My Tribute to Prince

I was working on the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge 277 while playing some Prince music and look what happened - Purple. Living in Minneapolis, Prince was a big local and revered celebrity with strong local presence.He will be missed.

Anyway, this is the sketch we had to work with this week:



And here is my very purple musical creation:



Yes, Prince definitely rocked it!

STAMPS: MFT Strike Up the Band
DIES: (all MFT): Strike Up the Band, Wonky Stitched Squares, Blueprint 27
PAPERS: (All MFT): Smooth White, Rainbow Stripes, Boysenberry, Wild Wisteria
INKS: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Spica Gold and Silver
OTHER: Tim Holtz Music Score embossing folder

Thanks for stopping by today, and may your world be filled with music.

Spring Arrives

Hello! How is your spring progressing? Things are starting to green up around here and the birds have returned from their winter vacation.

To celebrate this wonderful time of the year, I happily pulled out the color in My Favorite Things Color Challenge #43. Isn't this palette gorgeous and fun?



I pulled out my new MFT Fly-By-Friends stamp set and my Blueprint 27 and went to work.



I had all the correct color papers except Berrylicious. I substituted Blue Breeze instead. I used MFT Black Licorice to ink the stamp and colored with Copics. And just because I was in a sparkly kind of mood, I added Wink of Stella to the bee and butterfly.



It's hard to see the glitter, but it is really pretty in real life.

OK, I am now off to the craft room to finish up my sketch challenge card! Have a great weekend.

Spicy!

Hello, and hope your week is off to a great start. It's back in the 30s here today, but the promise of more spring-like weather is on tap for the rest of the week.

Believe it our not, Ihave actually finished my weekly MFT sketch ON TIME this week after missing the deadline by an hour of two the last two weeks. One thing about retirement, clocks exist merely to decorate the walls!

This is the sketch I was working from:



I used the adorable MFT Recipe for Happiness set for my interpretation. I used some of the smaller images of cooking tools in the set to make my own patterned background on MFT Orange Fizz paper. I hope you like it!



STAMPS: MFT Recipe for Happiness
DIES: MFT  Blueprints #15 and #28; Stitched Circles
PAPERS: MFT Orange Fizz, Electric Red, Rainbow Stripes, Smooth White
INKS: MFT Blueberry, Pineapple, Wild Cherry, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
OTHER: Ranger detail white embossing powder

My husband built me a new computer recently and installed a Linux operating system instead of Windows. In general I like the Ubuntu, but I am  missing my Photoshop Elements. I am getting used to GIMP but still having a little trouble editing my images for posting the way I like. Bear with me. It will get better with practice.

Have a great week.

Breath of Fresh Air

I am back today with my interpretation for the weekly My Favorite Things sketch challenge. I tried some new things this week and they did not turn out quite as well as I had hoped. There are many boo-boos here, which unfortunately photography seems to enhance. But in real life, it really is kind of cute. I will try again and not try to get creative.




I am loving playing with the March Warm and Fuzzy kit. The stamps are so adorable and the matching die cuts provide a lot of versatility.

STAMPS: MFT Warm & Fuzzy
DIES: MFT Wonky Stitched Squares
PAPER: MFT Cool as Cucumber, white
INKS: MFT Black Licorice, Distress Inks (Cracked Pistachio, Mustard Seed), Copic Markers
OTHER: MFT Stencil, foam tape, hemp cord

Thanks for stopping by. I don't know about where you are, but here in Minnesota we are having a rain/sleet mix kind of a day. Perfect for playing in the craft room.

MFT - TWO Sketches

Today I am catching up on posting. I am soooo far behind. I think I have spring fever and am so easily distracted.

Today I am posting my creations inspired by the last two weeks of My Favorite Things. I will start with the current sketch, which is actually done on time!

Here is Sketch MFTWSC273 that was the inspiration:

And here is my interpretation of the sketch:

For this card I used the contents of the Warn and Fuzzy kit. I just love this kit!

STAMPS & DIE: MFT Warm and Fuzzy

PAPERS: MFT Biscotti card stock; MFT Trail Mix patterned papers; Cherry Wood adhesive back paper

INKS: Memento tuxedo Black; copics; Hero Arts Neon ombre

OTHER: sequins, foam squares

And now, since I am always a day( or week late) and a dollar short, here is my interpretation of last week's sketch:

Here is sketch 272:

And here is my out-of-this-world interpretation of it:

This will be for my nephew's birthday. I Think this stamp set is so cute, and really versatile.

STAMPS: MFT Out of This World

PAPERS: Watercolor, MFT card stock in Blue Breeze, After Midnight, Daffodil, white

DIES: MFT Blueprints 24

INKS: Peerless watercolor, MFT black, Wink of Stella red, blue, green

Thanks for stopping by. I will see if I can actually keep up to date with my creations!

Peek-a-Boo Sketch

Hello! It's been a while. Busy month.

Anyhoo, today I am playing along with the the Power Poppy Power & Sketch Sketch challenge - Peek-a-Boo. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? I actually had the card made weeks ago; it just seems like I just couldn't get to to the camera. But here I am.

This is the sketch challenge that was the inspiration for my card.

 

In addition to the cuts outs, we were also asked to use at least two panels.  Here is my contribution:




STAMP: Power Poppy Folk Heart
DIES: Spellbinders Heart
STENCIL: My Favorite Things Grid Stencil
INKS: Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics; Distressed Ink Cracked Pistachio & Mustard Seed; Wink of Stella
PAPER: Stampin' Up! Heavy Whisper White, Mint Macaron
OTHER: Sequins; Foam Tape

Thanks for stopping by and see you again soon.

Industrial Gumball Machine

This week's Club Scrap was to make an industrial project using metal or wood. I had a lot of ideas, but both my husband and I have been under the weather all week. I finally got the energy to make it to my craft room and got this together. I actually like the way it came out.

Using all Club Scrap papers, I first used a die cut from My Favorite Things to cut the pieces of the gumball machine. I will list all the specific products used below. The mechanism of the machine is actually three levels of the self-adhesive silver paper so to differentiate the layers a little more, I tinted the middle layer with a blue Copic marker.

Then I worked on the background. A gumball machine is nothing if not colorful, right? So I used a stencil from way back in 2007 and sponged some Tim Holtz distress inks onto the white paper.

I really like the colorful finished effect. This was trimmed and layered onto a panel of red and a circle cut out from the center for the gumballs to come.

Next the front of the card base was covered with the silver paper and a piece of clear acetate was adhered to the back of the cut out. This layer was then adhered to the card front with foam tape around the window and along the sides. Before sealing the gumdrop shaker bits were inserted. The pieces of the machine were adhered and the sentiment stamped. 

It certainly makes for a colorful card, don't you think? I wish you could see how the silver pieces shimmer in real life.

Papers (all Club Scrap): silver self-adhesive, Card Stock: (Celebration, Big Top, I'll Be Gnome for Christmas, The Lakes, 50s Kitchen); Clear acetate - Celebration.

Stamp: Club Scrap The Lakes

Dies: My Favorite Thing Gumball Greetings

Stencil: Club Scrap, January 2007 kit (name unknown)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks (Festive Berries, Mermaid Lagoons, Cracked Pistachios, Wild Honey)

Finished Size: 5.5" x 5.5"