Stamping the Details: June 2011

SFC104- Red, White and Blue

This week's Squigglefly challenge is: SFC104- Red, White and Blue. My sentiment is Birthday Wishes by Jess Holland. It is also the last challenge hosted by team leader Vicki. I will miss being having Vicki (aka the basement stamper) on the team next term- she is lots of fun, a loyal friend and one heck of a stamper! (And she's not even paying me much to say nice things about her!)

For my card I used the sketch from CPS224 and some paper from Daisy D (I wish they hadn't gone out of business- I love their paper). See the nifty inverted scallops around my sentiment? JoAnn's had Nestabilities sets on clearance for $5.97 each (reg. $24.99) and I bought the inverted circles and squares. A really great bargain!

Pear Tree Designs Sketch 54

I tried a new to me challenge this week- Pear Tree Designs sketch challenge #54. I really liked the sketch. The main image is Loving Home from Squigglefly. The sentiment is from Stampendous. I experimented with using Faber Castell Big Brush markers with Copics for the trees- turned out a little streaky but I like the different shades of green. The background paper is from Making Memories and I ran it through my Big Shot to add some texture then randomly sanded to bring out some pattern and added a little chalk ink around the edges. I love how it turned out- I'll take the time to distress my papers in the future! It really looks different than the original paper.

SFC103 + SC338

Asking me to pick my favorite Squigglefly image (SFC103) is impossible- there are so many that I use for all different reasons. Since I don't have time to make a card with every "favorite" I chose "Perturbed Tilly" because she has so much spunk! And it is an amazing likeness (self portrait) of the artist and my fellow team leader, Marlene. (Don't worry Marlene probably THINKS I am kidding!)

I paired the image with the SplitCoastStampers sketch for this week (SC338). Now that I own the Slice Elite I don't have to avoid sketches with large circles. Tilly's earrings were colored with a Bic permanent markers to match her outfit. The sentiment is stickers and they have the same texture as labels from a labelmaker.

My daughter is out of school for the summer and starting tonight we are going to spend some time daily in our art journals. I have been very good about doing a bit every day. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has really inspired me. When she admitted that she doesn't always finish a page in a day it made me realize that I could RELAX and enjoy the process without worrying about completing a page per day. Now that I work that way, I find myself sneaking in work here and there when I have free time and I get more done than when I blocked out long sessions. Doesn't mean that sometimes I don't like long sessions too, but I can be an art journaler even if I don't have hours to play!

Exciting news!

Squigglefly proudly announces their new design team! I'll be leading Heather's Headliners and Marlene will be leading Marlene's Marvels. I'm very excited to be working with Marlene and all of the talented women on the design team. A number of our new team members have never been on a design team and I'm so excited that they'll be sharing their creations in the upcoming months.

Smeared and Smudged Member Blog Hop

Welcome to the June Smeared and Smudged Member blog hop. Hopefully you have arrived here from Black Dragon's blog. If not you can start from the beginning at Tori's blog.

Out theme this month was to use a natural element and a stamped or digital image on your project. I used a twig from my yard. I meant to do a simple stick binding but the stick was brittle and broke. So instead of wandering around my yard with a flashlight (just call me last minute Heather) I took a piece of the stick and tied it in with the twine. The butterfly definition is an image from Innovative Stamp Creations. The butterflies are made out of feathers and are very light. I found them at a ribbon outlet store and had been saving them for a special project.

Thanks for hopping by- next stop on the hop is Laura's blog.

Hop List:

Tori http://ndustrial-lemon.blogspot.com/

Paula http://www.whatspeaks2myheart.wordpress.com

Sugar http://sugscardsnmore.blogspot.com/

Kapree http://kc-consultant.blogspot.com/

Lady Brayton http://www.ladybrayton71.blogspot.com/

Black Dragon http://lynsblogger.blogspot.com/

Heather http://stampdetails.blogspot.com/ -------> you are here

Laura http://craftylittlewoman.blogspot.com/

Ike http://suzy-ikesworld.blogspot.com/

Jane http://jcocraft.blogspot.com/

Jennifer http://justcoffeepleasestampsribbonspaper.blogspot.com/

SFC 102- Make it Masculine!

Squigglefly's challenge (SFC102) for this week is to make a masculine card. Above is a quick birthday card I made for my Father In Law. I paper pieced the tires so I could put them on pop dots to raise them but they turned out a little funky... Both images are from Squigglefly.

Squigglefly News/ Craft Critique Round-Up

Squigglefly had a new release today and one of the images, Fairy Klara by artists Jane Beljo is a special image. All proceeds from the sale of this image go to http://www.one-happy-mama.com/2011/05/fundraiser-for-hope.html to help fun research for Juvenile Diabetes.
Squigglefly new design team will officially be announced on June 20.

Craft Critique featured reviews of games and crafts for kids this week. Including American Girl Craft Kits, Perler beads and more. Check out the reviews and get some ideas to keep your kids entertained this summer. Did I mention they are giving away a bunch of kits to some of our lucky readers?

Some new art will be posted soon... I've been working on some super secret stuff I can't show you yet.

Knitting- its not just for breakfast!

Memorial Day Weekend my patient friend Brenda (who is also a Master Knitter), reviewed with me knitting basics. My first foray into knitting was very stressful and unhappy. This time I was told to ENJOY it and not stress if I dropped a stitch. While the above is nowhere near a work of art, I enjoyed creating it. I used Sugar and Cream yarn this time and last time I used dark wool when I first learned to knit- I like my new yarn better. I also invested in a set of bamboo knitting needles- far superior to the metal I learned with the first time.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog this weekend for the Skull Day Blog Hop. Something very different for me- I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone.

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop

If you have come here on the Skull Day Blog Hop you should have come from Feddie's blog. If you need to hop back to the beginning go to Terra's blog. There are prizes and such to be won and the details are on Terra's blog in her sidebar. Next stop on the hop is Kapree's blog. This is a rated PG-13 blog hop- please use common sense and don't allow your children to view the disturbing artwork that some of the artists have chosen to share. Enjoy hopping.

The organizers of Skull Day explain it this way: "We here at Skull-A-Day have decided that there needs to be an official international day of cranial love! To that end we're starting a campaign to get June 4th (the day Skull-A-Day started) officially recognized as Skull Appreciation Day around the world in 2011, and of course to get as many people celebrating it as possible. Since we have absolutely no idea about how to go about doing this we've decided to ask you the dedicated fans of this project to help!"

Thinking of You card

I made this card for my aunt who has been having some health problems. See I do still know how to make cards! The flower was originally white but I colored it with a Copic marker and added some purple metallic pen details and some Stickles to the tips of the petals.

Remember the Aloha Flowers journal page I posted the other day? I submitted it on Faber Castell's Facebook page and I won $25 of product along with some other artists. I picked some Gelatos I didn't already have and a light blue Big Brush marker. I'm excited!

My friend Brenda re-taught me how to knit last Sunday so I have been knitting a dishcloth. She is very patient and I'm enjoying it. I have definitely dropped some stitches and made some other mistakes but I'm not getting hung up on that.