Cards Blog, Land Ho!

Hello everyone and a special greeting to all the followers and recent commentors (not really a word, but you know what I mean). I truly appreciate the feedback and the fact that you follow Asleep on the Couch. I hope that you are getting something out of my post, ideas, mojo infusion, a giggle, mindless entertainment...please keep coming back for more. THANKS!

I got home last night and decided I wanted to work on another window card for the Cards Blog. Not that I did not love my last card, I had an idea and I wanted to see if I could make it work. Well, I am pleased with how my idea trasnlated into a card. My mom loves to go on cruises and I thought this would be great to slip in her suitcase as a surprise when she unpacks. 

I am always amazed that it takes me an evening and some of the next morning to create a card. I sit down to make a quick card and the next thing you know I have been hunched over my craft table for hours and all I have to show is ONE card. I started this card by stamping, masking and inking the inside image. These pictures show a few of the stages of evolution. I used my Ranger blending tool to create the sky, pulled out my Copic markers (still mastering these suckers as evident by some of the fuzzy edges) for the island and palms then added dimension with the sun and clouds. The final product has a little more antique linen blended around the edges.  

The front of the porthole is from fotosearch.com. I printed it and cut out the center, added the metal rhinestones and covered it with Diamond Glaze. I have flash backs to the Love Boat, and I am pretty sure they had banners on the ship, so I added the bunting for fun and a pop of color.

Hope you enjoy this card. I loved making it and feel good about the final product. I am working to find my own style even if it takes me all night to create ONE card. I have one more picture of the card to share because I LOVE how it highlights the image through the window. OK, now I am sick of looking at the card, too.

The supply list and other links are listed below. This card does satisfy a few other challenges. If I had not rambled on about the techniques, I would go into detail about each challenge. Instead, I will list the link  so you can just hop over to the challenge websites. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest creation. I'd love to hear from you so leave a comment or ask a question. 

Happy Day!

Links:

Cards Blog - Windows

Meljen's - Dry Emboss

Little Red Wagon - Altered Embellishment

KWED - 6 metal rhinestones

Stamping for the Weekend - Summer - Travel 
Creative Inspirations - Beach

Pile it On - Palm trees have coconuts, is that a veggie or a fruit? 
Edited 6/10 to include Raise the Bar - Celebrate Summer!

Details: 
Stamps: Everything Happy and Changito Pirates (Stampendous), Warble (Dear Lizzy), Mr. Campy (Cosmo Cricket), Series 12 (Studio G)
Ink: Spiced Marmalade, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, Antique Linen (Ranger), Tuxedo Black (Moment), Raspberry Fizz, Enchanted Evening, Aqua Mist (PTI),  Blue Sky (Martha Stewart), Chestnut Roan, Dark Brown (Chalk Colorbox)
Paper: Kraft, white (PTI)
Copics: E(33,37,39), BG(4549), G(12,24,28), RV(11), Y(15, 0000)
Other: Woodgrain Texture Plate (Fiskars), Metal Rhinestone(Michael's), Diamond Glaze, Puffy Paint (Tulip), Liquid Applique (Marvy), Twine (Gartner), Clip Art (fotosearch.com) 

2S4Y, several other challenges and a mojo infusion

 

My vacation was great. Love spending time with my nephew. Seeing my parents is cool, too. No, really, I do love seeing them. Having a 3 1/2 year-old involved adds a little something extra. All that swimming, watching Shrek and eating icee pops really takes it out of you. My crafty mojo is a little sluggish as a result. So, I decided to check out some challenges to get the juices flowing. This is the final product.

I started with the Laura's great 2Sketches4You sketch, added windows from the Cards Blog using QuickKutz dies. The flowers are almost a year old. I started with them as I planned my card making class from last fall. They did not make it into the class, but I held on to them for inspiration to strike. The flowers meet the challenges for Charisma Cardz, Little Red Wagon, Kah-wink-e-dink and Pixie Dust with 6 punched circles. The embossed layer works for Meljen's Designs and Just us Girls. I had to do some maneuvering to get these to work because the layer is longer than the Fiskars Texture plate, but I was able to get it all lined up and embossed. For 365 Cards, this is so me because you will notice the edges are slightly distressed. I am a little rough around the edges with some very wonderful parts and this card is much the same. Finally, for Stamping for the Weekend, who wouldn't smile or cheer up if they received this in the mail?  For Pile It On, the scallops on each end look like bites out of the pink layer. If I knew of a pink veggie, I would identify it at this time, but none are coming to mind. Here is a bonus. This card can sit either way. In this picture it is slightly easier to see where I used the pattern wheel on each edge of the card. Thanks for the idea Kim Kesti.

BTW, I have been cleaning and purging, so expect another blog candy soon. So far, I have some great scrapbook supplies. I tried to be a scrapper, but my heart is really in card making. My loss is another persons gain. Plus, I am trying to be more focused in my studio, all the extra stuff just leads to my ADD kicking in and nothing getting accomplished.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest creation. I'd love to hear from you so leave a comment or ask a question.

Happy Day!

Links:

2Sketches4You - Sketch

Cards Blog - Windows

365 Cards - It's so You

Charisma Cardz - Flowers

Meljen's - Dry Emboss

Little Red Wagon - Altered Embellishment

Just Us Girls - Dry Emboss

KWED - 6 of Something

Stamping for the Weekend - Cheer Up or smile 

Pixie Dust Challenge - Punch it out

Pile it On - Eat Your Veggies Scallops on the ends look like a bite out of the pink layer.

Details: 

Stamps: Around & About Sentiments (PTI)

Ink: Berry Sorbet, Orange Zest (PTI), Antique Linen (Ranger)

Paper: Kraft, White (PTI), Newspaper print, No clue on the pink or PP

Other: Pattern Wheel, QuickKutz Flowers01 die, homemade dew drops with Butter Scotch Alcohol Ink (Ranger), Twine (Gartner), misc. button and brad, Fiskars Texture Plate

Last Gellery Idol Submission and KAH-wink-E-dink Winner

Howdy!

I managed to squeeze in one more card for the Gallery Idol Open Call. Not to brag, but I really like this card! I guess that is not bragging, just stating that I am very pleased with the final product. The competition is stiff for the Gallery idol. I am just proud of myself for entering a few cards. I do suggest you go check out the submissions. If you submitted, Good Luck in the process. 

Actually this card incorporates multiple challenges you will find the list at the bottom of this post, but I will highlight a few.  The card is based on the following sketch.

Pile it On's challenge is "Outside the Box". My card is outside the box in a few ways, I did not stamp for this card. As you know this is outside the box for me. Plus my embellishments hang off the edge of the car. This actually qualifies me for The Crafty Pad Challenge, too.

My favorite part of this card is the phone cord. I used my kraft twine and a sharpie to color it black. Then I wrapped it around one of my Ikea hooks to create the curl and used clothes pins to secure the twist. To make sure it holds the curl, I painted the Modge Podge mixture from my flowers on the twine.  What do you think of that?

I also wanted to let you know I won for last week's challenge at KAH-wink-E-dink. The challenge was to create your own embellishment. I submitted my "Thanks Berry Much "card from this post. How exciting! 

Wow, this trying to do multiple challenges is time consuming. Not sure if I will be able to do this every time I post a card, but it was fun for today. Hope you have a great time visiting all the links.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest creation. I'd love to hear from you so leave a comment or ask a question. 

Happy Day!

Links: 

Gallery Idol

Phone book Challenge

Get sketchy

KAH-wink-E-dink
Pile it on  - Outside the Box
YNS - Cut it out and pop it up
The Crafty Pad (something hanging over the edge)
Inky Impressions (ripping, distressing, sparkles)
Creative Belli - punch holes for phone cord
Paper Craft Planet Simon Says Challenge - Bling

Details: 

Ink: Chesnut Roan Chalk, Dark Brown Chalk (Colorbox), Antique Linen (Ranger)

Paper:  Card base (DCWV), Phone book page, Black Card Stock (Recollections), Kraft (Reused Packaging), White (PTI)

Other: Ribbon(Hobby Lobby), Black Sharpie, Twine (Gartner), Modge Podge, Diamond Glaze, Label 1(Spellbinders), Clip art, printer

Thanks Berry Much

Apparently my creative mojo is kickin' in the a.m. It seems all my inspiration comes right before I wake up and as I am getting ready for work. I started this card last night, but got frustrated and quit working on it around midnight. I wanted something simple with the strawberries as the big POP, but last night nothing really came together the way I envisioned. Well, this morning I seem to have a better handle on how to make my vision happen. I watched Ashley Cannon Newell's video this week on using the Ranger blending tool and Distress inks to create vintage paper embellishments. Ranger's website is down, so I linked to Ellen Hutson's store for these products.  I used the same techniques to create emphasis on the sentiment and berries. Now, the berries are not floating on a cream card base with some words bouncing around them. 

I used my Copics to color the strawberries. I did not have any berry images in my collection, so I found these on google images and re-sized them for my purposes. The little seed marks did smear a little when I first started coloring using the R0000, but the other colors did not seem to make the printer ink smear. Actually, the smearing contributed to the success of the not totally ripe end of the berries. No mistakes, just creative discoveries.

I submitted this card for this week's CARDS Magazine blog challenge, will submit it for the Gallery Idol Open Auditions and based the lay-out on this stripped down Caardvarks sketch. I listed other challenges under the links section at the bottom of this post.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest creation. I'd love to hear from you so leave a comment or ask a question. 

Happy Day!

Links:

Ellen Hutson

A New Design

CARDS Magazine blog

Gallery Idol
Caardvarks

Challenge:

Stamp Simply #140 - Gone Askew

oh-la-la creations - bright and cheerful

Kah-wink-e-dink - make your own embellishment

Details: 
Stamps: Series 12(Studio G)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Momento), Antique Linen(Ranger), Chai(PTI)
Paper: Vintage Cream (PTI)
Copics: R(24,29,39,0000), G(12,24,28,0000), Y(13)
Other: Clip Art(My Coloring Pages)