Paper Piecing

I'm not a big paper piecer. I adore the look of it, but seldom make the time. I think it might be because I waste a lot of paper doing it as I tend to get ink everywhere, not just on the part of the stamp I'm piecing. So, when I saw the challenge at Cooking with Katie I had to give it a go.

Here's my card:


The challenges it fits are:

Cooking it up with Katie: girly (the floral paper), paper piecing (banner and heart) and at least two patterned papers
Gingersnap Creations: Three colors you love - Mine are orange, red and blue.
And this sketch at The Sweetest Thing:


And Everything But the Kitchen Sink had a very, very similar sketch that I thought I met as well:


This sketch (either one) is a design I plan to use again and again.

The stamp I used is "Til Death by Bombshell Stamps.

Remember This?

It's been published by Altered Arts Magazine. Woo-hoo!

Can you lovely blog readers answer a few questions for me? I sell on Etsy and my orders while far from regular do trickle in at a steady rate. One thing I love about Etsy is connecting with your customers and a way I do that is that I always include a little extra in my parcels. With cards I'll include three gift tags that can double as crafting embellishments, with tags I'll include cards or a gift bag - something to let the person know how grateful I am for the order and to give them a bit more than they expected. That said, it occurred to me that most of the things I send are for the purchaser to give away. If they like my work enough to buy it, then perhaps they'd like to keep a piece for themselves. The order I filled this morning was for a card so I made her a bookmark instead of gift tags. That way she'll have something to enjoy as well as something to give.

What sort of bonus item would you like to have arrive in the parcel if you placed an etsy order with me?

Would you like it to reflect the Holiday you ordered for (ie: Halloween treat with Halloween order) or would you prefer the gift to be for the next holiday (ie: Christmas tags with Halloween order) or generic.

Thanks for much for your input.

Etsy Buy Handmade PerkyNihilist

Cardboard LO

Ah, don't you just love up-cycling? I was cleaning up a pile of ... well, stacked stuff... and found a marvelous bit of packaging. This cardboard panel was just the right size for scrapbooking so I peeled off the top layer and pried my fingernail off the nail bed in the process. Evil stuff cardboard - but, sometimes you need to make an appropriate sacrifice to the craft gods if you wish to have any sort of abundant mojo :-)

Next I painted the cardboard with blue and green paint and set it aside to dry. I have been making a lot of cards lately and my little trash bucket was running over with trimmings. I was able to make all the stamped details on this layout with discarded bits or the back of smudged stamp-failures.

The paper, ribbon etc. were all bits left over from other projects. I colored in several of the grid squares to match the stamps. All in all it was a tremendously fun endeavor.


Here's some close ups:





And in keeping with my theme, this project met with my commitment to contribute a recycled cardboard project for the Green Team Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting Friends (great site, go join ) and to try my hand at using stamps on a LO - a tutorial hosted by Glittery Katie, Miss June, at the Bombshell Stamps Paper Craft Planet Group. If you haven't got involved yet at Paper Craft Planet you should scamper over there and sign up. The place is RAD!

Supplies:
Stamps: Bombshell Stamps. orange flowers from Bombshell Angel, Bird, Til Death and flower in photo corner from the retired "Til Death set.
paint: Delta
Pearls: Martha Stewart
Flowers: Bazzil
Cardstock: Bazzil
Patterned Paper: Fancy pants and K and Co

P.S. You know how I did the red, white and blue card yesterday for Kathi's challenge? I forgot to mention that you don't need to use Bombshell Stamps. You can use whatever you have... I'm not even sure you have to use stamps at all. I can ask her. So if not having any Bombshells is keeping you from playing along; don't let it.

My Biscuits are Burning!

Good Morning :-)

Today is already looking to be several shades of wonderful. The boys are finished their chores and are walking the dog before starting their school work. Tip for homeschoolers - some nice exhausting exercise before lessens really reduces squirminess.

Plus, my butt is not on fire.

Yes, you read that right. You don't need more coffee. Yesterday around dinner time I put hot pepper cream on my back. It has both menthol and capasin so initially it felt nice and soothing. But as the night wore on it got hotter, and hotter, and HOTTER! Finally around 11:00 PM I took a look at my sore, flaming back and saw big red welts. I jumped in a cool shower only to discover it wasn't cool enough. At this point I was feeling like a Looney Tunes character - just call me Daffy. Soap. Rinse. Soap. Rinse. All it did was make the welts worse. Then I remembered that I have some cream for after at-home micro-dermabrasion that is supposed to stop chemical reactions and soothe irritated skin. So I slathered that on too. Finally around 2:00 AM the fire was quenched and my back was sunburnt looking as opposed to swollen. The pain dudes claim that hot pepper cream "distracts your brain from the pain in your back" That is certainly an understatement. I thought I'd share my experience in case any of you with sensitive skin were considering giving it a try. Also, use it very sparingly.

On my friend Tiff's blog I saw that Limelight Papercrafts is celebrating their first anniversary. Lorie posted a really cute sketch challenge that I thought I would combine with Kathi's red, white, blue and stars challenge.

Here's the sketch:


I print my sketches out - using "contact sheet" in iPhoto I get 4-9 per page depending on how detailed they are - and the peachy-pink (looks black on screen) was really hard to see at 1:00 AM while waiting for my bum to stop burning. I mistook the Limelight Papercrafts watermark for a top right corner detail. Oops. Here's the card:


Stamps: Bombshell
Paper: Basic Grey