Inspired by {The Smithsonian Institution}

This week we are poking around in the Smithsonian Institution online to see what we see. The challenge thread can be found here. one of the first things I had seen when I was considering the site was there was a collection at that time arranged around some of the things I had personally seen as a teenager visiting Washington DC. With a high school "Close-Up" group.  besides the things that were organized for us to attend we also had some free time to go exploring and one thing we did was hit the museums. One thing we did was wait for the flag to be on display. it was in a case where a curtain came down and it rolled back out of the way inch by inch to let the flag be seen for a short period of time.This is one of the biggest memories that I have of that, there were of course other things but, the watching peoples faces while they waited for the flag to be visible was something that has stayed with me.

 I had picked up this sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs when it first came out and I have been waiting I guess for a time to use it. and that is the fun part about the Inspiration challenge is you pretty much get to do what you want. I had this scrap of vellum cardstock on my table left over from some recent winter/Christmas card I made and I tend to play with what ever is in front of me so, it lead me to combining it with this flag background ( also from Our Daily Bread Designs) I like the tattered look the distress inks gave the flag and the softness the vellum ads it was almost like a protective cover for the aging fabric. which then allows the sentiment to really POP for me like this. There is a white cardstock glued to the inside of the back of the card so that a note can be written there.

A peek at old glory and the link goes to the Star Spangled Banner ( as I did do mine as a hanging flag design)
I actually ended up with two cards from the site ( so far) and the first is seen below, I decided to load this but, not make it the main challenge sample because, the inspiration from it is actually more of a mental thing than a visual look. When I first started poking around through the sites collections I did come across this vintage Barbie doll in her swim suit and when I looked at that I knew I had this Emerson stamp (Gourmet rubber stamps bathing suit) sitting on the table for the last few weeks and my brain said, well. those yellow polka dot bikinis really are smaller nowadays aren't they... 

 and so. the image has a little bit of pencils, a yellow marker for the bloom and gel pen for the sun glass lens. I gave her grey hair because, this is not a sentiment I would have thought of 20 years ago when my hair still had color of its own in the strands. I did use a stitched rectangle out of the waffle flower lacy layers A7 set and the card base is from Hero Arts so, its ( US) A2 in real life.

 a peek at this Barbie complete with her heels on too :) So, that is about it for me today. thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW#463 {tags}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

 

 So over the last few weeks I had ordered these rounded corner tag dies from Impress from Memory box and when they came they cut a frame ( I knew this going in since I have their circle dies ) so, since I have rectangle dies from ( just about every mfg they are all different sizes) I did not order anything to go with the tags... fast forward. none of my other brands of rectangles really fit them, so I ordered the Memorybox ones that were listed on the back of the packaging as "working" with these tags... the rectangles have square corners... so. to use these together I did have to clip the corners with scissors.

 Just messing around with some scraps and already colored images and sentiments on the table to "see" I do like the shape of these tags and I wish they had made rounded corner rectangles to work with them. but, the amount you clip off with scissors is pretty minimal.
(giraffe's are from My favorite things and the sentiment is probably hero arts, the lace is vintage)

The sneakers are from Stampin up and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp ( you got this set) these tags are almost A2 but, I think would fit onto an A2 sized card front. I did not try that yet. Outside of the craft cave the weather here has been really wonky with a little bit of everything. I have been spending more time outside though when I can so, the making things has slowed way down. I did take advantage of the Sizzix ( tax day sale and the Die sale at Ellen Hutson and so I will have a pile of new things to cut this weekend. ) The funny part is I have been mentally whining about not having enough "time" to play with all the cool stuff I already have. Such is life. Hubs is going camping to go turkey hunting this next weekend so, I will have more alone time than I normally do. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Cuddle & Kind }

This week Angie has chosen this Cuddle and Kind site for our inspiration hunting and I came across these sweet lambs so..Last Sunday the last Ewe we have had her lamb (its also a boy) every lamb we have this year is a boy so, it was a deliberate choice to choose the pink sample. I recently got these new My Favorite Things ewe and me forever stamps in the mail out they came. they are you know scaled for an A2 sized card so, I decided to pair them with this Concord & 9th say hello die to use up some of the space. The mat piece was cut from a shade of card stock nearly the same color as the gold printed paper and so, I did rub on some tattered rose oxide onto the edges of the die cut to give it a little bit more definition.

 

both the gold shimmer in the hello and the bubbled texture gold are from the recollections line at Micheal's crafts. the base is a shimmery star dream, that button came out of a jar. I did use a MFT die for the sentiment and the sheep I cut with scissors. they were stamped on the same piece as the hello mat so, I just added some color to the legs, ears and fave and drew dots on the "wool" since the lambs at the store have all the dots. 

A closer look at these lambs in the store can be seen here. I had done a print of this to haul home and use for the memory jog and it printed the bows around their necks as red so, I didn't catch it until just now that there really was no red in that shot, and so, I thought I was being pretty smart only coloring one tiny bow red. ha ha. the lambs print as a cream color and the baby's bunting is more of a shade of pink like my card. I probably should just leave the mug shot up on the screen and go back and forth with peeking at it. You can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #462 {Happy Happy}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

 

 So, Last week ( this is totally Leslie's fault) I started poking around on the internet to remember where I seen Katzelkraft stamps for sale online and found them again at frantic stamper and the grumpy penguins have been on my mental wish list for a while so, I poked around in the site some more to find a few more things to justify the shipping costs... ( you get that right?) lol So, I am only about 80 miles from them so ordering on Friday afternoon, gets me happy mail on Saturday afternoon.

 The rubber stamps are just plain rubber so, I ended up playing with the clear gal first. there was a CAS funny theme last week and I knew I could do funny but, I ended up with too many layers to pass for clean... that sentiment is from Riley & Co.

 So a while back ( it takes a couple of weeks) I placed this order from SSS when the neat and tangled sentiment came out and ordered some refills to the oxides and markers I had killed. the circle snow frame has been mostly sold out for a long time so it was fun to see in stock, now that ink pad. this is for doing no line coloring. so as a test I stamped those giraffes on monday right after I shot this and (no I still have not done anything with all those giraffe heads I showed you last week) and so, I set it aside ( it is very faint to see ink) and Tuesday when I got home, that cardstock I could not see the image well enough to color it anymore. so, it is very much an ink that if you buy one of these, it is going to fade so you have to be coloring right away not tomorrow or later.

 So, since today is Hubs hunting buddies birthday I needed a card and I had put away ( or rather pushed to the side most of the things I have showed you) and started this card which I ended up doing two of the sentiments to get the contrast. the back sides of the open spots where you embed the diecuts I have just clear scotch tape on the back side sticky side up.

 How this card turned out the diecut sentiment is up on foam dots and the sheet to the left was glued inside ( sentiment from My Favorite Things) this one is 6" square in real life. and that's about it for me. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Rainbow Bridge

 So my friend at work had to say goodbye to her male kitty while she was off on vacation. and this is the card that I had made for them when I heard the news. they received it in the mail so, it's safe to post. the image is from Unity Stamps called part of us and the sentiment is from Altenew Beautiful Inside set, the other half of the sentiment is on the inside of the card because, this one is A2 in real life.

This was stamped with Versafine on Neenah solar white and colored with polychromos and prisma pencils with a little bit of gel pen added over the top so the rainbow could sparkle.

Winter Hills

 There is a Dirty Dozen theme each month for Christmas cards and I had seen the April prompt and its been in the back of my mind for a little while now so, when I came across this card in Beth's gallery this morning ( she is this weeks Featured Stamper) I knew exactly what I wanted to do. out came the PTI vellum cardstock and then I started looking for snowflake embossing folders and found this falling snow one and thought OK and then I ended up embossing both the front and the back of the card because, I had already scored the vellum, so I cut that apart and decided I should cut out the centers and have "frames" of falling snow. because, her card has the texture just on the edges right. and then out came this new-ish Vellum adhesive I picked up a while back. ( it has a lot of the usual vellum adhesive things to follow) from my own trial and error I found that the cartridge it rolls from is wider than the adhesive and its centered on the roller not on the edge like how I roll my ATG gun. so, I ended up with boogers of adhesive off the edges of the frame. I did see the glue through that so I used an remover ( the Xyron one) and its also one of those things you have to be really careful not to touch it after trying to flip it over and lay it down because, if you have to pull it up and straighten it, and you touch that adhesive it will pick up the oils from your skin and you will see that.

 So, while I was pushing around the frames and such I had made a few extra's of the heat embossed panels and also had this left over base from what ever last wood grain card I had made and thought oh, I like the white on white with the silvers also. This one I used a SSS Wonky stitched rect. die to cut out the image panel.

 This was the first card I did and I did not get the adhesive total coverage on the frame and where I did not have any, it has bumped. the silver is a scrap of glimmer paper from recollections the frame was cut with a SSS stitched rect. die. the sentiment was cut with a Nellie Snellen tags 3 die. the image I cut out with scissors. The base on this card as Vellum I did cut a second white piece from the Neenah using the same size rectangle and glued it to the inside of the back of the card for a place to write a note.

This one is the best representation of Beth's card with the texture being partial on the edges and the ribbon. I did run the ribbon around the frame and cut it off on the back side of the frame so, it is only doubled on the edges of the frame it does not run full length around that frame. The sentiment on this one was cut with a Waffle flower lacy layers A7 Stitched die. I am not positive anymore but, I think this ribbon may be an older SU one. the embossing powder is also from Stampin up its name is Pewter. each of these cards finished out at A2 in real life.