sometimes when you combine challenges you get amazingly serendipitous results!

 ...and sometimes you just get a bit of a muddle. alas, this card falls into the latter category, i fear:

(vintage: masked and misted book paper, battenburg flower, postage stamps; patterned paper: basic grey, pink paislee, mme; digi stuffs: house of three "spring junque"; pearl flourish: prima; loose pearls: kaiser; tissue tape: tim holtz; brad: my mind's eye; stickers: ka nd co, sticko; white glossy cardstock: ranger; border punch: martha stewart; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, scotch gluestick, gluedots)

because, whereas i absolutely ♥LOVE♥ all three challenges i combined... which were city crafter's "ticket to ride" (use at least one ticket AND a mode of transportation in your design):

the beautiful, soft, summery current palettte at color throwdown (#194):

and mojo monday's sketch #243:

somehow, i think that i got so over-focused on trying to meet the various requirements that i sort of, in the words of my new blogging friend gini,  "forgot to ensure it made a pleasing looking card."* yeah. that's totally what happened here. :)

there are some things i really like about this one, though: the strips of tissue tape which make up the pennant-shaped bit of the sketch; the fact that i used up a lot of little leftover bits and bobs; and, especially, test-driving a set of colors i might not have thought of otherwise. so i'm gonna chalk this one up as a triumph of experimentation-- if not design-- and move on to the next thing! 

happy weekend, darlings! ♥

*for the record, when gini said that about these amazing cards she made for opus gluei's "sew what" challenge i HEARILTY DISAGREED; in fact they are every bit as beautiful as they are cool and original!!! ♥♥♥

fa-la-la-la-lauren!

if you hung out with us at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ last year, you'll already be aware of the fact that both stephanie and i absolutely looooooooooooooove holiday music and look for any excuse to incorporate it into our cards, our prompts and our post titles. so you had to know we'd have at least one fortnight in which we'd challenge you to incorporate sheet music, music-themed products, or a song title into your holiday cards... and guess what... THIS is it!

i built my card around this sweet little retro-style cardstock embellishment in which the words and music to "silent night" have been shrunk down conveniently into ATC-size, perfect for card-making!

 (patterned paper and border sticker: fancy pants; sheet music icon and pale blue snowflakes: october afternoon; chipboard word: tps; snowflake die: memory box; other snowflaks: k and co, recollections, sticko; brads and lace: making memories; adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i used this great (layout) sketch (may 21st) from sketch support:

i flipped it horizontally, and condensed it slightly, but otherwise i think it's a pretty straightforward rendition. nearly everything on here is either a "pre-made" or a leftover or both; for some reason it always fills me with pride to be "using up" bit of neglected stash! i did, however, cut right into that full sheet of background paper; and i didn't even cut it in the most efficient way, because i really liked that there was a sort of horizontal line of snowflakes and accents right where the sketch called for one, and i thought it surrounded my collage rather beautifully, so i quite defiantly sliced it just THERE in order to get the maximum effect! :)

why not see what old stuff ♥YOU♥ could use up... or perhaps what new stuff you got in the post-christmas sales and haven't had a chance to play with yet? find a bit of sheet music, or some music-related paper or embellishments, or even just use your favorite holiday song title on the front of the card, and hop over to JINGLE BELLES to link up with us between now and wednesday, june 13th!

cheryl nelson should really get half the credit for this!

afterall, it is she (well, ALL the CCCB ladies, but especially cheryl) who made me really LOVE doilies again, and without that little push i would never have made either the dogwood card or this one! but i'm getting a little ahead of myself... first... i should really say...

HELLO, darlings, and welcome to shopping our stash challenge #53 about which the lovely miss carla says this:

May Flowers 

Anything floral related- flowers, floral, roses, sunflowers, gardens, vases, potted flowers, etc; you can use paper with flowers in the design or use flowers as embellies as well (not just limited to floral images).

so that's easy, right? who doesn't love flowers?! whilst i was considering what to make, i was also surfing around a bit, and saw that the doilies and lace challenge at moxie fab world wants us to use a "doily or lace in an innovative way"; then i saw that the current assignment at the order of the opus gluei (where i've not played in waaaaaaaaaaay too long!!!) is ♥SEW WHAT♥ for which they ask us to, well, *sew* on a project. so i started thinking about ALL of those things, and grabbing some supplies, and at the end of a long, inky, painty, stampy, sewing-machine-intensive evening i had this:

(patterned paper: pink paislee; mists and inks in various blues and greens: glimmer mist, maya mist, radiant rain, smooch spritz, ranger re-inkers and distress inks, colorbox pigment and chalk inks;   other: paper doilies, individual fake white hydrangea blossoms from a michaels stem (plus some prima paper flowers), tiny pearls, sewing machine; adhesives: tombow monorunner, gluedots, scotch gluestick)

lovely husband jeff refers to cards of this type as "science experiments" because of the fact that i usually wind up standing at our kitchen sink muttering, whilst surrounded by vials and bottles and sprays, and apparently he always has the vague impression that i *MIGHT* just possibly blow something up. or at least stain it irretrievably. fortunately this time the only things which changed color completely were the (previously white) flower blossoms, the pink paislee mistable "darling doilies" paper, and a tiiiiiiiiny little section at the edge of our dish drainer where i let my stamps dry, which, now that i come to think of it, might have been a bit blue just there when we got it... no, honestly...

i did go a tiny bit crazy with a bunch of different mists; then i used a few understated pattern stamps to add more colors of blue and green in the form of distress and chalk inks, and then, when i had the background the way i wanted, i stamped the top half of donna downey's glorious hollyhocks... which became the "shadow" for my sewn-on petals. at the end, i added bits of real doily to the shiny resist ones on the paper, did a bunch more sewing, and called it a night. 

  

i hope you'll stop by SOS and see the super-inspiring DT examples, before heading off to ♥YOUR♥ crafty laboratory in pursuit of your own wonderful, super-fun, flowery experiments; then link them up before next monday, june (already! can you BELIEVE it?!) 4th!

happy mail, for you and for me! ♥

first a little trip to random.org to determine the winner of my blog candy giveaway... mr. random himself has personally chosen lucky number 11 which means the winner is...

♥BANANASTAMPER♥!

please email me at llaurenb @ hotmail {dot} com so i can get your goodies on the way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

now here are a couple of lovely things which arrived in MY mailbox last week, which i just HAVE TO show off. first up, an early birthday present from my lovely norwegian friend linda brun:

yeah, basically, there's a little bit of every type of art supply i enjoy... YUM!!! but then, all of this paled in comparison when i saw the gorgeous canvas linda made me:

 i ♥LOVE♥ it!!!

(btw, "det gryr av var" means "it was the dawn of" which makes it even more awesome, no?!)

coincidentally, on the very same day, my lovely friend missus trash sent me a super-cool "just because" present, in the shape of an adorable felt bird, which of course i ADORE:

i'm showing it off standing next to the fabulous custom clutch she made me several months ago, (with the coolest robot in the world embroidered on it!!!) only because although i *KNOW* i wrote a post about it at the time... somehow... i cannot find the post... so i'm showing it again! (proof that i love and USE it constantly for carrying amigurumis-in-progress, there are my extra stitch markers, dangling from the zip!) :)

finally, a giant vote of thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment with regard to my dental woes, those words of encouragement were MUCH APPRECIATED! it turns out i will, be getting an "implant"... (sadly--or perhaps luckily?-- i mean a tooth, and not the first step in a pamela anderson makeover!) ... a process which will require 3-4 rather nasty appointments over the next six months and cost more than a trip to disneyworld. but... the periodontist and everyone in his office were lovely and VERY kind; and i'm told the lines will be much shorter than the ones for space mountain! not sure if i can get the staff to dress up as my favorite princesses, although at these prices i really think they ought to be a liiiiiiiiiiiiittle more flexible on that point. the next big day is june 12th, at which time i'll probably be hitting you up for some more good vibes!

in the meantime, to miss linda, missus trash, and all the rest of you i say,

thank you, thank you, thank you, darlings!!!

♥♥♥

there's a new diana sketch!

i don't know about you, but i've been missing sketchy thursdays quite a bit for the last few months, so i was pretty happy to discover that the guest DT and sketch artist at the paper variety this month is none other than diana fisher, and she's done us proud!

of course, i'm only just managing to get my card in under the wire, but some things NEVER change, right? i'm pleased with it, though, and it's a quite a faithful version. see?

(vintage: sheet music, lace, sewing pattern and fashion illustration; decorative tape: hambly, freeview, tim holtz; rub-ons: fancy pants; cardstock border sticker: crate paper; hydrangea petals: michaels; fabric rose: tim holtz; letter stickers: k and co; adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch gluestick, gluedots, staples)

the other thing i like about this one is that it's the picture i had in my head when i saw this week's city crafter challenge, "a rose is a rose"; because i knew i still had some of those fancy pants rub-ons with the big cabbage roses, and that they'd be fun in a sort of funky collage card. i stand by that assessment, actually!

some of the other awesome goodies in this card were part of the super-cool happy mail i received this week; i'll tell you more about that tomorrow, and also announce the winner of my "SOS blog candy" giveaway, so do scroll down and enter if you haven't yet! ♥

that's shoe biz!*

ever since miss stephanie joined the DT at unscripted sketches, i've been wanting to join in on the fun over there... it's EMBARRASSING that it took me this long, but better late than never, right?! i'm just glad i've got what i think is a pretty cool card for sketch #159:

(vintage: buckle and ribbon; patterned paper: prima, basic grey, graphic 45, sassafras, fancy pants, hambly; rose: prima; stamp: unity; ink: stewart superior + colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, glue dots, sewing machine) 

oof, i almost forgot to show you the sketch:

my color palette--and the floral shoe, for that matter--both come from the inspiration photo for colour q #138:

when i saw it, i just happened to have a leftover bit of the flowery paper from which my shoe is made sitting on my desk, and i realized it not only had ALL of the colors of the palette, it actually resembled the fabulous shoe from which the colour q gang was taking inspiration. and then i realized i still needed a card for MY favorite shoe-freak-- my sister amie-- whose birthday is next month; so i thought i'd have a go. i grabbed a photo of a high heeled pump from a google image search and printed it out to use as a template, then cut each bit out of a different patterned paper, like you do when paper-piecing a stamped image. then i added the mats, ribbon, buckle and a fun stamped sentiment to flesh out the unscripted sketch, did a bunch of machine stitching... et voila!

at the very end i thought it still needed ONE MORE THING... so i added that big prima bloom... which lets me sneak into city crafter's "a rose is a rose" (challenge #106) though not quiiiiite in the way i had intended, so i'm hoping i'll still have time to pursue my original idea for that one, as well. in the meantime, i bid you a fond farewell, sole sisters**!!! :)

ps: if you haven't entered the drawing for my blog candy, scroll down to this post and leave a comment!

*sorry, worst title EVER! 
**on the other hand, that ending line TOTALLY puts the title into proportion, doesn't it?! :)

pillowbox gift card holder

i have to confess that if anything, i'm having even MORE fun at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this year, since we've gone fortnightly; apart from anything else, i just *love* having two go's at each prompt, it's a chance to "push the envelope" a bit more... or in this case, perhaps more accurately to, "embellish the pillowbox until it exceeds recommended weight limits" lol! :) :) :) yeah. i might've gone very sliiiiiiiiiiiiightly overboard with the swirly rub-ons. and yet, upon reflection, i actually don't think i'd remove a single one of them, even if i could. so there! 

(pillowbox template: assorted pillowbox set by  regina easter, the cutting cafe; patterned paper: fancy pants, sei; transparency: hambly*; fuzzy velor paper +snowflake brad: doodlebug; lace snowflake paper: ki memories; velvet puffy flower (with center replaced): creative charms; rub-ons: making memories; bling swirls (trimmed and re-constructed): recollections; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner)

i absolutely love this pillowbox template from the cutting cafe, i've had it for years and years** but it's still my "go to"; it comes with a bunch of different windows and frame shapes, but again, this one is my fave.  i cut the base of the box out of the same paper from which i made my gift card folder last week, and sort of vaguely planned to go with the blues and reds again, but i'd got out (then not used) these velvet flowers whilst making madeline's princess crown, and one of them wound up sitting on top of the template along with some white scraps and i had a bit of an "AHA!" moment so i went with it.

i miiiiiiiight have left it there if i wasn't also inspired by the current corrosive challenge-- (#149 flowers and doilies and bling, oh my!) --in which we're asked to combine at least two out of the three. and let's face it, when you have lots of rub-on flourishes, a couple (or LOTS!!!) of tiny bling ones just really enhance the whole flourishy mojo, don't they? incidentally, i do know, on the face of it, there's not much SENSE in stacking flowers and snowflakes together; but i still do it all the time and i always love the look, so i see no reason to stop now!

the great thing about using a pillow box for giving gift cards, imo, is that it looks like a slightly more "substantial" gift... and in fact, it can actually BE a more substantial gift, because you've got room to slip in some little candies and/or tiny presents in addition to the g/c itself. inside mine is a coordinating card in which i can write a little note, a michael's g/c***, and a holiday clear stamp... all wrapped in some coordinating tissue paper:

but remember, you needn't make a fancy set to play along with us at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this week... you could do a pocket card, or incorporate a little envelope into your design, or even alter/improve a store-bought gift card holder. so c'mon along and join stef, myself, and our uber-talented lovely guest-star gina cunningham as we see how "gifted" we can be! ♥

*can i just say how UTTERLY BUMMED i am to hear that in preparation for "winding down operations" hambly studios will no longer be designing new product?! i don't know if this means that they will also stop producing their current lines, and if so, what the time frame will be; but any way you slice it, the world of art supplies has just lost another really great company in terms of both cool/innovative design and high quality product. very sad. 


**i *think* i may have won it in a challenge at 2sketches4you! hands up all who still totally miss laura, kazan and the gang! (me! ME!!!)


***ok, technically this is my michaels' loyalty swipey card thing, bravely playing the role of "holiday gift card" howsabout a round of applause for that stellar performance?! :)