Playing Along with ColorQ

It has been a long time since I posted. Long story shortened.... I had some health issues (thyroid) that are hopefully better now. I feel a lot better, so that's what matters most to me. :)

I've been stalking this ColourQ blog: http://www.colourq.blogspot.com/ for a while now and have finally played along. You use their color combinations to make some art. Here are their colors:

And here's what I came up with. I also tried using the faux mother-of-pearl technique on the bashful blue piece. You can kind of see the shinyness in the close-up photo. Hope you like it. I enjoyed playing along!

Be proud of yourself!

I love to craft.  It makes me happy and, honestly, proud of myself.  I think as busy women we tend to forget about ourselves and make ourselves happy and proud.  We are happy for our kids, proud of our kids, but we need to remember not to lose ourselves in the process of being a good parent. 

So whether it be a card, a scrapbook page or a "thingy", crafting is like therapy for me.  At our last Girls Weekend, I wanted to make these letters.  I bought them a while ago at American Scrapbook Store in LaCrosse.  They are plain chipboard letters that you can punch out of the square.  I apologize, I should have taken "before" photos.  But I bought them with the intent to do something with them, so this is what I did.

I punched out all of the letters and sanded them to make the edges smooth.  Then I inked them with my chocolate chip ink (craft would have been better, but I didn't have it).  Then I cut some old designer series paper that was in an old Simply Scrappin' Kit and covered the squares.  I then adhered the letters to the paper with some Crystal Effects and embellished each square.  I think they turned out mighty cute!  I haven't decided, but I think I'll get two frames and put the squares along with a picture or two of each child in their own frame.

So, the moral of the story is to go create something and be proud of yourself!

Audra

Color Renovation and Tote-ally Tess

This is one of the projects that we made at a recent 10 for $15.  I fell in love with Tote-ally Tess, but wasn't quite sure how to use her.  So I thought a 6x6  sign that everyone could hang in their own crafty spot.  :)  And, no, I am not a horrible colorer with her hair: I have curly hair, so I tried to make Tess have curly hair, too.  It didn't work out for the best, it just looks kinda sloppy, but so does my hair, so I left it!  I also used a sponge to ink the left-over part of a Top Note Big Shot piece, I love that look!  I hope you make your own sign to let everyone know where your crafty spot is.

The 6x6 Pacific Point (blue) background was used just to use up some old 12x12 cardstock I had lying around.  However, with Stampin' Up!'s new Color Renovation, Pacific Point and a lot of old "In Colors" are coming back!  Yay!!!   Here's the NEW colors as of July 1, 2010...

If you think there are fewer colors, you're right! The collections have 10 colors instead of 12 and there are 4 collections instead of 4 families AND a neutral family.  We will continue to have In Colors, only 5 instead of 6, and they will stick around for 2 years rather than 1.  If I understand it correctly, we'll always have 10 In Colors, with 5 new and 5 carried over from the prior year.

If your favorite isn't on the list, be sure to let me know as soon as possible so that you can stock up on ink pads, paper and embellishments.

Have a great weekend and keep craftin',

Audra

An Easter Blessing

Hello out there!  Sorry it has been a while, I was on a roll there last week and then petered out. Just have been busy, you know. The best part is that my new nephew is here!!!!  Owen Timothy was born 3/30/2010 to my brother & his fiance.  He is the sweetest, cutest, chubbiest baby I've seen since my own kids!!  :)

On to the card: it is an Easter card that I created for that Stamp A Stack for breast cancer.  My favorite part is the "vase".  Do you recognize it?  Yep, its the ornament punch with the tip cut off!! I love being able to use tools for more than one purpose and this was a great tip.  Today's the last day of Sale-A-Bration 2010. I hope you got all the free items that you wanted.

Ingredients:

Abundant Hope stamp set (in Occasions Mini, available only til April 30)

Shades of Spring designer paper (in Occasions Mini, available only til April 30)

scallop trim border punch (in Sale-A-Bration catalog, but will be available in the new book)

so saffron cardstock

orchid opulence cardstock

whisper white cardstock

mellow moss inkpad

watercolor pencils

blender pen

so saffron ribbon (outdated, not available currently)

ornament punch

paper snips

adhesive

Give something old a new spin: you might like the results.

Keep crafting,

Audra

Elegant Wedding Wishes

I saw something similar to this from Becky Hay de Garcia, who is in the same InkBig Stampin' Up! group that I am.  Becky's was a little different than mine, but I fell in love with her idea of using the heart punches as the wedding clothes.  Too cute! There's some heat embossing on each of the hearts (do that prior to punching, it makes it a lot easier to use the heat tool), dry embossing on the white background layer and I also used black craft ink & heat embossed the "Congratulations".  Very simple!!  And if you use black and white craft ink, you only need to use clear embossing powder rather than white powder and black powder with versamark.  That makes it an easier, quicker clean up.  Hope you enjoy the card.

Ingredients:

I {Heart} Hearts stamp set (limited time offer in the Occasions mini catalog)

Well Scripted stamp set (limited time offer in the Occasions mini catalog)

basic black cardstock

whisper white cardstock

basic black craft ink

whisper white craft ink

basic black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

full heart punch

clear embossing powder

backgrounds 1 texturz plates for BigShot

adhesive

mini glue dots

paper snips

powder pals & brush

Have a great crafting day!

Audra

I {LOVE} my friends

I have the best bunch of girl friends. My advice to any woman just starting out in their adult life is to find some really good girl friends. Husbands are wonderful, but girl friends really understand. :)

So here's my tribute to my friends. The big scallop circle is a circle that was scalloped using the corner rounder. Cool idea, huh? I got it from Katt over here. She is awesome! Actually, I pretty much copied the entire card, but I can't remember from where. (I think Splitcoast or Stampin' Connection) The stamp set is Vintage Vogue, which is SO VERSATILE!! I never would have thought that, but it really is. I love it, really hope it makes it to the next big catalog. Hope you like this card as much as I do.

Ingredients:

Vintage Vogue stamp set (for a limited time in the Occasions mini)

so saffron cardstock

perfect plum cardstock

pale plum cardstock

whisper white cardstock

perfect plum ink

pale plum ink

garden green ink

rose red ink

corner rounder punch

clear rhinestone brad

1/16" circle punch (to set brad)

paper snips

sponges

adhesive & dimensionals

Contact me for orders or further instructions.  Have a great day.

Audra

Thoughts and Prayers

My step-father's sister recently passed away.  She had been fighting cancer and finally, it took her.  So I thought this would be a perfect card to send to my mom, step-dad and step-grandma (she lives with them).  I love the Thoughts & Prayers stamp set.  Honestly, it is a little on the expensive side, so it took me til recently to buy it.  It is so elegant and simple, it is great.  This card is pretty monochromatic, I love that lately, too.  Hope you enjoy the card.  And thinking of all of those fighting cancer... wish we'd find a cure for all of it.

Ingredients:

Thoughts & Prayers stamp set

always artichoke cardstock

whisper white cardstock

always artichoke prints designer paper (from past hostess prints)

always artichoke ink

silver eyelets

adhesive

sponges

crop-a-dile (to set eyelets)

Hope you had a happy Sunday,

Audra