Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Home at last!

We arrived home last night, but I have been busy tying up loose ends today. All of my craft stuff is still in bags, so I haven't created anything yet. In lieu of a new project, I thought I might post a few vacation pictures.

Saturday, Sean Linda Nick and I broke ranks and visited a couple of museums. We saw the Mattress Factory and the Warhol Museum. Neither place allows photography, but the whole clan did go on an evening riverboat cruise that offered plenty of shutterbug time. Here are a couple of the highlights.





The whole group of us went to a Pirates game on Sunday. They lost to the Padres, but it was still a good game. Who am I kidding! I know nothing about baseball. All I know is it was HOT! Here's a photo of the field. I liked the giant hedge with "Pirates" carved into the top. It's too bad that I'm not a shrub fan or we could have one in the front yard that says "Joneses". Perhaps not...



This is a statue of Honus Wagner that stands outside PNC Park.



Then, on Monday, most of the family left, but Sean and I stayed in the city long enough to visit the National Aviary. Super Cool! The only problem is, most of the birds travel too quickly to be properly photographed. These images will have to do. You'll notice that most of the birds in these photos are stationary.







Well, that's all for now. Have a lovely night.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Round 3, here I come!

I made it into the third round of Paper Crafts Gallery Idol! I found out over vacation so I was spending my down time in Pittsburgh working on my project. Did you know that the best photography light in a Hampton Inn is in the bathroom? True story!

Anyhow, the challenge this round was to feature an attributable quote. Luckily, I had the Out On A Limb stamp set with me on vacation. There is a really lovely Helen Keller quote in that set that says, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt with the heart." I used that quote with a chipboard heart covered in patterned paper and some pretty ribbon to create a really clean and simple card. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

To view the cards in this round click here.

To vote click here.

I am CreativeCritter in case you choose to vote for me. Thanks so much for the support!



Recipe:
Cardstock: White - Strathmore, Pool - Paper Source, Kraft - Papertrey Ink, Brown - Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Heidi Grace
Stamps: Out On A Limb - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Dark Chocolate - Papertrey Ink, Moonlight White - Brilliance
Ribbon: Dark Chocolate Twill & Aqua Mist Saddle Stitched - Papertrey Ink
Other: Chipboard Heart - Basic Grey, Brad - American Crafts, Flower - Prima, Foam Tape - 3M

Thursday, July 24, 2008

In Pittsburgh

We're on vacation right now and it seems unlikely that there will be any card making done tonight. Jenga, yes...card making, no. Perhaps tomorrow. Also, tomorrow I'll know about the Gallery Idol results for the last round. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wuv . . . Twu Wuv

I made an anniversary card today for a friend to give to someone else. 50 years. Wow. Good for them. I don't really have any background information, so I'll leave it there.





Recipe:
Cardstock: White - Strathmore, Aqua & Turquoise - Bazzill
Stamps: Guidelines - Papertrey Ink, Love Sentiments - Cloud 9
Inks: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink, Water Lily Green - Palette
Die Cuts: Ring - Quickutz
Punches: Circles - Creative Memories, EK Success, Corner rounder - EK Success
Glitter Pen - Sakura
Rhinestone - Darice
Foam Tape - Scotch
Ribbon - May Arts

Monday, July 21, 2008

I made it!

I made it into the next round of the PaperCrafts Gallery Idol contest! The theme this round was to create a monochromatic card. It's so silly, I make quite a few monochromatic cards, but as soon as I was given the theme I couldn't find my bum with both hands. Not to mention, it's hard to design a greeting card when you spend your weekend sitting in hospital waiting rooms (hi, Mom). I just kept thinking "it's not easy being green" as a get well sentiment.

Well in any case, I finally got my project put together. It required an all-nighter, but the card did get finished. I emailed my photo with my last shred of energy and promptly fell asleep on my craft room floor. At some point I woke up and actually got to the bed...where I remain even now (thank Heaven for laptop computers).

Without further ado...my card:





My favorite color is green, so it only made sense that I pull out the verde for this round. I punched circles out of all sorts of patterned paper to make my tree. There is more foam tape on this card than any other card I have ever made. So much texture! My polka dotted papers have Glossy Accents on them and there is glitter pen all over the place. I need to figure out how to photograph glitter. I have varying levels of success, but rarely is it very clear. Oh, well. It's there.

Anyway, to see the whole gallery of Round 2 cards go here. Everybody did an amazing job! Their work really deserves a gander.

To vote for my card please click here. My screen name is CreativeCritter and the editors over at PaperCrafts are calling my project "Look Up To." I totally appreciate the support! Have a great day.

Recipe:
Cardstock: Vintage Vanilla - Papertrey Ink, Greens - Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Chatterbox
Stamps: Father Knows Best - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Dark Moss Chalk Ink - Colorbox
Circle Punches: Ek Success, Creative Memories
Glitter Pen: Sakura
Ribbon: Michaels
Glossy Accents: Ranger
Other: Foam Tape