Popping in at the last minute for this week’s Tuesday Trigger: Winter Blossoms and Hero Arts January Contest. The paper flowers in the inspiration photo made me think of HA Small Solid Flower. So I did some masking to layer the flowers and then I stamped a few HA Silhouette Burst for variety. And as you can see, I was also inspired by the colors & how the paper flowers are clustered.
You’d think I would be sick of eye charts after looking at them all day long but I just had to get this Ippity Party Hat Wishes set because of that chart. It’s too fun to pass up! I stuck with a black & white color scheme for the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #36 and used the sketch from Chick Challenge #14.
Anyone have any suggestions for using black detail embossing powder? I use an embossing buddy on my cardstock but the powder still sticks. I know you can use a stick pin or needle to remove the strays but that’s too tedious. I have also tried tapping the back side of the paper and it still won’t come off. I don’t have this much trouble with clear or white embossing powder. Wonder if the brand makes a difference?
I wanted to share the other cards that I made for Tet using the flowering branch from Inkadinkado’s Asian By Design set. First card uses the branch for the background:
The next one is gold embossed and I added little red gems to the flower centers. I’m entering this into the Moxie Fab World’s Embossing & Debossing Challenge:
And the last one is done with the Versamark & chalk technique. I could have also stamped the branch with dye inks and then fussy cut the flowers but I just love the soft & pretty look of this technique. I went back & dry embossed the card base with PTI’s woodgrain plate but forgot to take another photo before I mailed the card.
One of the traditions of Tet is giving new money to the children, called li xi. The money is given in red envelopes with brightly colored designs. The color red is important because it symbolizes prosperity. I did make my own envelopes one year but after seeing how fast the kids tore them apart, I decided to just pay the $2 for the store-bought ones. Here is a tiny sampling of the ones you can buy from the Asian stores this time of the year:
And just for fun, I wanted to share with you some of the don’ts for Tet that I found on Wikipedia:
Chuc mung nam moi manh khoe, vui ve va hanh phuc – wishing you a new year filled with good health, happiness & prosperity!
We have traveled quite a bit since my daughter was born and I thought it would be fun to make a mini album for her to remember the different places. And the Moxie Fab World’s The Map to Your Heart Challenge was just the push I needed to get it started. The album is from Maya Road and it’s been hanging around for a while now. I traced one of the pages and stamped the cardstock with Hero Art’s Graph Background for the cover. The letters were cut with my Cricut & the Opposites Attract cart. The map was so thin that it tore so I adhered the paper to thin white cardstock and then die cut it.
For each page, I covered the chipboard with a map of the city and then used an old stamp from The Angel Company and a star gem to highlight the name of the place. I had to use Google maps for the next two pages and I don’t like the look of them as much as the real thing.
I decided to not add a lot of details about the trips because they are documented in other layouts & photo books. Okay, now I gotta finish the rest of the pages. 
I have really enjoyed playing in the Wee Memories Challenges over the last 1.5 years and was sad to hear that they are shutting down. I used the sketch from Challenge #83 to create a card for my parents to celebrate Tet or the Vietnamese new year. The floral branch is from Inkadinkado’s Asian Designs set. I stamped it with Versamark and then colored it with chalks to mimic the beautiful apricot trees that are blooming in Vietnam for Tet. Hard to tell from the photo but the brown panel is dry embossed with PTI’s woodgrain plate.
Here’s a picture of the real trees:
And I wanted to share a picture from my lunch with Lisa & Brenda:
They both made me feel so comfortable and I really enjoyed getting to know them. I only wish we lived closer so we could hang out & craft together. But hopefully we’ll have more chances to get together down the road.
One of my college friends is turning 40 next week and she’s not too thrilled about it. I wanted to let her know that it’s alright, that it’s one more number in the many that we will have in our lifetime (hopefully).
I was inspired by the Tuesday Trigger: By The Numbers and the Die Cutting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. The numbers were cut with the Graphically Speaking cart; I had intended to use the numbers in a different way but I really liked how the negative panel looked so I went with it.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Oh how I wish that thing called work would not get in the way of crafting! I had such good intentions to make something every day for the Clean & Simple Card Making Online Class but that hasn’t happened. But 2 out of 4 ain’t bad, right?
On Day 3, Jennifer McGuire showed us how to take die cuts and layer them to create tone-on-tone CAS cards. I used my Cricut to make the flower cuts & then used liquid adhesive to keep them together. The hardest part was removing all the little pieces from my cuts. PTI cardstock is thick so my Cricut doesn’t cut cleanly with just one pass and I was too lazy to hook it up to my computer to use the DesignStudio to make multiple cuts.
I’m heading to Houston tomorrow and won’t be back till Monday but hopefully I’ll get a chance to finish my Tuesday Trigger card and get it posted before I leave. I’m meeting Lisa and Brenda tomorrow for lunch. So excited!
I made my first Valentine’s Day card this year, thanks to the Clean & Simple Card Making Class. We were presented with 3 sketches today and I went with this one:
I stuck to the layout but was inspired by the stripes in the photo from Runway Inspired Challenge #3:
And I used a glittery chipboard heart for CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #34 and the Lily Pad Chipboard Challenge. Whew, that’s a lot for one little card!
Supplies: Cardstock: Staples; Stamps: Hero Arts/Studio Calico (My Happy); Chipboard heart: Me And My Big Ideas; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Crochet thread: DMD; foam adhesive: The Paper Studio
Seems my creative mojo departed with 2011. Anyone else feeling that way? I needed to make a sympathy card for a coworker so I thought the ColourQ Challenge #118 would be a good starting point. How wrong I was! I love the color story but I struggled so much to get this card done. Actually I would have walked away if I had not had the deadline. But I endured persevered, for better or worse.
Supplies: Cardstock: PTI (Hawaiian Shores), Staples (white); Stamps: HA (Earth Flowers, Watercolor Petals), PTI (Think Big Favorites #3); Ink: Stewart Superior (Chestnut Brown), Colorbox (Chianti), Stampin’ Up! (Cameo Coral), Versamark (Tea Leaves); twine: The Twinery; tool: Corner Chomper
Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for stopping by my blog… for leaving sweet comments… for sharing your stories… for sharing pictures of your family… for sharing your talent… for inspiring me… for encouraging me… for just being you.
It’s a new year and I’m kicking it off with a card for 4 challenges: Play Date Cafe Challenge #112, CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #33, Market Street Stamps Block Party, and Lucy’s Sketch Week – Day 2. The cute little coffee mug is a freebie from Market Street Stamps and I just printed it out multiple times and then did some paper-piecing. I’m not computer savvy so I had to hand-draw the steam dots for each cup that was part of the original image. And just for fun, I flicked some coffee on the card base. Didn’t quite turn out how I had envisioned but still fun to try.
Hope everyone’s new year is off to a great start!
