  We had a pretty central location so we could move all around the city just by hopping a bus or boat.

 This is nearly the same location but from a different point of view and taken at night.  The canopy of lights just to the right of center is a wonderful restaurant where we had dinner 2 of the 3 nights we were there.  Wonderful food, some local dishes that we tried, and of course a fantastic view.  There is a whole river walk here that we did that night.  Beautiful.





I hope you enjoyed my little bit of excitement over my new MDS2 software (thank you Buffy for your teaching), and I hope you like the 2 pictures taken in Prague.  I'll be adding a couple more vacation pictures from time to time, but will try to get some more crafting pictures in here too.  Tomorrow I plan to do a craft day again with friends and hope to come home with several creations to add to my blog.  Have a great day!

Until next time...................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Coloring Down the Lines -- Pretty in Pink

Welcome everyone to another Coloring Down the Lines Wednesday blog hop.  I've been missing in action for the last few Wednesdays and really need to catch up.  What can I say, vacation came first, and we loved our vacation.  I'll have some pictures for you soon.

This week we were challenged to use Pretty in Pink and add to it either Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue OR Marina Mist and Daffodil Delight.  I chose the first, I'm not sure why, both combinations are very pretty.  You should have arrived from Pam's blogsite.  How did you like her color combination.  Such a pretty creation.  Didn't you love it?

For my card I wanted to try using the colors and the acrylic blocks to place a square of each ink on my card.  I used the Aviary stamp set.  Do you recognize the "table" the little bird is standing on?  It's a piece of one of the other cages.  I couldn't quite get what I envisioned in my head so I kept adding and adding things until I ended up with what you see.  I hope you like my take on the challenge.

Now you need to hop on over to Teri's blogsite.  She has something very nice for you.  Don't forget about our morning chats on the Butternutsage blogsite.  10:00 a.m. Eastern.  Come join us to chat and then to join in on our challenges.  Hope to see you there.

Until next time...................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Fall Leaves

I have another fall card for you today.  This is a technique I did a few weeks ago and like enough to make more like it.  It's so simple.  Just one layer, no fuss, but there is some muss -- which you know from yesterday that I like. 

I dropped one drop each of Cajun Craze, Old Olive, and So Saffron on a craft sheet.  Then I used my aqua painter and scribbled a little of each color on Whisper White cardstock until I was happy with the design.  I stamped leaves from French Foliage (my favorite fall stamp set) in shades of Old Olive, Soft Suede and Pumpkin Pie.  After that I just went around close to the edge and scored to give the card a little "finish."  So easy.  This is something really quick when I want to hurry and get a birthday or thank you in the mail.  In person it has a nicer look than the photograph.  One of these days I'll learn how to really use my camera.  Perhaps that is my next challenge?

I hope to get some Halloween cards done over the next couple days.  I am determined this year to have the "grands" Halloween packages ready early and not at the last minute like other years.  I also want to get a jump on holiday cards.  Can't believe it is getting to be that time again.  How are you doing with holidays?  Would love to hear how you are handling the time crunch this year.  Drop me a comment.

Until next time.....................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

Fall Sparkle

I spent the day with friends crafting the time away.  I just love going away from home and having no  responsibility other than chatting with friends while creating.  I don't think I lost my mojo while on vacation because I am happy with the creations I made today.

This card was done for a challenge over at Butternut Sage for our Morning Chat Challenge.  Every two weeks we have a different theme for our challenge.  We'd love to have more join our challenges, so if you would like to be included, just hop on over to Butternut Sage, click on the Morning Chat Challenge and see what the current challenge topic is.  Then link your creation to the rest.  Or, ask me, and I'll help you join in. 

This time we were to do a glitter fall card.  I used a couple fall colors:  More Mustard, Cajun Craze, and Old Olive.  I used a craft sheet and dropped a couple drops of More Mustard and Cajun Craze and placed my Very Vanilla cardstock on top and smooshed the colors around.  I did something similar before, but this time I got my inspiration from my upline, Buffy Cooper.  She did a techniques class recently and this was one of the techniques.  She called it Watercolor Smash.  I'm more likely to refer to it as smooshing.  I love to make a mess and smooshing sounds more messy!  She used pretty colors and pretty flowers, but I made it into a fall card and used flowers that look like they are dying away and fall colors.  The sparkly flower part is to qualify for the glitter portion of the challenge -- I cheat a little.

I hope you like my challenge today.  I'll be back tomorrow with something more.  I have another fall card to show you.  And, as soon as I load those vacation pictures, I'll include just a couple of those.  I won't bore you with all 500+ of them.  Did I mention that I take LOTS of pictures?  Everything from people to flowers, to hills, water, anything I can snap.  My hubby just grins, shakes his head and puts on the smile.  He knows better than to complain.

So come back to visit soon.

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy

She's Ba-a-a-a-ack!

We are back from our vacation, and I am trying to figure out where I am and who I am.  Wow, I am so out of touch.  I have a crafting day all day today with some friends so I should have something nice to show you tomorrow.  For today I'll give you a glimpse of what a river cruise ship looks like.  On our vacation we inserted into the middle of our trip a short river cruise.  Just what we needed, a little relaxation in the middle of all that sightseeing.  Just floating calmly along the Danube (did you know that it is not the beautiful BLUE Danube?   Nope, it is green!).  I will have a few more pictures for you once I load them all on my computer.

I hope to be back soon with some creations.  I'll find out today whether or not my mojo went on vacation -- I hope it came home too!  Wish me luck. 

Until next time.....................

Crafty Hugs,
Sandy